The “Onegin” text in the poem by I.A. Brodsky “Pen'ye bez muzyki”

The study analyzes the stylistic structure and the system of motifs in the poem “Pen’ye bez muzyki” by I.A. Brodsky. Among the objectives of the study there is the one revealing the connection of “Pen’ye bez muzyki” and the text of “Eugene Onegin” in terms of micro-plots, vocabulary, some features of the form (sententiousness of texts, the use of anjambemans). In one of his interviews, Brodsky emphasizes: “... to a certain extent we keep on writing ‘Eugene Onegin’ (maybe to get rid of this tonality)”. Yu.B. Karabchievsky makes the following assumption in regards to Brodsky’s poetry: “Perhaps Onegin would have been writing such poems...”, and M.B. Kreps notes that Brodsky’s poetry is generally characterized by a position of withdrawal, “camouflage techniques”. The result of the study is the interpretation of the poem “Pen’ye bez muzyki” as a lyrical statement created in the manner of Onegin’s letter to Tatiana, as “letter after letter”. At the same time, Brodsky preserves the lyrical “tonality” of Onegin’s message to Tatiana, such as annoyance, bitterness and intolerableness of the thought that “happiness was ... so close”. This intolerableness in “Pen’ye bez muzyki” is disguised by the rational compositions, self-irony, verbosity, which is an attempt done by the lyrical hero of Brodsky’s poem to delay the inevitable parting from his beloved. Thus, the “Onegin” text in the composition of “Pen’ye bez muzyki” gives the parting of the lyrical hero the scale of the greatest parting in Russian literature that is the parting of Onegin and Tatiana.