'It is an exile, not an exodus'. 1919

Benedikt Konstantinovich Livshits (1887-1938)
'It is an exile, not an exodus'. 1919
Autograph manuscript poem signed, 'Est v probuzdenii vechnaya obida', n.p., 1919.

In Russian. One page, 185 x 175 mm, doodles (apparently by the author) on the upper margin. Provenance: Archive of Igor Postupalsky (1907-1990, writer and translator: note in Russian on verso).

Est v probuzdenii vechnaya obida:
Ono izgnanie, a ne ichod
Iz snovedenia, gde Atlantida
Vne vremeni yavilas nam iz vod.
Naselniki izcheznuvshego brega
I s yavnim bregom yavno ne v ladu.
Zachem dolzni mi , idea vnutri kovchega,
Meniat sertsebienie na hodu?
I pet! I pet! Il, v samom dele,
Poyuchey plotiu stanet etot krik-
I viplivet iz okeana slovo
Metaphori ozivchey materik?

'There is an eternal resentment in the awakening: / It is an exile, not an exodus ...'. The poem ties a vision of a reappeared Atlantis to a dream of national rebirth: 'will metaphors of a revived mainland / Float out of the ocean of words?'.

Born in Odessa, Livshits was closely associated with the Futurists in the pre-war period. He volunteered for military service at the outbreak of the war – a famous photograph shows him on the day of his mobilisation with Mandelstam, Chukovsky and Annenkov – but was wounded and demobilised shortly afterwards. From 1915 to 1922 he lived in Kiev, before returning to Petrograd. He published no poetry after 1928, and his later years were occupied with translation.

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