Other

“My lips are dry just thinking about you... Different ideas of beauty

Male beauty standards are no less strict than female ones. And if in the 17th century and early XVIII powdered handsome men in wigs and frills were in fashion, then to end of the XVIII and at the beginning of the 19th century, the Byronic type came into fashion - a young man with curls and an open shirt collar. Meanwhile, thoughtful eyes went perfectly with smart tailcoats and pomaded sideburns. Ekaterina Astafieva will tell you how men of the early 19th century dressed up and looked after themselves, and which of Pushkin’s friends was considered the ideal of beauty.

We flaunt ourselves like Pushkin

The 19th century brought with it a fashion for two seemingly incompatible styles to Russia. Military campaign of 1805 and Patriotic War 1812 made popular the image of the gallant hussar, a sort of reveler and womanizer. An excellent example of a handsome military man is Evgraf Davydov from Kiprensky’s portrait. Curled hair, thick sideburns, a mustache, a dolman jacket embroidered with gold, narrow leggings - every young lady dreamed of such a fine fellow.

Evgraf Vladimirovich Davydov, portrait by Kiprensky, 1809

In contrast to the “military” style, the “dandy” style came into fashion. Here, of course, we are reminded of Eugene Onegin, who is “dressed like a London dandy.” What did a Russian fashionista with an English cut look like?

At the beginning of the 19th century, the tailcoat was universal clothing

First, he had to put on a snow-white shirt with a starched stand-up collar; on top of it was a tie - a scarf, which was tied with a beautiful knot or bow. The ends of the scarf were hidden under a vest, which could be single-breasted or double-breasted, striped or speckled. According to the principle “I’ll wear all the best at once,” some dandies wore several vests. The legs were dressed in narrow leggings up to the knees. On holidays, men dressed up in stockings and shoes, and high boots were attached to the “bow” for every day. In the 1930s, trousers reminiscent of modern ones appeared. The tailcoat assembled the suit into a single whole - it became truly universal clothing, which was worn both at a feast, and in the world, and in good people. Due to the high cost, tailcoats were often rented for ceremonial receptions. A bolivar top hat and a cane completed the outfit.

19th century dandy suit

Wash, get a haircut and party

George Brummel is considered the first European dandy. This sybarite and reveler was nicknamed “handsome Brummel.” In addition to the fashion for shirts and frock coats, he made new elements of personal care popular. Brummel washed himself regularly and scrubbed his body with a rough horsehair brush.

George Brummel is considered the first European dandy

I took it from him new style George IV, whom all the remaining fashionistas in Europe rushed to imitate. Lord Byron, another famous dandy, a truly iconic figure for the Russian aristocrats of Pushkin's times, named only 3 great people among his contemporaries: Napoleon, Brummell and himself.

George Brummel

About the beauty of nails

Nail care was especially popular among men during Pushkin’s time. “Combs, steel files, straight scissors, curved scissors and thirty types of brushes for both nails and teeth,” Eugene Onegin possessed such an impressive arsenal.

Pushkin carefully grew the nail on his little finger

The poet himself had beautiful long nails, which can be seen, for example, in the portrait of Kiprensky. Moreover, one nail on the little finger was longer than the others. Pushkin was so afraid of breaking it that he often put on a special thimble before going to bed. This fashion for a long nail on the little finger was associated with the popularity of Masonic lodges in Russia, one of which Pushkin himself was briefly a member of. There was no special meaning to a long nail - most likely, free masons simply recognized each other by it. And sometimes they opened letters when there was no knife at hand.

Portrait of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin by Kiprensky, 1827

Perfume and lipstick in a man's arsenal

Every self-respecting dandy always had a place for lipstick in his travel bag (or simply cosmetic bag). Of course, her lips weren’t painted at all, but her hair was “pomaded,” arranging it in wild curls and adding shine. At that time, lipsticks were often made from bear fat. The styling product was accompanied by perfume, which at the beginning of the 19th century was not yet divided into men's and women's.

Perfume was not applied to the skin, but to gloves or a scarf.

At the beginning of the century, perhaps the most popular scent was patchouli, which was associated with oriental exoticism. True, perfume was not applied to the skin, but to gloves and scarves. “Cologne water” was also in fashion, which Napoleon especially loved.

Ivan Ivanovich Pushchin, Pushkin's lyceum friend

As you can see, Evgeny Onegin was the standard of a real dandy. Among Pushkin’s lyceum friends, the nickname “dandy” was borne by Alexander Gorchakov, the future “Russian Iron Chancellor.” The poet's close friend Ivan Pushchin was considered a real handsome man. A brilliant cavalryman, a man of exceptional moral qualities- Pushchin was a favorite of women. The poet himself was never considered handsome, but many noted the originality of his facial features and the burning expression of his eyes.

"It's possible to be efficient person and think about the beauty of nails”... As we remember from the context of “Eugene Onegin”, created in the 19th century, Alexander Sergeevich spoke not about women’s nails, but specifically about men’s nails. And where can we get away from stereotypes in the 21st century: men’s manicure, they say, goes against the image of a macho man and causes, if not a protest parade, then at least questions to him sexual orientation.

How hangnails ruin your image

It's no secret that only something that is regularly monitored and looked after has a neat and presentable appearance. A well-groomed appearance– one of basic conditions to achieve success not only in business, but also in personal life. In addition, almost any woman appreciates grooming and elegance in a man and often pays attention to the condition of his hands. (According to statistics, 76% of women in the first hours of communication carefully watch a man’s hands and draw their own conclusions, which largely determine the future fate of the relationship). Therefore, a discreet manicure, as if hinting at it, stylists believe, turns out to be a big plus in favor of a man.

Hands are the part that is always visible. We constantly gesture, point, talk about something, showing off our hands and fingers. And in the business sphere, well-groomed hands have long become not only a sign good manners, but also an attribute successful person. Already at the first handshake, a man demonstrates to his interlocutor or partner the state of his hands.

And you can put on the most expensive suit, priceless Rolex, do an incomparable hairstyle, but one look at male hands will be enough to ruin the whole impression. The frequency and systematic nature of communication and personal communications necessitate a procedure that sounds ordinary from the lips of women, but shy and muffled from most men. But this does not change the essence, since in both cases we are talking about manicure.

Alexey Sokolov, account manager for a large company, shares: “Since I participate in business meetings almost every day, I always have to look brand new. And I don’t consider a man at the manicurist’s table to be something shameful or questionable. Every month I try to take time and visit my master, whom, by the way, I haven’t changed for a long time. In addition to the fact that within an hour she magically brings my hands into perfect order, she also gives a wonderful relaxing massage. No, I don't leave the salon with red nail extensions decorated with rhinestones. I just make sure my hands are well-groomed and presentable, and I get a high-quality result, which, by the way, contributes to my success at work.”

Sissies with charisma

The masters who do men's and women's manicures are usually the same. The difference is felt in the specialist’s approach to the client depending on his gender. Elena Tsybina, a manicurist and pedicurist and beauty salon employee, who has been working magic on both women’s and men’s hands for six years, shared her competent opinion with us.

“I was enlightened during the courses: it is important to remember that men pain threshold significantly lower than in women. Therefore, as soon as a young man sits down with me, I immediately prepare within myself for a careful and gentle procedure. It must be taken into account that the shape for men's nails is determined in accordance with the shape of the fingertips, repeating it exactly (unlike women's hands, where fantasy and creativity reign). In men, the capillaries are lower and the cuticle is tougher, so more care is required when trimming it.

The process of a man's manicure is as follows: I file the overgrown part of the nail plate with a file from the sides to the center, starting with the little finger and ending thumb. After steaming my hands, I take the pliers and delicately trim the cuticle and shape the nail bed. If the client wishes, I exfoliate the skin of the hands using a scrub, and then proceed to a relaxing hand massage with moisturizer. This is a very pleasant procedure that helps you relax, so I recommend it to everyone. From my solid experience, I can say that a man needs to visit a master at least monthly in order for his hands to have a neat and well-groomed appearance.”

A crime against everything masculine?

For obvious reasons, there are both supporters (or at least neutral men) and malicious opponents of men's manicure. After all, there is a persistent stereotype that manicuring hands is exclusively a woman’s lot, and God forbid a self-respecting man should go to a salon and give away his strong, independent hands the breadwinner is at the mercy of meaningless files, nippers, varnishes and other similar things.

Moreover, many representatives of the stronger sex with a pronounced, even rude charisma of a male male, without hesitation, label a man with well-groomed, clearly manicured hands as a person of non-traditional sexual orientation. (We’re not even talking about pedicure here: masters in salons claim that men occasionally come for this procedure, either before going to the sea or having “problem nails”).

The master comments: “It doesn’t surprise me at all large percentage men who are terribly embarrassed or even sharply protest against men's manicure. I know sufficient quantity men who cannot be dragged at gunpoint to a manicure table. And there are those (maybe I bet someone?) who come in and look around in fear throughout the entire process, and sometimes don’t even look me in the eye.

I, in turn, try not to focus any attention on the client’s gender, knowing how this can demotivate or even hurt him. Fortunately, I have enough experience to ask the visitor the bare minimum of questions and get down to business. But there has always been and will be a share of men who would rather chop off their hands at the wrist than go and sit at a manicurist’s table. Well, well, don’t drag them by force. They do not want to adhere to neatness and presentability - this is a purely personal matter. But I am convinced that the stereotype that a man in a nail salon is a crime against everything masculine is irrevocably outdated and a thing of the past.”

Another opinion

You can be a smart person
And think about the beauty of nails:
Why argue fruitlessly with the century?
The custom is despot between people.
Second Chadayev, my Evgeniy,
Fearing jealous judgments,
There was a pedant in his clothes
And what we called dandy.
He's at least three o'clock
He spent in front of the mirrors
And he came out of the restroom
Like windy Venus,
When, wearing a man's outfit,
The goddess goes to a masquerade.

INTERESTING FROM NABOKOV:
“...Chaadaev... - in the first edition there was *** instead of the surname”

BRODSKY:
“K. Polevoy described his meeting with Pushkin in St. Petersburg in 1828: “He lived in Demuth’s hotel. When a guest came to him, he... sat down at a table with toiletries and, while talking, usually cleaned and sharpened his nails, so long that they could be called claws.”
PISAREV:
He continues to explain: “In terms of philosophy, Pushkin does not want to lag behind Onegin... “Custom,” continues the philosopher Pushkin, “is a despot among people.” Well, of course, and besides, custom always remains a despot between such philosophers as Onegin and Pushkin. Unfortunately, the number of such precious thinkers is gradually beginning to decrease..."

Here are stanzas from “Eugene Onegin of Our Time” by D. Minaev - parodies of Pisarev’s articles “Pushkin and Belinsky” which I quote. Minaev “translates” EO into a common language, portrays the heroes of the novel in accordance with Pisarev’s tastes – and the caricature of the resulting images turns Pisarev’s “criticism” into a caricature.
(But not for his contemporaries - alas! Pisarev turned a whole generation away from the AS. Here is the story of Marietta Shaginyan: “From early childhood, Pushkin became my deity. And this deity - Pushkin - faded before me from page to page... I was in the greatest, and spontaneous confusion... mentally it was expressed in the pleasure of overthrowing authorities"
So, X, XI and XII stanzas of the first chapter of Minaev’s parody:

X
Will I depict it in a bright picture?
Secluded office
With a huge oven, very hot,
Where Onegin lived for five or six years
Next door to an old Swedish woman?
Window without curtains, cuckoo clock,
Oilcloth sofa in the corner
Yes, a chair placed at the table
Where on the sheet from old lectures
There was Creon tobacco...
An old tailcoat is thrown onto the screen.
Skeletons several collections
And a couple of naked skulls
They look in the shadows between two cabinets.
XI
A row of books on unbleached shelves,
Scraps of paper, erased pennies...
Slightly visible within the dusty
Jean Jacques Rousseau and Rigolbosh
A bottle of ink, a bottle of rum,
Briefcase and Schlosser two volumes,
Cigars in a pack, microscope
And without glass a stereoscope;
Two uncut magazines
And an unfinished story
Where are some initial phrases?
The hero's pen got dirty,
But women's legs and heads
He didn't draw there instead of words
XII
O muse! You'd be glad
Start your review differently:
“Amber on the pipes of Constantinople,
Crystal, and bronze, and porcelain,”
And everything that is loved in a fashionable world.
Instruct in this office;
But my hero, alas, is not a feat,
And boudoir scent
He sternly drove me out of the office,
And he despised the high society,
Although I have never been in high society,
But since there is a lot of phosphorus in it,
Then, friends, he could
Be very strict with secular people.”

LOTMAN:
Second Chadayev, my Evgeniy... - Before this stanza, P very carefully introduced Onegin into his biographical environment....Here for the first time such a rapprochement is carried out directly.

MORE OPINIONS
demi_ange :
200 years have passed, but the contrast between high spirituality and well-groomed hands is still relevant.
manon_gabrielle :
The word “pedant” refers us to the stanza where Onegin chats at receptions, being known as a “learned fellow,” i.e. again for us they collide linguistically - the image of the “dandy” (from satire, as Lotman writes) and this very “pedant” with ostentatious scholarship - also, in fact, chatting for the sake of fashion.
The problem of the 18th century: courtliness and learning. It is not resolved in the space of the 1st chapter. Then it will be decided - in the 9th.

MY INSINUATIONS:

Rousseau considered it not bad form to take care of your nails, but only immodesty and excessiveness in the manifestation of this care. And Pushkin (in the midst of satire! after the “nail files”!) rushed to defend these quirks of panache (Pushkin’s “thinking about the beauty of nails” should be understood exactly this way - otherwise what is he defending against Rousseau?)

Wanted to re-French the French?

What a barbaric trait! But it doesn’t cause tenderness - what’s good in our shameful manner of ridiculing and challenging someone else’s high culture, instead of following its models or creating your own? And, almost as a favor, to borrow from a foreign culture, for the most part, its tops and trinkets?
Returning to Pushkin, isn’t this the open secret of his “worldwide responsiveness”? “In Italy he is Italian...” - how could he not be! - with such childishness, and with domestic culture in the form of a tabula rasa - what else could Gogol expect?

Male beauty standards are no less strict than female ones. And if in the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, powdered handsome men in wigs and frills were in fashion, then by the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, the Byronic type came into fashion - a young man with curls and an open shirt collar. Meanwhile, thoughtful eyes went perfectly with smart tailcoats and pomaded sideburns. Ekaterina Astafieva will tell you how men of the early 19th century dressed up and looked after themselves, and which of Pushkin’s friends was considered the ideal of beauty.

We flaunt ourselves like Pushkin

The 19th century brought with it a fashion for two seemingly incompatible styles to Russia. The military campaign of 1805 and the Patriotic War of 1812 made popular the image of the gallant hussar, a sort of reveler and womanizer. An excellent example of a handsome military man is Evgraf Davydov from Kiprensky’s portrait. Curled hair, thick sideburns, a mustache, a gold-embroidered dolman jacket, narrow chikchir leggings - every young lady dreamed of such a fine fellow.

Evgraf Vladimirovich Davydov, portrait by Kiprensky, 1809

At the beginning of the 19th century, the tailcoat was universal clothing

First, he had to put on a snow-white shirt with a starched stand-up collar; on top of it was a tie - a scarf, which was tied with a beautiful knot or bow. The ends of the scarf were hidden under a vest, which could be single-breasted or double-breasted, striped or speckled. According to the principle “I’ll wear all the best at once,” some dandies wore several vests. The legs were dressed in narrow leggings up to the knees. On holidays, men dressed up in stockings and shoes, and high boots were attached to the “bow” for every day. In the 30s, trousers reminiscent of modern ones appeared. The tailcoat assembled the suit into a single whole - it became truly universal clothing, which was worn at a feast, in the world, and with good people. Due to the high cost, tailcoats were often rented for ceremonial receptions. A bolivar top hat and a cane completed the outfit.

19th century dandy suit

Wash, get a haircut and party

George Brummel is considered the first European dandy

George IV adopted the new style from him, which all the remaining fashionistas in Europe rushed to imitate. Lord Byron, another famous dandy, a truly iconic figure for the Russian aristocrats of Pushkin's times, named only 3 great people among his contemporaries: Napoleon, Brummell and himself.

George Brummel

About the beauty of nails

Nail care was especially popular among men during Pushkin’s time. “Combs, steel files, straight scissors, curved scissors and brushes of thirty kinds for both nails and teeth,” Eugene Onegin possessed such an impressive arsenal.

Pushkin carefully grew the nail on his little finger

The poet himself had beautiful long nails, which can be seen, for example, in the portrait of Kiprensky. Moreover, one nail on the little finger was longer than the others. Pushkin was so afraid of breaking it that he often put on a special thimble before going to bed. This fashion for a long nail on the little finger was associated with the popularity of Masonic lodges in Russia, one of which Pushkin himself was briefly a member of. There was no special meaning to the long nail - most likely, free masons simply recognized each other by it. And sometimes they opened letters when there was no knife at hand.

Portrait of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin by Kiprensky, 1827

Perfume and lipstick in a man's arsenal

Perfume was not applied to the skin, but to gloves or a scarf.

Ivan Ivanovich Pushchin, Pushkin's lyceum friend

As you can see, Evgeny Onegin was the standard of a real dandy. Among Pushkin’s lyceum friends, the nickname “dandy” was borne by Alexander Gorchakov, the future “Russian Iron Chancellor.” The poet's close friend Ivan Pushchin was considered a real handsome man. A brilliant cavalryman, a man of exceptional moral qualities, Pushchin was a favorite of women. The poet himself was never considered handsome, but many noted the originality of his facial features and the burning expression of his eyes.

“My lips are dry just thinking about you...”

Pasternak and Mandelstam fell in love with her, and Anna Akhmatova was her close friend for 30 years. During her lifetime, Maria Petrov did not even try to publish her poems. “I didn’t carry poems around to editors. It was clear without words that they were “in the wrong vein.” And it never occurred to me or my friends to publish their poems. One thing was important: to write them.” And her poems are soul-wrenching, always sincere and very feminine...

A. Tarkovsky wrote about the poetry of M. Petrovs:
“At first glance, the language of Maria Petrov’s poetry is ordinary literary Russian. What makes him a miracle among our great poetry is his ability to create a special combination of words, free from anyone’s influence. Her words light up from one another, the next, and there is no end to their light.”

An amazing romance based on her poems, music by Elena Frolova:

Don't blame me, my confessions are rude,
After all, they match my destiny.
My lips are dry
Just the thought of you.

I pay you all possible tribute -
Life embodied in prayer,
I'm out of breath
Just the thought of you.

It doesn’t matter that my garden was crushed by thunderstorms,
That I live in a struggle with myself,
But my eyes are filled with tears
Just the thought of you.

There is not a shadow of guile or coquetry in her strikingly sincere, naked poems. Her poetry is ascetic, straightforward and extremely serious. Being a straightforward person, Maria Petrov spoke everything frankly.
“Once,” writes A. Geleskul, a famous poet-translator, “in a conversation about someone’s poems - simple, but intricate for the sake of interest, Maria Sergeevna dropped: “I still like it when they write straight.”

Yes, I'm proud that I could not even a hair
Don't twist a single line,
Didn't strain my muffled voice,
She did not extort the fate of another.

And she lived quite simply and modestly, not recognizing any unnecessary things in everyday life and the trinkets so beloved by women. I didn’t follow fashion, I was indifferent to outfits, appearance it had nothing to do with elegance.

“With her strict bangs and the ugly beauty of a slightly rude and at the same time not at all rustic, but strong-willed, chiseled face - she lived separately from the so-called public life, remaining one of the mysterious survivors strong characters»
E. Yevtushenko

And, nevertheless, not being a beauty, she easily conquered men's hearts.
Mikhail Landman, poet and translator, recalls:

“...many people fell in love with her. In addition to Mandelstam, Pasternak, people were fascinated by her different times and Emmanuel Kazakevich, and Alexander Tvardovsky, and Pavel Antokolsky... In a word, she was a woman who caused strong feelings among many people who came into contact with her... And the reason for this was some elusive inner strength, the charm of the individual - not only the mind, but some amazing childishness and severity, openness and restraint..."

From the pen of Mandelstam, who was in love with Maria, a poem dedicated to her came out, which became one of the diamonds of lyrical poetry of the 20th century.

Master of guilty glances,
Little shoulder holder!
Male dangerous tempers have been pacified,
The drowned woman's speech does not sound.

Fish walk with their fins glowing,
Inflating the gills: here, take it!
Them, silently groaning with their mouths,
Feed the flesh with half-bread.

We are not red and gold fish,
Our sisterly custom is:
In a warm body the ribs are thin
And the vain wet shine of the pupils.

The edge of the poppy marks a dangerous path...
What do I, as a Janissary, love?
This tiny, fly-red one
This pathetic crescent of lips?..

Don’t be angry, dear Turkish woman:
I'll sew you into a tight bag,
Swallowing your dark speeches,
I'll drink some water for you.

You, Maria, are help to those who are perishing,
We must warn death - go to sleep.
I'm standing at your doorstep.
Go away, go away, stay a little longer.

Maria Petrovykh was born near Yaroslavl on March 26, 1908. Since childhood, distinguished by humanitarian inclinations, she entered the literary department of the university, after which she worked in the editorial office. Meets Akhmatova, Mandelstam...

Since 1934, Maria Petrov has become known in literary circles as an excellent master of poetic translation. Maria was very careful about the author’s text, rooting for every line.

In 1934 he meets his friend from his youth Vitaly Golovachev, a poet and pianist who returned from exile, and in 1936 marries him. But their happiness was destined to be short-lived - soon Golovachev was again sent into exile for five years. Maria is left with a four-month-old baby in her arms and in complete uncertainty. And there is still a war ahead...

No one will help, no one will help
Your tossing doesn’t bother anyone;
Find an incomprehensible strength within yourself,
Like a hidden gold mine...

At the beginning of the war, Maria and her daughter Arina, as part of a small team of writers, their wives and children, were evacuated to Tatarstan, to Chistopol. “It was a tragic and wonderful time. It was a time of extraordinary spiritual cohesion and unity. Everything dividing has disappeared. It was a time of deep attention to each other"

She would never see her husband again - he would die in the camp in 1942. But Maria could not believe it for a long time and continued to wait for him.

A year after his death she wrote:

Isn’t it on the threshold today,
From grief, as if delirious,
I'm at the postman's feet
I will fall with a prayer...

Is it possible to be more unhappy?
I'm waiting for you all year,
Like a condemned man before execution
Pardon awaits.
***

I have great sorrow
And I can't cry.
I wish I could reach the sea,
Fall on the shore.

Is it not tears, dear,
Are you splashing over the edge?
At least share with me,
Let me cry, let me cry!

Give me salty, give me green
Golden water,
Tempered by the blue sun,
Hot my misfortune.

I'll go to the crossroads
I'll fall to my knees.
Let your tears wash away the hurt,
Quench the trouble!

About a life-giving miracle
I beg you:
Give it to me relatives,
Cry only once!

Even if my prayer is absurd,
If only someone would bring it, -
I'm not asking for love, not for bread, -
A handful of burning tears.

I would press them to my heart,
so that it enters my blood,
Burning sting
From which it is light.

As if from the gravest guilt,
I can't lift my face...
Someone give it to me, oh give it to me
cry to the end

Until the cherished beginning,
Until dawn in the meadow...
I was silent too painfully
I can't do it anymore.
***
I know that you won't come to me,
But believe me, I’m not grieving for you:
Unbearable from another grief,
And I’m talking to you about him.

Darling, you owe me a debt.
Remember what is left behind you.
You owe me - you owe me! - I'm not lying -
Air, sun, blue sky,

The noise of the forest, the silence of the river,—
Everything that happened to me before you.
Bring back friends, fun, strength,
And then - leave one.

“Get me a date...” Late love of Maria Petrovs

Give me a date
in this world.
Give me a date
in the twentieth century.
It's hard for me to breathe without your love.
Remember me, look around, call me!
Give me a date
in that southern city.
Where the winds drove
along the surrounding hills.
Where the sea captivated
seven-color wave,
Where the heart didn't know
unrequited love...
...Get me a date
at least for a moment,
In a crowded square,
under the autumn storm.
It’s hard for me to breathe, I pray for salvation...
At least in my last hour of death
Make an appointment for me with blue eyes.

Anna Akhmatova loved this poem by Maria Petrov and called it “ the best example lyrics of recent years."

Blue eyes, about which we're talking about in the poem, these are the eyes of Alexander Fadeev, who have become her last, very strong love, sunk into Mary’s soul.

Having sacrificed even her principles, she completely surrendered to the surging feeling.
Tormenting, forbidden love for famous writer who was married...
In the spring of 1956, Fadeev’s life was tragically cut short; he shot himself. For Maria, his departure turned out to be an irreparable loss...

I just don't want to hear or see,
Know no one, nothing,
I don’t think of offending the living,
But how dark and dead it is here!
Or am I simply tired of living,
And wait, and love without loving...
It's over. The world is gone
Think about it! - you are gone.
***
Tell me how to live, how to live
On this shore?
I can't forget you
And I can't remember.

I can't forget you
As long as I see the light
I'll forget there, maybe
Or maybe not.

Or maybe to the soul the soul
Sink into silence
And I will rise again without breathing,
Like an eternal dream within a dream.

To your lifeless shore
Take me quickly
And lifeless beauty
Warm up from life.

Only at the age of 60, Maria Petrov was able to see and hold her own book in her hands. Through the efforts of her Yerevan friends, the only collection of the poetess’s lifetime, “The Distant Tree,” was published in Armenia.

Maria Petrov died in the summer of 1979 at the age of 71 in Moscow.

Think about it, is this the point?
Why didn't you overcome fate?
Didn't come to fruition until the end
Or as if it never materialized,
Rolled down like a falling star,
Missing in action, without a crown?
Do not believe that you are in generous service
Scattered like dust in the wind.
Not dust - pollen!
It’s not in vain, it’s not in vain that everything happened.
It’s not in vain, it’s not in vain that you burned out,
If your heart is warm
Someone else's pain has overcome,
Someone else's heart warmed.
Imagine - you are no longer there,
As if it had never happened at all,
But your secret trail is shining
In other hearts... Or is this not enough -
Leave light in living hearts?

Love, oh love, you again, again!
Watching your lips
I will start repeating against my will
such a strange name.
Oh shame! I should look away
from the flame of these eyes
and - there wasn’t enough strength. Heart, forgive me
thirst will torment us.
***
Why was it destroyed?
Heartbroken right?
Open up to me: what is it for?
Smoking sulfur fumes?
Why this stinking filth?
Is he suffocating in torment?
Why is a true heart
How does one suffer in the underworld?
Why is he desperate?
Midnight vigil
In dying savagery,
In the last alienation?..
You'll give everything away cheaply
What did this heart dream of?
You'll go around him,
You will breathe lightly and cheerfully...
***
You took away both light and air from me,
And you want to know where I get my strength,
To breathe, to see the sky in the stars,
To get to work in the morning.
Well, I’ll answer you, dear:
Hearts trampled alive
Despair suddenly fills with strength,
Despair without edge, without end.
***
What kind of game is this?..
There are no more words, no tears, no strength...
You can fall out of love - I understand
But come and tell me that you have fallen out of love.
What are these half-looks for?
I don’t understand the sudden tenderness.
When rejecting, there is no need to hug.
Isn't it a shame yourself?
I always marvel at you as a miracle.
You won't find this among people.
I won't forget until my death
Your merciless pity...
***
What to do! My soul has become poor
And she slipped away.
I promised someone something
And she deceived everyone.
But I didn’t do it on purpose, it just happened
And life is running out.
What to do! My soul has left me
Walk free.
And where does she wander? Who did you meet?
Why were you surprised?..
And I can’t remember the beginning without her,
The beginning was forgotten.
***