Interview

Poet Alexander Korotko: “I would like to finish speaking for … Vladimir Vysotsky”

Taisia Bakhareva

(is published in the reduction)

 

Honestly, I was a little surprised when I read that “The Dawn Meeting” is a poem, so much each of its seventeen verses are self-contained …

 

–  In fact, the form is only secondary. I just wanted to convey the period of our Soviet life, which we lived and still carry in ourselves. In fact, these are memories of mine, and of my grandparents. If to be more pathos, then I would like to finish the speech of Vladimir Vysotsky. 

 

– ?!

– After all, Vysotsky’s life broke off in mid-sentence … When I sat down to write this poem, I wanted to convey the pain of perception and heightened feelings of Vysotsky … The collapse of the empire, a state of terrible degradation. First of all, moral. By the way, I was just shocked how Andrei Voznesensky, who wrote the foreword to my book, guessed many of my thoughts.

– He compares the “The Dawn Meeting” from a poem by Alexander Blok “Twelve” …

– I agree with him. This parallel is very interesting. Both my poem and Blok’s poem “Twelve” were created at the breaking point of historical epochs. We live in a very interesting time, at the junction of times …



 

— Were you previously acquainted with Andrei Voznesensky?

 

We have never met before. I just handed him the book to Moscow. Likewise, a little later, happened to the book of my prose “The Lunar Boy”, which I gave to Andrey Bitov. Voznesenskii highly appreciated my work. Recently I was in Moscow on a poetic biennale, where many nominees for the Nobel Prize from around the world were present. The best poets. I was invited from Ukraine. And there I already met with Andrei Voznesensky. We had a long conversation with him, he told me many kind words.

In general, it’s amazing how much he guessed in my poem. For example, that one of my favorite artists is Van Gogh, that I like impressionism …

 

– Poem “The Dawn Meeting”  is very interesting framed.

 

–  Aesthetics of representing was chosen not by chance. Red is the color of aggression. A photograph of outstanding masters of the early twentieth century convey the state of the time. The poem is a memory, a story and my own experiences …


P.S. “… The poem is written by the artist and not by the narrator. Alexander Korotko draws, and you look at the pictures. And the richer your own imagination is, the more you will understand and discover. Because it is not necessary for the artist to impose his opinion on the viewer, who not only wanders around the galleries, pacing and memorizing poems of his favorite poets. Only freedom is proclaimed by author – freedom of expression, freedom of self-perception. This is the world of Alexander Korotko’s poem.” 

More