Music by A. Vertinsky, Shaporin Yu.A.
Words by I. Annensky

Among the worlds in the twinkling luminaries
I repeat the name of one star...
Not because I loved her,
But because I feel dark with others.

And if my heart is heavy,
I am looking to Her alone for an answer,

But because you don’t need light with it!

Our beloved Valery Agafonov

Annensky's poem is entitled "Among the Worlds", Vertinsky called his romance "My Star". The romance is also called by the first line: “Among the worlds in the twinkling of the stars.” In 1976, music for the poem was also written by the bard Alexander Sukhanov (under the title “My Star”).


SHAPORIN YURI (GEORGY) ALEXANDROVICH ( 1887-1966)-SOVIET COMPOSER.

⁣Vocal cycle“Elegies,” which included a romance called “Among the Worlds,” was created by composer Yuri Shaporin during the war years.

⁣The poem “Among the Worlds” by Innokenty Annensky, musical in its very essence, seems to have been created to become a romance. Composer Yuri Shaporin was far from the only and not even the first who set these poems by Annensky to music.

The incomparable Alexander Vertinsky - music author and performer

Much earlier, Alexander Vertinsky did this: the romance, which he called “My Star,” was widely known - first among the Russian emigration, and then in our country - and was performed with constant success by Vertinsky himself


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Among the worlds

Words by I. Annensky

Among the worlds, in the twinkling of the luminaries
I repeat the name of One Star...
Not because I loved her,
But because I languish with others.

And if doubt is hard for me,
I pray to Her alone for an answer,
Not because it’s light from Her,
But because there is no need for light with Her.

1901

I. F. Annensky wrote it in Tsarskoe Selo shortly before his death, in April 1909.

Performed by Valery Obodzinsky
INNOKENTY FEDOROVICH ANNENSKY(1855-1909) - Russian poet" Silver Age"

Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky was an amazing poet. Like Tyutchev, for a long time he seemed to be ashamed of his poetic gift; he did not consider himself a professional poet and wrote poems for himself, for friends, for acquaintances:

“I firmly adhered to the words of my brother Nikolai Fedorovich, which sank deeply into my soul:

“You can’t publish until you’re thirty,” and I was content with the fact that the girls I knew copied my poems and even (how could you not become a feminist!) learned this nonsense by heart…”

A poet of deep internal discord, a thinker condemned to the deafness of his contemporaries, he is tragic, like a victim of historical fate. Belonging to two generations, the older one with age and everyday skills, and the younger one with spiritual sophistication, Annensky seemed to combine in himself the results of Russian culture, which at the beginning of the 20th century was saturated with the anxiety of contradictory torments and insatiable daydreaming.

Oleg Pogudin

That’s right: already a little alien to the 19th century, he never managed to become his own in the 20th century. He was not fashionable, he was not recognized during his lifetime - perhaps also because he was extremely sincere and always and in everything remained true to himself. He did nothing for show and therefore kept himself apart, as it were, among his poet contemporaries.

It was only later, after his death, that they began to call him “the last of the Tsarskoye Selo swans,” a brilliant representative of the Silver Age of Russian poetry.

Of course, Annensky’s poem “Among the Worlds” is known to the general public primarily as a romance.

Very beautiful performance by Anna Shirochenko!

Alla Bayanova, Vladimir Vysotsky, Valery Obodzinsky, Boris Grebenshchikov, Oleg Pogudin, the already mentioned Zara Dolukhanova, Georgy Vinogradov, Alexander Vertinsky, A. Sukhanov - each of these performers brought new colors to Annensky’s poems, found something of their own in these poems, something intimate, deeply personal.....

I didn’t insert a romance to Shaporin’s music, because... According to everyone, Vertinsky wrote much better and his music is mostly performed. If anyone is interested in how the above-mentioned singers sang, and there is also a performance by Vladimir Vysotsky and Nikolai Slichenko, you can find it on YouTube. The same applies to the bard Alexander Sukhanov, who wrote his own music to Annensky’s words. His performance can also be found on the website.

The star as the personification of hope and faith in Eternal values. Today we can only guess whether the feelings of the hero of Annensky’s poem are directed at a specific representative of the fair sex or whether we are talking about unearthly love, directed to higher spheres. One way or another, this poem did not leave indifferent even such masters as Vertinsky, Vysotsky, Grebenshchikov and many others.

Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky was an amazing poet. Like Tyutchev, for a long time he seemed to be ashamed of his poetic gift; he did not consider himself a professional poet and wrote poems for himself, for friends, for acquaintances. And as the poet himself recalled, “that the girls I knew copied my poems and even (how could one not become a feminist!) learned this nonsense by heart...”

The first and only collection of his lifetime was published when its author was already approaching fifty. But even here he chose to hide under the meaningful pseudonym “Nick.” That". Only at the very Last year In his life, Annensky began to take some steps to get the place that rightfully belonged to him on the then poetic Olympus, but he did not have time.

Already slightly alien to the 19th century, he never managed to become his own in the 20th century. He was not fashionable, he was not recognized during his lifetime - perhaps also because he was extremely sincere and always and in everything remained true to himself. He did nothing for show, he did not “promote” himself in the spirit of the new times - and therefore he kept himself apart, as it were, among his contemporaries-poets.

“Among the Worlds” - one of his most striking poems - is known today to the general public as a romance. It was performed by Alla Bayanova, Vladimir Vysotsky, Valery Obodzinsky, Boris Grebenshchikov, Oleg Pogudin, Zara Dolukhanova, Georgy Vinogradov, Alexander Vertinsky - each of these performers brought new colors to Annensky’s poems, found in these poems something of their own, something intimate , deeply personal.

Among the worlds, in the twinkling of the luminaries
I repeat the name of one star.
Not because I would love her,
But because I feel dark with others.

And if doubt is hard for me,
I'm the only one looking for an answer from her,
Not because it makes it light,
But because it doesn’t require light.

Listen to how these amazing lines sound as performed by Boris Grebenshchikov.

Love is an eternal theme. “Nocturne” by Robert Rozhdestvensky touches people living in the 21st century.

I repeat the name of one star...

The vocal cycle “Elegies,” which included a romance called “Among the Worlds,” was created by the famous Soviet composer Yuri Shaporin during the war years. The first performer of “Elegies” was the soloist in 1945 Bolshoi Theater Tatiana Talakhadze. Soon after this, Shaporin’s romance “Among the Worlds” was also recorded by Georgy Vinogradov, one of the most popular singers that time.

The poetic basis of the romance was the famous eight lines of Innokenty Annensky, written by him at the beginning of the 20th century and published in his posthumous collection “Cypress Casket” under the same title - “Among the Worlds”:

Among the worlds, in the twinkling lights of One star, I repeat the name... Not because I love her, But because I languish with others. And if I have a hard time with doubt, I’m the only one looking for an answer from her... Not because she makes light, But because she doesn’t need light.

Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky was an amazing poet. Like Tyutchev, for a long time he seemed to be ashamed of his poetic gift; he did not consider himself a professional poet and wrote poems for himself, for friends, for acquaintances:

I firmly held on to the words of my brother Nikolai Fedorovich, which sank deeply into my soul: "Don't publish until you're thirty", and was content with the fact that the girls I knew copied my poems and even (well, how could one not become a feminist!) learned this nonsense by heart...

The first and only collection of his lifetime was published when its author was already approaching fifty. But even here he chose to hide under the meaningful pseudonym “Nick.” That". Only in the very last year of his life did Annensky begin to take some steps to get his rightful place on the then poetic Olympus, but he did not have time. Sergei Makovetsky, editor-in-chief of the literary magazine with which Annensky intended to collaborate, then, many years later, wrote the following words about him:

A poet of deep internal discord, a thinker condemned to the deafness of his contemporaries, he is tragic, like a victim of historical fate. Belonging to two generations, the older one with age and everyday skills, and the younger one with spiritual sophistication, Annensky seemed to combine in himself the results of Russian culture, which at the beginning of the 20th century was saturated with the anxiety of contradictory torments and insatiable daydreaming.

That’s right: already slightly alien to the 19th century, he never managed to become one of his own in the 20th century. He was not fashionable, he was not recognized during his lifetime - perhaps also because he was extremely sincere and always and in everything remained true to himself. He did nothing for show, he did not “promote” himself in the spirit of the new times - and therefore he kept himself apart, as it were, among his contemporaries-poets. Loneliness is here main topic his poetry.

It was only later, after his death, that they began to call him “the last of the Tsarskoye Selo swans,” a brilliant representative of the Silver Age of Russian poetry. It was only later that it was suddenly discovered that Annensky was far ahead of his contemporaries, having a huge influence on the work of the most famous innovative poets of the beginning of the century. This is what Akhmatova will say about him later: “And the one whom I consider a teacher // Passed like a shadow and left no shadow...”

In October 1909, just a month and a half before his untimely death, Annensky gave a talk on the topic “Poetic Forms of Modern Sensibility,” in which he said, in particular, the following:

Prose poems with their tobacco shop roses and air that resembles fresh milk. Ah, gentlemen! I experienced all this... I experienced it so deeply... The beauty of Turgenev is not where, perhaps, he saw it himself. And how we need her now, oh, how we need her! The beauty of Turgenev is that he is the negation of cynicism...

Shyness is a new resource for poetry and art in general. I think it's time to remember him. What is needed to achieve its greatest measure? Find something new, change the present, resurrect the old.

If you don’t know how to write in a way that makes it clear that you haven’t said everything, then it’s better not to write at all. Leave it in your mind...

Innokenty Annensky's poem "Among the Worlds", musical in its very essence, seems to have been created to become a romance. Composer Yuri Shaporin was far from the only and not even the first who set these poems by Annensky to music. Much earlier, Alexander Vertinsky did this: the romance, which he called “My Star,” was widely known - first among the Russian emigration, and then in our country - and was performed with constant success by Vertinsky himself (download):

Annensky's line “...because I languish with others” Alexander Vertinsky replaced with “...because I feel dark with others”, while leaving the last line unchanged: “...because there is no need for light with her”- which is why his romance immediately began to sound somewhat paradoxical and mysterious: they say, although it’s dark for me with others, I just like it.

By the way, one of Vertinsky’s admirers and colleagues, Ben Benzianov, a well-known pop entertainer, coupletist and regular on the TV show “Blue Light” in our country in the 60s, once took advantage of the popularity of the romance “My Star” to create his own satirical couplets based on it . Here is a fragment from Benzianov’s speech, where he, by the way, recalls and parodies the unique manner of performing this romance by Alexander Vertinsky (download):

Ben Benzianov's satirical couplets based on
romance by Alexander Vertinsky “My Star”

Of course, Annensky’s poem “Among the Worlds” is known to the general public, first of all, as a romance. Alla Bayanova, Vladimir Vysotsky, Valery Obodzinsky, Boris Grebenshchikov, Oleg Pogudin, the already mentioned Zara Dolukhanova, Georgy Vinogradov, Alexander Vertinsky - each of these performers brought new colors to Annensky’s poems, found in these poems something of their own, something intimate , deeply personal.

Innokenty Annensky lived in an era when old canons were broken - in literature, in painting, in music, in politics, in everything - and attempts were made to create something new in their place. He himself took part in this process, but something in all of this alarmed him, worried him, something he decidedly did not like. In 1908 he wrote: “In our days […] poetry under the flag of individuality […] often conceals only mental squalor, all in the lusts and all in the whims of people called poets”. An intelligent, subtle man, with impeccable taste, he believed that the so-called idea of ​​free expression of personality, elevated to the rank of a cult and no longer restrained by any moral restrictions, was fraught with the danger of degenerating into a banal “to amaze and blind the passion with impossibility, insolence, vice and even ugliness”.

Quote from the report “On the Aesthetic Criterion” prepared by Innokenty Annensky:

It's not about morality, it's about reflection, modesty, doubt and resistance. We all want to impress, illuminate, scare, alarm, pester. We need mystery, it is our food. But our secret is immodesty, and it makes us forget about quiet reflection, about questioning, about gratitude and remembrance.

Ideal... The intellectual elements of poetry are the desire for justice, respect for suffering, humanity, respect for the dead. […]

Freedom is a legal concept; outside the law, freedom is a very slippery, and sometimes downright funny word.

There is no need to be afraid of banality. Humanity and ideal are not superfluous words. Before rejecting such words, it is better to seriously look at their content. The word Beauty is perhaps worse. […]

We publish all kinds of nonsense, toasts. We forget self-criticism. We are not modest. We are cynical.

... That meeting of the St. Petersburg Literary Society, at which Innokenty Annensky was going to read the report he had prepared, was scheduled for December 11, 1909. Annensky did not live to see this day: on November 30, his heart suddenly stopped...

Valentin Antonov, August 2012

“Among the Worlds” Innokenty Annensky

Among the worlds, in the twinkling of the luminaries
I repeat the name of one Star...
Not because I loved her,
But because I languish with others.

And if doubt is hard for me,
I am looking to Her alone for an answer,
Not because it’s light from Her,
But because there is no need for light with Her.

Analysis of Annensky’s poem “Among the Worlds”

In 1910, Annensky's first posthumous collection, The Cypress Casket, was published, published by his son. The book consists of many parts. IN last section, called “Scattered Sheets,” included the poem “Among the Worlds.” Innokenty Fedorovich wrote it in Tsarskoe Selo shortly before his death - in April 1909. Steady interest in the work continued throughout the twentieth century. The success was largely ensured by the extraordinary musicality of the eighth line. Many composers turned to him: from Alexander Vertinsky to Boris Grebenshchikov. Each of them discovered something new in the poem, found something personal, intimate.

The symbol of the only mysterious Star becomes the main one in Annensky’s work. The lyrical hero seeks an answer from Her when he is overcome by doubts; with Her he does not need light. He is extremely lonely. It seems that he has no one except the Star. The feelings experienced by the lyrical hero in relation to Her are unchanged. So the Star becomes the personification of hope, faith in eternal values, timeless, in a world where doubts prevail. In addition, her image is associated with a love theme. She acts as the only chosen one. At the same time, Annensky considers love not earthly, physical, but spiritual, directed to higher spheres. Accordingly, the feeling lyrical hero aimed not so much at a specific representative of the fair sex, but at an abstract ideal. According to a number of researchers, the ideal should be understood as poetry. Thus, in one poem, Annensky combines the motive of creativity with the motive of perfect love.

The loneliness that permeates the work “Among the Worlds” was characteristic condition and for Innokenty Fedorovich himself. He never strived for fame and popular recognition; for a long time he perceived his literary experiments not seriously. The poet published his first and only lifetime collection when he was almost fifty years old, and the book was published under the self-explanatory pseudonym “Nick. That". At the same time, it is difficult to overestimate the influence of Annensky on Acmeism and Futurism. His lyrics are reflected in the works of Anna Akhmatova, Georgy Ivanov, Boris Pasternak. Also of utmost importance critical articles Innocent Ivanovich and his translations of Heine, Longfellow, Baudelaire, Euripides, Horace, Rimbaud and other authors.