It is impossible to imagine the tender, bright and melodious lyrics of Sergei Yesenin without the theme of love. At different periods of his life and work, the poet uniquely feels and experiences this beautiful, sublime and at the same time bitter feeling.
Once upon a time at that gate over there
I was sixteen years old
And a girl in a white cape
She told me affectionately: “No!”
They were distant and dear.
That image has not faded away in me...
We all loved during these years,
But they loved us little.
Having gone through many severe trials, Yesenin’s poetry comes to life, throws off despondency, gains energy, faith in new life. The poet feels a great desire to part with his “bad fame” and leave his “unlucky life” forever. But he lacks the will.
I would forget the taverns forever
And I would have given up writing poetry,
Just touch your hand subtly
And your hair is the color of autumn.
I would follow you forever
Whether in your own or in someone else's...
In the poem “Letter to a Woman,” Sergei Alexandrovich confesses to his beloved and asks for forgiveness for unwittingly inflicted insults. He was too emotional and ardent, he could not protect love and happiness, but, having parted, he retained respect and affection for his former lover, gratitude for the years he had lived. He blesses the once beloved woman for happiness, even without him.
Live like this
How the star guides you
Under the tabernacle of the renewed canopy.
Only A.S. Pushkin with his confession “I loved you” was capable of such a selfless feeling. Yesenin did not always experience joy and peace in love. More often it is a struggle, confrontation and affirmation of personalities. Calm and serene love is an unattainable and desired bliss for the poet.
Without looking at her wrists
And silk flowing from her shoulders,
I was looking for happiness in this woman,
And I accidentally found death.
I didn't know that love is an infection
I didn't know that love was a plague.
Came up with a narrowed eye
The bully was driven crazy.
A cycle of poems by Yesenin 1921-1922. "Moscow Tavern" is marked by the stamp of the painful inner state of the author, who was then experiencing a severe spiritual crisis, which was a consequence of the duality of the poet, who had not yet been able to understand the nature and content of the new era. This confusion, depressed state, and pessimistic thoughts then left a tragic imprint on the poet’s love lyrics. Here are the characteristic lines of one of the poems in this cycle:
Sing, sing! On the damn guitar
My fingers dance in a semicircle.
I would choke in this frenzy,
My last, only friend.
Don't look at her wrists
And silk flowing from her shoulders.
I was looking for happiness in this woman,
And I accidentally found death.
I didn't know that love is an infection
I didn't know that love was a plague.
Came up with a narrowed eye
Made the bully crazy.
Sing, my friend. Remind me again
Our former violent early.
Let her kiss someone else
Young beautiful trash...
By the beginning of 1923, Yesenin’s desire to get out of the crisis state in which he found himself became noticeable. Gradually, he finds more and more solid ground, becomes more deeply aware of Soviet reality, and begins to feel not like an adopted son, but a native son of Soviet Russia. This was strongly reflected not only in the political, but also in the poet’s love lyrics.
His poems date back to 1923, in which he first writes about the real, deep love, pure, bright and truly human:
A blue fire began to sweep,
Forgotten relatives.
For the first time I sang about love,
For the first time I refuse to make a scandal.
I was all like a neglected garden,
He was greedy for women and potions,
I stopped liking drinking and dancing
And lose your life without looking back.
One cannot help but pay attention to the line: “For the first time I sang about love.” After all, Yesenin also wrote about love in “Moscow Tavern,” which means that the poet himself did not recognize the real love that he wrote about in that gloomy cycle of poems. In contrast to the poems of that period, Yesenin creates a whole cycle of lyrical works in which he is endlessly attracted by the bright joy of the feeling of love, its purity, human warmth.
What to desire under the burden of life,
Cursing your lot and home?
I would like a good one now
Seeing a girl under the window.
So that she has cornflower blue eyes
Only for me - Not for anyone -
And with new words and feelings
Calmed my heart and chest, -
Yesenin writes in the poem “Leaves are falling, leaves are falling...”, and we see the striking difference between this poem and those that the poet not so long ago created in a mood of decline, indifference and despair.
The poet himself emphatically separates new poems, born of a new mood, from the previous ones. In the poem “Let you be drunk by others...” (1923) he writes:
I never lie with my heart,
I can jump fearlessly
That I say goodbye to hooliganism.
It's time to part with the mischievous
And rebellious courage.
My heart is already drunk,
Blood is a sobering mash.
Now I put up with a lot
White under duress, without loss.
Rus' seems different to me,
Others are cemeteries and huts.
This is one of many examples of how Yesenin’s love lyrics invariably reflected his civic sentiments. At this time (1923-1925), one persistent motif appears in his works, to which he returns repeatedly: the poet warns himself and others against hasty conclusions about the nature of his feelings, he judges true love more strictly, which should not be confused with random impulses :
Don't call this ardor fate
A frivolous hot-tempered connection, -
How I met you by chance,
I smile, calmly walking away.
Yes, and you will go your own way
Sprinkle joyless days
Just don’t touch those who haven’t been kissed,
Just don’t beckon those who are not burning.
Speaking about chance meetings that do not bring true happiness and joy, the poet emphasizes the importance of true pure love:
It's not you I love, darling,
You are just an echo, just a shadow.
I dream of another in your face,
Whose head is a dove,
Don't let her look meek
And perhaps she looks cold
But she walks majestically
Shaked my soul to the core
You can hardly fog one like this,
And if you don’t want to go, yes you will,
Well, you don’t even lie in your heart
A lie drunk with affection.
Contrasting true love with frivolous chance encounters, Yesenin talks about the terrible emptiness of the heart that comes over the years to a person who has recklessly spent his feelings. The inability to return what was lost, to know love in all its depth and all-encompassing power appears as retribution to him:
It makes me sad to look at you
What a pain, what a pity!
Know, only willow copper
We stayed with you in September.
Someone else's lips were torn apart
Your warmth and trembling body.
It's like it's drizzling rain
From a soul that is a little deadened.
Well! I'm not afraid of him.
A different joy was revealed to me.
After all, there's nothing left
As soon as yellow decay and dampness.
After all, I didn’t save myself either
For a quiet life, for smiles.
So few roads have been traveled
So many mistakes have been made.
Funny life, funny ravlad,
So it was and so it will be after.
The garden is dotted like a cemetery
There are gnawed bones on the shore.
We too will bloom
And let's make some noise like guests of the garden...
If there are no flowers in the middle of winter,
So there is no need to be sad about them.
But Yesenin did not dwell on the motives of lost youth and sorrowful regrets about the past. As the poet's spiritual renaissance began, his lyrics acquired a different sound, an optimistic coloring.
An unsurpassed example of Yesenin’s love lyrics is the cycle “Persian Motifs”. These poems were written by Yesenin during his stay in Baku, where he always felt good and wrote a lot. In general, Yesenin’s repeated trips to the Caucasus had a very beneficial effect on his work; here he found himself at least temporarily cut off from his unhealthy environment.
My old wound has subsided -
Drunken delirium does not gnaw at my heart.
Blue flowers of Tehran
I'm treating them today in a teahouse
These words open "Persian Motifs". The poems in this cycle may suggest that they were written by the poet during his stay in Persia. Indeed, Yesenin was going to visit this country. In 1924 - 1925 he wrote in letters to G. Benislavskaya: “I will need 1000 rubles for a trip to Persia or Constantinople”; “I’m sitting in Tiflis. I’m waiting for money from Baku and I’ll go to Tehran. The first attempt to cross Tavria failed.” “I’ll live in Tehran for a while, and then I’ll go to Batum or Baku.” Yesenin explained why he was drawn to the East: “You also understand that I’m going to study. I even want to go to Shiraz and I think I’ll definitely go. After all, all the best Persian lyricists were born there. And it’s not for nothing that Muslims say: if he doesn’t sing, it means he is not from Shushu, if he does not write, it means he is not from Shiraz.” Yesenin never visited Persia. In a telegram sent from Tiflis in 1925, he reported: “Persia has gone bankrupt.” But he made quite long trips to the Caucasus. Here he became acquainted with the work of the greatest poets of the East - Ferdowsi (934 - 1020), Omar Khayyam (1040 - 1123), Saadi (1184 - 1291). Yesenin repeatedly mentions their names in “Persian Motifs”. The lyrics of these ports always contain philosophical thoughts. She is permeated with a feeling of love for life. She is characterized by an optimistic perception of the world. The favorite theme of these famous lyricists is the theme of love, which is always associated with a full-blooded feeling of life. In their poems, the feeling of love is warmed by a feeling of friendship for a woman, this is love without fatal passions that incinerate the soul, it is always a bright and natural feeling,
Here the sincere feeling of the renewed heart of the author sounded. The structure of the poems is melodious and melodic. Yesenin imitates neither Saadi nor Ferdowsi... The poet creates poems according to traditional canons. The East itself breathes and speaks through the mouth of Yesenin.
I asked the money changer today,
What does a ruble give for half a fog?
How to tell me for the beautiful Lala
Tender “I love” in Persian?
I asked the money changer today
Lighter than the wind, quieter than the Van streams,
What should I call the beautiful Lala?
The affectionate word “kiss”?
But even here, the poet remains a singer of Russia, a patriot of his homeland, which from a distance seems even sweeter and more beautiful to him in its discreet attire.
Talyanka is ringing in my soul,
In the moonlight I hear a dog barking.
Don't you want, Persian,
See the distant blue land?
The author of "Persian Motifs" is convinced of the fragility of serene happiness far from his native land. AND the main character the cycle becomes distant Russia: “No matter how beautiful Shiraz is, it is no better than the expanses of Ryazan.”
Probably no writer portrays the East as romantic and mysterious as Sergei Yesenin. One has only to read his “Persian Motifs” to be convinced of this. What epithets does the author not use? “The blue and cheerful country” attracts the poet with pictures of moonlit nights, where “a swarm of moths swirls around the stars” and the “cold gold of the moon” shines, the “glass gloom of Bukhara” and the “blue homeland of Ferdowsi” beckon. Probably, the originality of Yesenin’s poetry lies in the fact that he knows how to perceive the beauty of foreign lands as keenly as his own homeland.
You don't have to ask the poet about how " blue flowers Tehran" he was treating "a former wound... in a teahouse" - he was not in Tehran. There is no need to try to learn from him something detailed about the "blue homeland of Firdusi", about, for example, what grounds did the poet have for hoping that Persia cannot forget about him - about the “affectionate Urus". And “Shagane, you are mine, Shagane" is not from Shiraz at all. And not a “Persian”, but a young Armenian teacher from Batumi (later the honored teacher Shagandukht Nersesovna Talyan), whose passion gave birth to a collective image of a woman of the East, captivating lines about her. In the flight of love and inspiration, the poet is above earthly boundaries and differences, who prays to whom, who blood. "Persian motifs" were created in the neighborhood of Persia, by association, in traditions of Eastern lyricism, rich in allegories, in the aesthetic manner of Persian poetry. Of course, there are not so many direct coincidences with its ideas and poetics in the cycle. But it contains a whole scattering of subtle observations from the life, morals, melodies of the East. Where do they come from? No question idle, considering that Yesenin’s trip to Transcaucasia was primarily urban and coastal. The poet was favored by the local elite, the press, and admirers of his talent, mainly from, as they say today, the “Russian-speaking population.” He did not have much room to comprehend the intricacies of national life. (It was not without reason that there was a request from above to the poet’s companions to create for him the “illusion of Persia”). Then where do his apt touches specifically about the Muslim East come from? But just from here - from his trip to Tashkent, where his long-standing interest in Asia, in oriental national poetics was largely prompted by the circumstances in which he found himself there.
The cycle "Persian Motifs" is an unsurpassed example of Yesenin's love lyrics.
Sergei Yesenin wrote a lot about love. About love for native land, nature, but the main theme of the poems, of course, is the feeling for a woman. Most often, the poet uses sad, melodic intonations in them, and it is no coincidence, because in life the author never knew simple family happiness.
- “I remember, darling, I remember”. The poet's poem is imbued with longing and sadness for the times when he was in love with the actress Miklashevskaya. The girl did not take Sergei seriously, despite his advances. Nevertheless, she made a huge impression on him and remained in the romantic’s heart for a long time. And despite the fact that Yesenin is already in a relationship with someone else, he still dreams of that sweet lady with whom he once spent all his days and nights... Read the text of the verse...
- “Apparently, it’s been like this forever.” A rather sad poem, its meaning is similar to parting with a loved one. It is mentioned from the wedding and thirty years of life... one can try to assume that it was written before his marriage to Sophia Tolstoy. Perhaps the poet felt the approach of his imminent death, and with this message he wanted to say goodbye to his last love. Read the text of the verse...
- “Darling, let’s sit next to each other.” Calm, measured and honest - this is exactly how the poet imagined relationships, although he himself often turned them into a drunken stupor and a cruel hell of jealousy and suspicion. But he found everything he thought his heart needed in the beautiful actress, Augusta Miklashevskaya. And yet this romance was not destined to last forever. Before meeting the girl, Sergei Yesenin had already resigned himself to his fate as a “lonely rake” and did not dream of anything more. With the arrival of Augusta came hope for a bright and happy future... But alas, these were just dreams. Read the text of the verse...
- “You don’t love me, you don’t feel sorry for me...” The poet is aware of his isolation from the world; the motive of loneliness can be traced here. The poem was written not long before the death of the author and is based on a certain introspection and summing up. In recent months, Sergei was especially lonely: he drank, beat and insulted his wife, and left home. His only listening companions were girls lung behavior, one of the encounters with which is described in this poem. The poet writes that their meeting is accidental, and soon the lady will forget about his existence and begin to have fun with someone else. Read the text of the poem...
- “It makes me sad to see you.” This poem is also dedicated to Augusta Miklashevskaya and is part of the “Love of a Hooligan” cycle. He remembers the happy month of August - when they actually met, but in September they were forced to part. That is why the poet takes the first month of autumn to be the decline of life, the approach of death. September follows August, just as the cooling of passion follows mad love. Read the text of the verse...
- "Don't look at me reproachfully." The poem was written when the poet was married to Sofia Tolstoy. It is clear from the lines that Sergei did not have loving feelings for the girl, but at the same time she was nice to him in appearance. The true feelings of the lyrical hero remained in the past, his heart was completely given away different women, and there was nothing more left. Read the text of the verse...
- “Sing, sing. On a damn guitar." The poet's ambiguous attitude towards the woman to whom he is clearly not indifferent is clearly presented. In the second stanza we observe admiration and admiration for the beauty of the lady. He is literally in love with her wrists, shoulders, hair... Then there is a sharp change in the mood of the lyrical hero. The realization comes to him that this, so beautiful lady, and is not at all worthy of strong feelings, the full inner dedication of the poet. He understands that the girl will not bring him happiness, but will only doom him to death. The work is believed to be dedicated to Isadora Duncan. Read the text of the verse...
- “What a night, I can’t.” The poet understands that life did not go at all as he would have liked, and it is too late to correct anything. The heroine of the poem, to whom it is dedicated, acts as an unloved and unwanted woman. But the author no longer hopes for happiness, he is pleased with this girl, and what else is needed to while away last days life? After all, Sergei, while writing this poem, was already thinking about his imminent death. Read the text of the verse...
- "Well, kiss me, kiss me". The feeling of imminent death does not leave the poet for a minute. For him, the only goal remains the enjoyment of ardent passion; he wants to plunge into the pool of love, but that was not the case. The girl who was head over heels in love with the poet - Sofya Tolstaya - had a very romantic and modest nature. She dreamed about high feelings, about happy marriage. As a result, two people who passionately want their own do not get what they want. Read the text of the verse...
- "Move away from the window." The poem is structured in the form of a monologue of a young girl who turns to her ardent lover with a request to leave her alone. It can be assumed that the poet is writing here about his fellow villager, with whom he was once unrequitedly in love, Anna Sardanovskaya. The heroine admits that she does not love Sergei and does not want to connect her life with him, completely depriving him of all hope. But, despite everything, the poet carries bright feelings for the girl throughout his entire life. short life. Read the text of the verse...
- “Dear hands are a pair of swans.” This poem was written under the impression of the charm of the Armenian arithmetic teacher Shagane Talyan, whom the poet met in Batum during his trip to the Caucasus. The image of a swan here is associated with a woman of incredible beauty, her harmonious and graceful movements. For Yesenin, Shagane is a sweet lady, faithful, delicate, affectionate, capable of calming the anxiety in the soul of the lyrical hero. Read the text of the verse...
Interesting? Save it on your wall!
The theme of love occupies a special place in Yesenin’s lyrics. True connoisseurs of Russian literature cannot be left indifferent by these heartfelt lines, filled with a living, bright feeling. You read them and it seems that you are touching eternity, since they awaken the most intimate feelings in your soul. The recipients of Yesenin's love lyrics are the women whom he admired and idolized. It should be noted with what sincere tenderness he addresses them, how charming he chooses epithets. Yesenin's poems about love are incredibly melodic and beautiful. I want to read them out loud, thinking about every word.
No one can remain indifferent to these stunning lines. In this article we will look at the theme of love in Yesenin’s lyrics. How is it different? What can be found in it that is truly amazing for an ordinary person?
Features of Yesenin's love lyrics
When you get acquainted with these mesmerizing poems, it seems that they touch every string of your soul. There is a complete immersion in the process of contemplating these heartfelt lines. You read them and are filled with some kind of majestic beauty that brings joy and moral satisfaction. The peculiarity of Yesenin’s love lyrics is that they fit very easily to music.
That is why so many beautiful and soulful songs appeared based on the poems of this wonderful poet. Literary scholars rightly call Sergei Yesenin a “poetic singer” who knew how to say a lot by expressing his feelings in rhyme.
“A blue fire started to spread”
One of the most beautiful lyrical works. The poem is imbued with tender feelings and reflects the reassessment of values that occurs in the soul of the lyrical hero. It seems that he is ready to completely submit to fate, to refuse bad habits and even “stop making trouble.” The heart of the lyrical hero is filled with bright emotions; he feels within himself the opportunity to change a lot in life, to correct the mistakes of the past.
Sergei Yesenin uses very beautiful means artistic expression to express one’s state: “blue fire”, “golden-brown whirlpool”, “hair the color of autumn”. It can be seen that the experience of feeling awakens in his soul feelings leading to change. The poem leaves a pleasant feeling of gentle sadness for unfulfilled dreams and helps to remember real goals.
“You don’t love me, you don’t regret me”
The poem is quite famous and beautiful. These lines captivate the imagination and make the soul shrink with delight. The lyrical hero is in a state of confusion. The key line here is “Whoever has loved cannot love.” The heart of the lyrical hero is not yet ready to experience new love. There are too many scars in the soul that prevent you from feeling truly happy. It may seem that he is too withdrawn and is afraid of the onset of additional experiences. Moral torment causes a lot of mental pain, from which it is sometimes impossible to find relief. The lyrical hero is to some extent disappointed in life.
He simultaneously wants to change something and is afraid to accept significant events into his destiny, which is why the words appear in the poem: “He who has loved cannot love.” After all, there is always the possibility that you will find yourself deceived and abandoned. These are the feelings the lyrical hero experiences, fearing the onset of new disappointment.
“Dear hands - a pair of swans”
The poem is incredibly tender, reverent and filled with warmth. The lyrical hero of Sergei Yesenin admires female beauty and finds himself captivated by it. He wants to find his true happiness, but conflict is inevitable: there are too many regrets in his soul that interfere with a happy sense of self. There is a great focus on experiencing subjective feelings.
“I don’t know how to live my life” is an expression of confusion, anxiety and invisible loneliness. The lyrical hero is worried about the idea that most of his life has been lived in vain. It is difficult for him to decide on the direction in which he needs to follow. The feeling of love beckons him to conquer unknown heights, but he is afraid of experiencing disappointment, afraid of being deceived. The lyrical hero often turns to his previous experience in order to compare certain things and understand what to do.
“Sing, sing. On the damn guitar..."
The poem is incredibly sensual and dedicated to experiencing a passionate feeling. The lyrical hero feels like an unarmed knight who has embarked on an exciting adventure. He is attracted by wonderful impulses and at the same time wary. This is one of the most heartfelt works of Sergei Yesenin.
“I didn’t know that love was an infection” - this line shows how unprepared we sometimes are to experience the feeling of love. It frightens many people because they have to deal with something hitherto unknown and go into unknown distances. The lyrical hero understands love as “destruction,” which inevitably comes when we're talking about O beautiful woman. He is already internally prepared for disappointment.
"Fool heart, don't beat"
The poem reflects the state of the lyrical hero, experiencing an existential crisis. The lyrical hero does not believe in love, calls it deception, because the feeling itself always makes him suffer. He has already gone through numerous trials as a result of past relationships and does not want to repeat the mistakes he once made. The work is shrouded in a note of sadness, but there is no sense of hopelessness in it. The theme of love in Yesenin's lyrics occupies a central place.
“I remember, darling, I remember”
The poem is imbued with a note of nostalgia. The lyrical hero yearns for the time when he was different: without thinking about anything, he started a relationship, and did not impose certain obligations on himself. He yearns for the past and seems to want to return to it for a moment. At the same time, some life circumstances do not allow me to return there.
The hero regrets some mistakes of the past, but at the same time understands that there is no more time left to try to correct them. Yesenin's poems about love are imbued with unprecedented tenderness, inspiration and light sadness. Strong feelings grip the reader's soul and don't let go for a long time. I want to re-read these lyrical works again in order to feel all their charm and grandeur.
Instead of a conclusion
Thus, the theme of love in Yesenin’s lyrics is a special direction in the poet’s work. Here great importance have feelings and their development. The lyrical hero reveals himself from an unexpected and beautiful side. He has to learn a lot about himself, learn to accept his own emotional state.
Sergei Yesenin is one of the most famous Russian poets " silver age”, and strangely one of the most misunderstood. People usually love him for his tavern cycle, but many forget that Yesenin was capable of much more. The same poems by Yesenin about love can be colored with rural flavor, and urban melancholy, and oriental exoticism, but they remain just as piercing.
Having gained first popularity with his “village” poems about nature and quiet rural life, the poet later embarked on the most daring experiments. He sang of social change and the frenzy of night drinking, admired technological progress and foresaw totalitarian nightmares. But all this time he did not forget one of the main, eternal themes of poetry - love.
Yesenin himself was not only a theorist of love. He was married three times - to the actress Zinaida Reich, to the ballerina Isadora Duncan and to Sofia Tolstoy, the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy. In addition, he had many different affairs on the side. Among his loves were platonic ones, and children were born from other novels. And the poet gave himself completely to each of his feelings, in return receiving an influx of inspiration from him. Yes, Yesenin understood love!
His love lyrics are surprisingly different from other poems. In other works of Sergei Yesenin, one can clearly hear his era - the beginning of the 20th century, when the “iron cavalry” comes to replace the foal, menacing shadows rise over the world, and desperate night Moscow is enjoying its tavern days. These poems are clearly tied to their time. But Yesenin’s love lyrics have been cleared of reference to the era. It is beyond centuries and epochs, it is eternal. Such poems were timely both during the poet’s lifetime and now, almost a century later.
Reading Yesenin’s poems about love, you always feel his nature. The poet is honest, admitting things that one would not normally say out loud, and this makes his poems convincing.
The most famous love poems
Sergei Yesenin rarely bothered to give his poems separate titles. That's why we call most of them by the first line. “You don’t love me, you don’t feel sorry for me,” “Goodbye, my friend, goodbye,” “There’s a blue fire…” and so on. For some poems it is even possible to determine to whom they were dedicated.
Much more often in Yesenin’s love poems, love is unhappy. It is either past, unrequited, or hopeless due to external reasons. Even the divided feeling that Yesenin writes about bears the imprint of past suffering. “Darling, let’s sit next to each other,” “Flowers tell me goodbye,” many other poems talk about separation, past or future, inevitable.
The poet’s lyrical hero himself not only suffers from unhappy love, but also causes suffering himself. He can openly admit that he loves someone other than the one who loves him. He can do wrong and admit it to himself - and the reader.
The “Persian Cycle” stands out separately in the poet’s work. Although he seems noticeably happier, with a more southern heat, it's worth reading deeper to realize that Persian moments of happiness are fleeting, and all the characters know it. However, this ephemeral happiness is also fully experienced and overwhelms both the lyrical hero and the reader. “They live only once on earth,” the poet invites his companion to understand.
Even when his hero - a bully and a rake - seems to be ready to change and “refuse to make trouble” for the sake of love, it’s not really possible to trust him. You see: this hero is prone to impulse, to emotional loud words, to deception, which he himself believes in. But I wish, how I wish, that, having sung about love for the first time, the hero never dropped that note!
His voice sounds much more honest in the cynical “Sing, sing…”. Understanding the destructiveness of fatal passion, the hardened character still gives himself over to love for the one who “drove the bully crazy.” And this duality makes Yesenin’s hero much more alive than in the template verses of less gifted authors.
Of course, Yesenin is not limited to love lyrics alone. He has the melancholy anguish of “Tavern Moscow”, and the epic “Pantocrator”, and the allegorical mysticism of “The Black Man”, and poignant village poetry. If you calculate what place the theme of love occupies in Yesenin’s work, then it turns out to be surprisingly small. But poems about love are what probably resonate most with Sergei Yesenin. Probably because Yesenin did not replicate love poems, but wrote them from the heart and dedicated them to specific people.
On our page you can read a complete selection of Yesenin’s poems about love, selected especially for you.
Yesenin's poems about love. Deep, sincere, soulful.
Sergei Yesenin's poems about love are imbued with a note of bitterness and hopelessness, they contain all the weight of love. The main direction of the poems of his entire life is love for a woman. And most often this is unhappy love. Get into the spirit of “Yesenin’s” poems with us!
Yesenin's poems about love
I remember, my love, I remember...
I remember, darling, I remember
The shine of your hair...
It’s not happy and it’s not easy for me
I had to leave you.
I remember autumn nights
Birch rustle of shadows...
Even if the days were shorter then,
The moon shone longer for us.
I remember you told me:
“Blue years will pass,
And you will forget, my dear,
With the other one forever."
Today the linden tree is in bloom
I reminded my feelings again,
How tenderly then I poured
Flowers on a curly strand.
And the heart, without preparing to cool down
And sadly loving another,
Like a favorite story
On the other hand, he remembers you.
1925
****
Flowers say goodbye to me...
Flowers tell me goodbye
Heads bowing lower,
What I won't see forever
Her face and her father's land.
Darling, well, well! Well!
I saw them and I saw the land,
And this deathly trembling
I accept it like a new affection.
And because I realized
All my life, passing by with a smile, -
I speak for every moment
That everything in the world is repeatable.
Does it really matter if someone else comes?
The sadness of the departed will not be swallowed up,
Abandoned and dear
The one who comes will compose a better song.
And, listening to the song in silence,
Beloved with another beloved,
Maybe he'll remember me
Like a unique flower.
****
You don’t love me, you don’t regret me...
You don't love me, you don't regret me,
Am I not a little handsome?
Without looking in the face, you are thrilled with passion,
He placed his hands on my shoulders.
Young, with a sensual grin,
I am neither gentle nor rude with you.
Tell me how many people have you caressed?
How many hands do you remember? How many lips?
I know they passed by like shadows
Without touching your fire,
You sat on the knees of many,
And now you're sitting here with me.
Let your eyes be half closed
And you're thinking about someone else
I don’t really love you very much myself,
Drowning in the distant dear.
Don't call this ardor fate
A frivolous hot-tempered connection, -
How I met you by chance,
I smile, calmly walking away.
Yes, and you will go your own way
Sprinkle joyless days
Just don’t touch those who haven’t been kissed,
Just don’t lure those who haven’t been burned.
And when with another in the alley
You'll walk by chatting about love
Maybe I'll go for a walk
And we will meet again with you.
Turning your shoulders closer to the other
And leaning down a little,
You will tell me quietly: “Good evening!”
I will answer: “Good evening, miss.”
And nothing will disturb the soul,
And nothing will make her tremble, -
He who loved cannot love,
You can't set fire to someone who's burned out.
****
It's a dark night, I can't sleep...
It's a dark night, I can't sleep,
I’ll go out to the river and onto the meadow.
The lightning lightning loosened
There is a belt in foam jets.
There is a candle birch tree on the hill
In lunar feathers of silver.
Come out, my heart,
Listen to the songs of the guslar!
I'll fall in love, I'll take a look
For girlish beauty,
And I’ll go dance to the harp,
So I'll rip off your veil.
Into the dark mansion, into the green forest,
On silk flowers,
I'll take you down the slopes
Until the poppy dawn.
1911
****
Well, kiss me, kiss me...
Well, kiss me, kiss me,
Even to the point of bleeding, even to pain.
At odds with cold will
Boiling water of heart streams.
Overturned mug
Among the merry ones is not for us.
Understand, my friend,
They only live once on earth!
Look around with a calm gaze,
Look: damp in the darkness
The month is like a yellow raven
It circles and soars above the ground.
Well, kiss me! That's how I want it.
Decay sang a song to me too.
Apparently he sensed my death
The one who soars on high.
Fading Power!
Die like that!
Until the end of my sweetheart's lips
I would like to kiss.
So that all the time in blue slumbers,
Without being ashamed and without hiding,
In the gentle rustle of bird cherry trees
It was heard: “I am yours.”
And so that the light over the full mug
It didn’t go out with a light foam -
Drink and sing, my friend:
They only live once on earth!
1925
****
Don't look at me reproachfully...
Don't look at me reproachfully
I have no contempt for you,
But I love your pack with drag
And your crafty meekness.
Yes, you seem prostrate to me,
And, perhaps, I'm glad to see
Like a fox pretending to be dead
Catches crows and crows.
Well, then, look, I’m not chickening out.
Just how would your ardor not go out?
To my cold soul
We've come across these more than once.
It's not you I love, darling,
You are just an echo, just a shadow.
I dream of another in your face,
Whose eyes are dove.
Don't let her look meek
And, perhaps, it looks cold,
But she walks majestically
It shook my soul to the core.
You can hardly fog one like this,
And if you don’t want to go, yes you will,
Well, you don’t even lie in your heart
A lie infused with affection.
But still, despising you,
I will shyly open myself forever:
If there were no hell and heaven,
The man himself would have invented them.
If you liked Yesenin's poems about love, share them with your friends and loved ones. Have a good mood and sincere happy love!