Notes on Easter in Ansali [Paskha v Enzeli]

The article provides an extensive commentary of V. Khlebnikov’s poem Easter in Ansali [Paskha v Enzeli ]. The author discovers and analyses two major plotlines: a documentary (or autobiographical) one and a Stepan Razin-inspired one, both developed in parallel to each other in terms of the metaphors chosen for the poem. The documentary level is concerned with Khlebnikov’s visit to Persia, on board of the steamboat Kursk (hence the poem’s numerous mentions of kursky, korskoye), while the covert, Razin-related level transpires as a memory of the captive Persian girl: in 1669, Razin’s fleet defeated the Persians, and took various spoils, including, as legend has it, a daughter of the commander of the Shakh’s fleet. It is this girl who is mentioned in the folk song ‘From beyond the island towards the river’s widest flow’ [‘Iz-za ostrova na strezhen’], quoted in Khlebnikov’s poem. By bringing together the poem’s two levels through a commentary about several memorable metaphors (like ‘the Zorgam gorge’, ‘the dark unruly hair’, as well as comparing Razin to a nightingale), the author reveals that the lyrical hero identifies himself with Razin, who appears as the former’s lyrical doppelganger as well as the poet’s alter ego.