Balmont C. From the world of poetry.

Balmont C. From the world of poetry.

Berlin. Word. 1921, p. 212 Hardcover, size 13.5 x 19 cm. Excellent condition, scuffed binding, slightly broken corners, inscriptions on the flyleaf. Rarity.

Russian poet, translator and critic Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont was born on June 15 (June 3, old style) in 1867 in the village of Gumnishchi, Shuysky district, Vladimir province, in a poor noble family. His father was an employee, his mother organized Amateur performances and literary evenings, and performed in the local press.

Konstantin Balmont studied at the Shui gymnasium, from where he was expelled for belonging to an illegal circle, and completed a course at the Vladimir gymnasium.

In 1886, Balmont entered the law faculty of Moscow University, and in 1887 was expelled for participating in student riots. In 1888, he was re-admitted to the University, but soon had to leave it due to a severe nervous breakdown. He studied for several months at the Demidov law school in Yaroslavl.

Poems first published in 1885, his first collection of poems was published in Yaroslavl in 1890. The publication did not arouse interest either in literary circles or among the poet's relatives, so he burned almost the entire circulation of the book.

His next collection "Under the Northern sky" was published in 1894 in Saint Petersburg. Balmont soon became one of the leaders of the symbolist movement (one of the modernist trends in Russian poetry at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries) and became very popular as a symbolist. One after another, his collections of poems "In the vastness" (1895), "Silence" (1898), "Burning buildings" (1900), "let Us be like the sun" (1903), "only love" (1903), "the Liturgy of beauty. Spontaneous hymns" (1905).

During this period, the poet traveled a lot. In 1902, he went abroad and lived mainly in Paris, making trips to England, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. In January 1905, he went (from Moscow) to Mexico and California. His essays on Mexico, along with his free translations of Indian myths and legends, later made up the book "Snake flowers" (1910).

Balmont responded to the events of the first Russian revolution (1905-1907). His revolutionary poetry is represented in the books "Poems" (1906; confiscated by the police) and "Songs of the avenger" (Paris, 1907; banned for distribution in Russia). At the end of December 1905, fearing reprisals from the authorities, Balmont illegally left Russia.

During this period, the national theme also appeared in his poems. Balmont's fascination with Russian and Slavic antiquities was first reflected in the poetry collection "Evil spells" (1906; the book was arrested by the censors because of "blasphemous" poems). The folklore plots and texts processed by the poet made up the collections " Firebird. Svirel Slav" (1907) and " Green vertograd. Words of kisses" (1909). In the collection "Calls of antiquity" (1909), the poet presented the "first creation" of various (non-Slavic) peoples, samples of ritual-magical and priestly poetry.

Since 1906, Balmont lived in Paris, traveling from there to different countries. In the spring of 1907, he visited the Balearic Islands, and in late 1909 and early 1910, Egypt. Balmont's numerous essays on Egypt later made up the book "the Land of Osiris" (1914). In 1912, the poet made an 11-month trip to the southern countries, visiting the Canary Islands, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, Ceylon, and India. This journey was also reflected in his collection of poems "White architect. The mystery of the four lamps" (1914).

Balmont also wrote literary criticism, essays on Russian and Western European poets, travel essays: "Mountain peaks" (1904), " White lightning "(1908);" Sea glow " (1910).

He learned about the beginning of the First world war in the summer of 1914 in the town of Sulak on the Atlantic ocean. In June 1915, Balmont returned to Russia via England, Norway, and Sweden. At the end of 1915, his book "Poetry as magic" was published — a treatise on the essence and purpose of lyric poetry.

At the end of 1915 and in the spring of 1916, he went to give lectures in the Volga, Ural and Siberian cities. In may 1916, he visited Japan. During this period, the sonnet genre became dominant in its lyrics. 255 sonnets written by him during the war years made up the collection "Sonnets of the Sun, Sky and moon" (1917).

Balmont is also known as a translator. His main work in this field is the translation of Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in Saint Petersburg in seven issues from 1893, and in 1903-1905 published in revised and expanded form in three volumes.

Balmont translated the Western European writers Pedro Calderon, Walt Whitman, Edgar PoE, Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, and others. He was the first Russian translator of Shota Rustaveli's poem "the knight in the tiger's skin", a drama by the ancient Indian poet Kalidasa.

In 1920, not accepting the revolution, Balmont emigrated from Russia, lived in Paris or in small villages on the Atlantic ocean.

Abroad, he published collections of poems "Gift to the Earth" (1921), " Haze "(1922), " My ‒ Her. Poems about Russia" (1923), "in the far distance" (1930), "Northern lights" (1923), "Blue horseshoe" (1937). In 1923, he published two books of autobiographical prose - "Under the new sickle" and "Air way".

Balmont translated Czech, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, and Polish poets, and in 1930 published a verse translation of "Words about Igor's regiment".

Since the mid-1930s, the poet has been suffering from a progressive mental illness, aggravated by the difficult living conditions in which he was in the shelter "Russian house" in noisy-Le-Grand near Paris.

On December 23, 1942, Constantin Balmont died in noisy-Le-Grand near Paris, France.