A Cloud In Trousers
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''A Cloud in Trousers'' (Облако в штанах, Oblako v shtanakh) is a poem by
Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
written in 1914 and first published in
1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...
by
Osip Brik Osip Maksimovich Brik (russian: link=no, Óсип Макси́мович Брик) (16 January 1888 – 22 February 1945), was a Russian avant garde writer and literary critic, who was one of the most important members of the Russian formali ...
.Makarov, V., Zakharov, A., Kosovan, I. Commentaries to Vladimir Mayakovsky (tragedy). The Works by Vladimir Mayakovsky in 6 volumes. Ogonyok Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1973. Vol.I, pp.467-472 Originally titled ''The 13th Apostle'' (but renamed at the advice of a censor) Mayakovsky's first major poem was written from the vantage point of a spurned lover, depicting the heated subjects of love, revolution, religion and art, taking the poet's stylistic choices to a new extreme, linking irregular lines of declamatory language with surprising rhymes. It is considered to be a turning point in his work and one of the cornerstones of the
Russian Futurist Russian Futurism is the broad term for a movement of Russian poets and artists who adopted the principles of Filippo Marinetti's " Manifesto of Futurism," which espoused the rejection of the past, and a celebration of speed, machinery, violenc ...
poetry.


Background

The subject of Mayakovsky's unrequited love was Maria Denisova whom he met in
Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
during the Futurists' 1913 tour. Born in 1894 in
Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.
to a poor peasant family, Maria at the time resided with the family of her sister (whose husband Filippov was an affluent man) and was an art school student, learning
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
.
Vasily Kamensky Vasily Vasilyevich Kamensky (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Каме́нский; – November 11, 1961) was a Russian Futurist poet, playwright, and artist as well as one of the first Russian aviators. Biography Kamensky wa ...
described Denisova as "a girl of a rare combination of qualities: good looks, sharp intellect, strong affection for all things new, modern and revolutionary." Maria's sister Yekaterina Denisova, who ran a domestic literary salon, invited the three now famous young Futurist poets, Mayakovsky, Burlyuk and Kamensky, to their house. Prior to this Maria and Vladimir met three weeks earlier at the
Mir Iskusstva ''Mir iskusstva'' ( rus, «Мир искусства», p=ˈmʲir ɪˈskustvə, ''World of Art'') was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize Eur ...
exhibition, but that was a fleeting acquaintance. Mayakovsky fell in love instantly and gave her the nickname, Gioconda.The line in the poem: "You spoke of Jack London, money, love and passion / I saw just Gioconda which had to be stolen," referred to the incident of the famous
Da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
's painting's disappearance from the Louvres in 1911-1913.
The intensity of Mayakovsky's passion was unbearable. According to Kamensky, he suffered immensely and was hectically rushing things, caring not for what he thought to be the girl's indecisiveness and fussiness. It looked as if he completely misunderstood the situation: Maria (unlike her sister) was just not impressed either by the Futurists, or by Mayakovsky. Indecisive she was anything but; "on the contrary, her later life proved to be the chain of extraordinary events, triggered by most daring, reckless decisions," according to biographer Mikhaylov. In the mid-1910s Maria Denisova lived in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
with her first husband, then, as the latter moved to
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, returned to the
Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
. She fought in the
Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
and married the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
general
Efim Shchadenko , birth_date = 27 September 1885 , death_date = , image = , image_size = 200px , caption = , birth_place = Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Don Host Oblast, Russian Empire , death_place = Moscow, USSR , placeofburial = N ...
whom she divorced in the late 1920s. Denisova became an established Soviet monumentalist sculptor, one of her better known works being "The Poet" (1927), Mayakovsky's head set in plaster. In the late 1930s she fell into obscurity and stopped seeing friends, one of her two daughters, Alice, having fled to England. Denisova committed suicide in 1944 by jumping from the tenth floor.Levin, Steve
"Maria! Your name I am afraid to forget..."
''Sem Iskusstv'' (The Seven Arts) magazine, No. 7 (32), July 2012.


History

Mayakovsky started working on the poem (which he claimed was born "as a letter, while on a train") in early 1914. He finished it in July 1915, in Kuokkala. Speaking at the Krasnaya Presnya
Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...
Palace in 1930, Mayakovsky remembered: "It started as a letter in 1913/14 and was first called "The Thirteenth Apostle". As I came to see the censors, one of them asked me: Dreaming of doing a forced labour, eh? 'By no means, I said, no such plans at all.' So they erased six pages, as well as the title. Then, there's the question about where the title has come from. Once somebody asked me how could I combine lyricism with coarseness. I replied: 'Simple: you want me rabid, I'll be it. Want me mild, and I'm not a man, a cloud in trousers.'" The first extracts from the poem (part of the Prologue and Part 4) appeared in the ''Strelets'' (Sagittarius) compilation in February 1915. Several stanzas were published as extensive quotes in ''Zhurnal Zhurnalov'' (The Journals' Journal) by Mayakovsky himself in his article "On the Many Mayakovskys". In February 1915 at the ''Strelets''-related party in the Stray Dog artistic basement featured Mayakovsky reciting fragments of it to the audience,
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
among the guests. In July 1915 he read some of it to Gorky personally. "Travelled to Mustamyaki. M.Gorky
as here As, AS, A. S., A/S or similar may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * A. S. Byatt (born 1936), English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer * As (song), "As" (song), by Stevie Wonder * , a Spanish sports newspaper * , an academic ...
Read him the Cloud's fragments. So moved to tears Gorky was as to soak my vest. The degree to which I upset him made me almost proud. It was only later that I learned he'd been sobbing this way upon every poetical vest coming his way," Mayakovsky wrote in his autobiography. According to actress Maria Andreyeva, Gorky (who hated the Futurists) admired Mayakovsky. Still, he was taken aback by "the extreme loudness" of his poetic voice. "Once he told him, 'Look, here's just
our Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulato ...
sunrise, and there you are, running out wild to give this enormous yell. How are you to keep it up? The day is long, and there is a lot for you to live through."


Publications

Initially none of the publishers wanted to have anything to do with the poem. Finally published in September 1915 by Osip Brik (who also financed the publication) it came out severely cut. "The ''Cloud'' turned to be a
cirrus Cirrus may refer to: Science *Cirrus (biology), any of various thin, thread-like structures on the body of an animal *Cirrus (botany), a tendril *Infrared cirrus, in astronomy, filamentary structures seen in infrared light *Cirrus cloud, a type ...
one, censors blew it through. Some six pages amounted to mere dots," Mayakovsky wrote in ''I, Myself'' autobiography. As with the ''
Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
'', most targeted were the religion-related images. In 1916 the poem was included into the ''Simple as Mooing'' compilation, published by the Gorky-led Parus (The Sail) publishing house. Cuts here were less drastic but there were some. On 17 March 1917 Mayakovsky published in ''Novy Satyricon''s No.11 issue the full versions of Parts 2 and 3 of the poem (75 lines in all), under the title "Reinstate" (Восстанавливаю). For the first time the whole uncensored text of the poem was published in early 1918 by the Moscow company Asis (abbreviation of Ассоциация социалистического искусства, The Association of Socialist Art). In a foreword Mayakovsky wrote: "I consider ''A Cloud in Pants'' (the original title, "The Thirteenth Apostle", was banned by censors, but I'd rather not go back to it: got used to this one) a canon of contemporary art. 'Damn your love,' 'Damn your art,' 'Damn your regime,' 'Damn your religion' - uch arethe four cries of the four parts."


Synopsis

Structurally, the poem is closer to diptych. In Part I the protagonist is waiting for his love, Maria, in a hotel. She finally appears and informs him of her engagement. He remains visibly unperturbed, but internally suffers an explosion of destructive emotions and furious metaphors: Now I’ll go and play. The fiery curve of my brow flawless. A house that was destroyed by flame Is sometimes occupied by the homeless. Parts II and III contain brutal attacks on the contemporary poetry, praises of the Man who "holds the conveyors of the world in the palm of his hand," and prophesizes the revolution and the emergence of the new, freed mankind. The protagonist, a self-defined "preaching, thrashing
Zarathustra Zoroaster,; fa, زرتشت, Zartosht, label=Modern Persian; ku, زەردەشت, Zerdeşt also known as Zarathustra,, . Also known as Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra is regarded as the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. He is s ...
," sees himself as a new man-God and enters the "tongueless streets" to pronounce his own
Sermon on the Mount The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is ...
. Where the human eye fails in confusion, The hungry hordes loom: Wearing the crown of thorns of revolutions Year 16 brings doom. Part IV sees the protagonist's return to being tormented by unrequited love, which eventually brings him to the act of Deicide, as he blames God for creating an unhappy world, where unanswered love is possible: Almighty, you gave us an assortment: A head and a pair of hands to exist. Why couldn’t you make it so, without torment, We could kiss, kiss, and kiss?!” He sees Love in the modern world as doomed, being destroyed by art, religion and the society itself. The theme of madness that first appeared in Part III ("The thought of psychiatric wards came and curtained my brain in despair" and "This is all madness. Nothing with happen.") develops into a mental breakdown of the protagonist in the Finale, which is followed by emotional exhaustion and silence.


Notes


References

{{Vladimir Mayakovsky 1915 poems Poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky Futurist literature