🇷🇺🤩 131 years ago, #ОТD in 1895, #SergeiYesenin – Russia's celebrated “hooligan” poet – was born into a peasant family in Konstantinovo, near Ryazan.
🏡 ✍️ He began writing poems around the age of nine, initially imitating folk ditties. At seventeen, he moved to Moscow and later to Petrograd (St. Petersburg), where he immersed himself in revolutionary politics and connected with prominent literary figures like Aleksandr Blok and Andrey Bely. He rapidly achieved acclaim as a "peasant poet" for his evocative lyrics centred on rural life and nature. Though he initially welcomed the 1917 October Revolution as a spiritual transformation, he later co-founded the Russian Imaginist movement (1918–1925), which pioneered the use of striking metaphors.
✨ Alongside his literary success, Yesenin cultivated a reputation as a public provocateur, famously engaging in intense creative rivalries with his contemporary, Vladimir Mayakovsky. Ultimately, his poignant, deeply visual lyricism earned him enduring popularity, ensuring his status as one of Russia's most beloved poets both during his lifetime and posthumously.
The Birch Tree
Under my window
Tucked in the snow
White birch retired
Clad in silver glow.
On the fluffy branches
Snowy-trim with silver-tinge
Melted around catkins
Forming white fringe.
Like golden fires
Snow-flakes blazed
While birch stood still
Asleep, or amazed.
Meanwhile, lazily
Strolling around,
Dawn threw more “silver”
On the twigs (and ground).
1913
(translation by K.M.W. Klara, russianlegacy.com)
#RussianCulture