The image above is a photo of a red maple tree covered by snow.
"Клён ты мой опавший" (Oh My Dear Maple) was written by Sergey Yesenin (Сергей Есенин) in 1925. Below is the original Russian text, followed by an English translation, and a song adaptation of the poem.
Клён ты мой опавший, клён заледенелый, Что стоишь нагнувшись под метелью белой?
Или что увидел? Или что услышал? Словно за деревню погулять ты вышел.
И, как пьяный сторож, выйдя на дорогу, Утонул в сугробе, приморозил ногу.
Ах, и сам я нынче чтой-то стал нестойкий, Не дойду до дома с дружеской попойки.
Там вон встретил вербу, там сосну приметил, Распевал им песни под метель о лете.
Сам себе казался я таким же клёном, Только не опавшим, а вовсю зелёным.
И, утратив скромность, одуревши в доску, Как жену чужую, обнимал берёзку.
Oh my dear red maple, maple that iced over, Why'd you stand bent down under white snow cover?
Either you've seen something, or you've heard a wind talk. As if from the village you went for a sleepwalk.
Like a drunken watchman, stepping on the roadway, You drowned in a snowdrift, froze you foot on cold day.
Ah, and I myself now have become unstable, Can't make my way back home from a friendly bender.
There I met a willow, there a pine I noticed, Songs about summer I sang during snowstorm.
I appeared to myself just like this red maple, Only not isolated one, but as green as apple.
Having lost my coyness, having grown so stupid, As a someone's else wife I hugged birch like Cupid.
Sergey Yesenin (Сергей Есенин) became a prominent voice in Russian Literature during the revolutionary period in Russia, most notable for the Bolshevik revolution. This time period, 1890 - 1930 is referred to as the Silver Age of Russian Literature. Sergey Yesenin was born into a peasant family on October 3rd, 1895. He began his life in a small village named Konstantinovo (Константиново). At an early age, he was sent to live with his grandparents, who were in a better financial situation than his parents. His grandparents played a large role in his upbringing. His grandmother was a religious woman and encouraged him to read poetry. Yesenin began writing poetry at the age of nine, and at the age of 15, he began to write structured poetry with the intent to have the poetry published. In 1912, Yesenin graduated with a teacher's certification and moved to Moscow.
To earn a living in Moscow, he took up work as a proofreader for a printing company. He proceeded to enroll in Chanyavsky University to further his education but eventually had to drop out as he could no longer afford tuition. At this time he married his first of four wives and became more interested in Christianity. He had also entered Moscow's revolutionary circles, and was placed under "secret police surveillance."
At the age of 19, he began his career as a professional poet with the publication of his first poem, "Beryoza." Not long after his first publication, Yesenin quit his job to pursue his career as a poet. His poetry did not gain traction until he moved to St. Petersburg, but within a year, he was known as one of St. Petersburg's rising stars within literary circles. In St. Petersburg, Yesenin met with prominent Silver Age poets: Alexander Blok, Anna Akhmatova, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Yesenin was initially a supporter of the Bolsheviks and their revolution, but he became disillusioned by the Bolsheviks. He was also a founder of the Russian literary movement of imagines. By the 1920s, Yesenin had built a reputation for engaging in public quarrels and drunken rages. He was overcome with depression as he felt he had failed in his role as the people's poet. He also developed an unhealthy habit of abusing alcohol and drugs. Then at the age of 30, he hung himself in a hotel room and wrote a farewell poem with his own blood.
"Клён ты мой опавший" (Oh My Dear Maple) was written in 1925. Sergey Yesenin wrote this poem in the last year of his life when he was consumed by alcohol and drugs and was in a deep state of depression. The poem itself includes 7 stanzas. In the first stanza, he creates an image of an isolated red maple tree that is bent over and covered with snow. The red maple tree that he is referring to in the poem may be the isolated village he grew up in. Then in the second stanza, he states that "as if from the village you went for a sleepwalk." At the time of writing, Yesenin was in the city of St. Petersburg, and the tree may be reminding him of the village he grew up in. In the third stanza, Yesenin begins a conversation with the tree, professing that he is "drunken." In the following stanza, he explains to the tree that he is "unstable," and "can't make my way back home from a friendly bender." He is telling the tree that he is afraid to go home as a result of the state he is in. In the fifth stanza, he tells the tree he met other trees; "I met a willow, there a pine." In other words, he ventured to different villages and cities which indicates he was well-traveled but has not forgotten about his home in the village. Then in the sixth stanza, Yesenin refers to himself as a "green" maple. This shows his longing to come back to his former, youthful self, but cannot as his younger, naïve and innocent self is long gone. He then concludes the poem by calling himself stupid and stating that he "hugged birch" instead of red maple. He feels ashamed that he cannot go home.
The poem itself is dominated by a theme of nostalgia. Yesenin is trying to return to an earlier time in his life. He is trying to rediscover an innocence that he once had. Unfortunately, he realizes that he can not regain his innocence or turn back time. He then struggles to deal with this realization. In the modern world, life is dominated by the pressures of technology, and people long for the days when life was simpler. Many can resonate with this poem as they try to remember such a time. Today, people are constantly bombarded by notifications, real-time communication, and work around the clock. Although technology has undoubtedly improved our lives, we did not foresee its negative consequences. Just like Yesenin, we can sing songs of summer in our winter, but cannot go back. We seek comfort just like Yesenin did in hugging the birch tree. However, it is in our human nature to romanticize the past and see the other side with greener grass as Yesenin saw himself appear not as a red maple but as green as an apple. We will never reconcile our natural dissonance, but we can only hope to focus on the current pleasure of life and keep moving forward through our winter’s snow.
References:
S.A. Yesenin. Life and Work ChronologyArchived 18 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Хронологическая канва жизни и творчества Сергея Александровича Есенина (1895–1925) // Есенин С. А. Полное собрание сочинений: В 7 т. – Moscow. Nauka, 1995–2002.
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