|
''150 000 000'' (in Russian: Sto pyatdesyat millionov) is a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky written in 1919–1920 and first published in April 1921 by GIZ (Gosizdat) Publishers, originally anonymously. The poem, hailing the 150-million-strong Russian people's mission in starting the world revolution (represented here as an allegorical battle of Russian Ivan and the American president Woodrow Wilson, the embodiment of the capitalist evil) failed to impress the Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin who apparently saw in it little but a pretentious Futuristic experiment. ==History== Mayakovsky conceived and started writing the poem in the first half of 1919 and completed it in March 1920. Among its several working titles were "The Will of the Millions" (Воля миллионов), "The Tale of Ivan" (Былина об Иване) and "Ivan The Bylina. The Revolutionary Epic" (Иван Былина. Эпос революции). On 5 March 1920 Mayakovsky recited fragments of the poem at the event celebrating the opening of the All-Russian Union of Poets Club in Moscow. He read it in full on the 4th and the 20th of December of the same year, at the Petrograd House of Arts and Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, respectively.〔Makarov, V., Zakharov, A., Kosovan, I. Commentaries to 150 000 000. The Works by Vladimir Mayakovsky in 6 volumes. Ogonyok Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1973. Vol.II, p. 567〕 The poem first appeared in fragments in ''Khudozhestvennoye Slovo'' (Artistic Word) magazine's October 1920 issue. As a separate edition it came out in April 1921, published by Gosizdat (GIZ) without the name of the author mentioned. The reason for this anonymity was explained in the poem's first two stanzas: "150 millions is the name of this poem's master / Bullet is rhythm, flame's a rhyme jumping from house to house. / 150 millions speak through my mouth / Masses marching over the stepping-stone paper is the offset duplicator machine getting these pages printed. // Who'd enquire the Moon and the Sun of what makes them bring out day and night, who’d demand the name of creator genius? / The same's with this poem: it hasn't got one single author."〔''150 000 000''. The Works by V.V.Mayakovsky in 6 volumes. Ogonyok Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1973. Vol.II, pp.119-168〕 "Completed 150 Millions. Published it anonymously, so that everyone could add things and improve it. Nobody did, everybody knew the name of the author anyway. Well, whatever. Now it comes out with my name on," Mayakovsky commented in ''I, Myself'' autobiography ("Year 1920" chapter).〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「150 000 000」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|