Velimir Khlebnikov (Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, 1885-1922)
Compositional fragments for Vila i leshy. 1912
Autograph manuscript, two sections of the working draft for the poem Vila i leshy (Vila and the goblin), n.p., n.d. [c.1912].

In Russian. Approximately 83 lines on four pages, 218 x 177mm, with extensive cancellations and revisions, paginated '9', '10', '15' and '16'.

Two compositional fragments for the early idyll, Vila i leshy, with substantial differences from the published version: an autograph of extreme rarity.

Tugoy, slovna verevka .
Usmechtkoy ostrih gub.
Rukoya triplet beliy gubi.
Rukoyu lovit Komarov.
I sadit spiachemu na brovii. …

Velimir Khlebnikov is one of the most influential and elusive figures of the Russian Futurist movement, closely associated with Mayakovsky and Malevich. Classified among his longer poems (poemy), Vila i leshy (‘Vila and wood-goblin’) is cited by Vladimir Markov (The Russian Review, vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1960), p.343) for its pure atmosphere of ‘peace and idyllic life … There is very little action in this Russian version of “L’Après-midi d’un faune”, and the greater part of the poem consists of the mischievous coquettish Slavic nymph’s rondo-like teasing of a lazy, old wood-goblin … interspersed with a description of a hot day’. Its pagan atmosphere and idyllic mood are highly characteristic of the primitivism of Khlebnikov’s pre-Revolutionary poems. Khlebnikov’s manuscripts are of extreme rarity on the market: no examples are cited on ABPC or RBH.

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