The status of the double epigraph to the poem “Your way” by O. F. Bergholz

Epigraphs to the works of O. F. Bergholz have not been studied specifically until now. The two-part epigraph to the poem “Your Way” (1945) was not approved for publication during the poet's lifetime and was first published in 1989. In the initial position of the epigraph is a biblical quote from Psalm 136, which begins with the words “If I forget you, Jerusalem...”; in the second - the line “Die and become!” from the poem “Blissful longing” by Goethe. The biblical quote was a precedent text and a core attitude for the poetess long before the poem “Your Way” was written. The besieged Leningrad was interpreted as the “Leningrad Jordan.” The image of the besieged Jordan (later excluded by editors and/or censors) is the most important sign indicating the semantic connection of the biblical epigraph with the text of the poem. Bergholz built a single spiritual space and set the “Jerusalem” - “Leningrad Jordan” vector; familiarization with the “burning” waters of the river meant an assimilation of the bitter blockade experience. At the same time, Bergholz built a vertical context: the sacred waters of the Jordan symbolized the rebirth to a new life (baptism), the self-discovery of man. The image of the Leningrad font correlated with the epigraph from Goethe, in which the theme of initiation is explicitly stated. The author of the article suggests that epigraph “Die and become!” was intended by Bergholz for the poem “February Diary” (1942), but was excluded from the text by A. P. Grishkevich, head of the press sector of the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU(b). Goethe's dictum has become the motto of the poetess since the time of the “Averbach case” repressions (1937). The double epigraph gave a semantic and philosophical perspective to the poem “Your Way.” The editorial intrusion (the exclusion of epigraphs and lines about the “Leningrad Jordan”) destroyed the connection of the title with the epigraph and the text, and impoverished the perception of the poem by contemporary readers. The two-part epigraph correlates with Bergholz's entire blockade narrative, emphasizing the themes of memory and initiation as the spiritual formation of a Leningrad blockade runner.