Sergey Esenin in the Mirror of World Culture: Questions about Comments

The article presents the problems of commenting on, searching for, and mastering new materials, unexplored sources, and comparative studies of the perception of Еsenin’s poetry in the national cultures of Europe, Asia, and America in the fi rst third of the twentieth century. The research is based on the fundamental academic works such as the Complete Works of S.A. Еsenin in 7 volumes (9 books) (1995–2001), the Chronicle of the life and work of S.A. Еsenin in 5 volumes (7 books) (2003–2018) “Bibliographies of translations of the works of Sergei Еsenin (1920–1927)” and the works of recent years. Studying the strategies of reception of the poet’s work in Russia and abroad allows us to reveal more deeply the global signifi cance of the poetry of the national Russian poet and identify the prospects for his further research. The article examines the variety of translational and critical interpretations of Еsenin’s poetry, consonant with the creative searches of European avant-gardists, supporters of classical traditions and representatives of the religious and philosophical interpretation of his poetry. The diff erence and similarity of interpretations of Еsenin’s poetry by translators and critics in Germany and France, who became leaders in mastering Еsenin’s work in the 1920s, is shown. Special attention is paid to the most promising problems of the innovation of Esenin’s poetry, put forward in the 1920s: the organic synthesis of poetic words, song, picturesqueness, proximity to icon painting; the national character of Esenin’s imagism, the fusion of emotionality with philosophical meaning, the subtext of verse. The article analyzes the intersection of views on the synthesis of stylistic mannerisms, the national and at the same time universal character of Esenin’s work, which organically combined folk culture with world tradition and modern trends of the Art Nouveau spirit.