Gorbunov and Gorchakov
| Author | Joseph Brodsky |
|---|---|
| Original title | Gorbunov i Gorchakov |
| Translator | Carl Ray Proffer and Assya Kumesky (one translation), Harry Thomas (another translation), Alan Myers (one more translation) |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | poem |
|
Publication date
|
1970 |
| Media type |
Gorbunov and Gorchakov (Russian: Горбунóв и Горчакóв) is a poem by Russian and English poet, essayist, dramatist Joseph Brodsky.
Contents
Composition
Gorbunov and Gorchakov is a forty-page long poem.[1]:212
Table of Contents
In the poem, fourteen cantos are named in a such way that the table of contents looks as a sonnet-like poem:[2]:95
- Gorbunov and Gorchakov
- Gorbunov and Gorchakov
- Gorbunov in the Night
- Gorchakov and the Doctors
- A Song in the Third Person
- Gorbunov and Gorchakov
- Gorbunov and Gorchakov
- Gorchakov in the Night
- Gorbunov and the Doctors
- A Conversation on the Porch
- Gorbunov and Gorchakov
- Gorbunov and Gorchakov
- Conversations about the Sea
- Conversation in a Conversation
History
At the very end of 1963, Brodsky was committed for observation to the Kashchenko psychiatric clinic in Moscow where he stayed for several days.[2]:91 A few weeks later, his second hospitalization took place: on 13 February he was arrested in Leningrad and on 18 February the Dzerzhinsky District Court sent him for psychiatric examination to ‘Pryazhka,’ Psychiatric Hospital No. 2 where he spent about three weeks, from 18 February to 13 March.[2]:91 These two stints in psychiatric establishments formed the experience underlying Gorbunov and Gorchakov called by Brodsky ‘an extremely serious work.’.[2]:90 The poem was written between 1965 and 1968 and published in 1970.[3]:25
Plot
Gorbunov and Gorchakov are patients in a mental asylum near Leningrad.[4]:26 The poem consists of lengthy conversations between these two patients in the Soviet psychiatric prison as well as between each of them separately and the interrogating psychiatrists.[1]:212 The topics vary from the taste of the cabbage served for supper to the meaning of life and Russia’ destiny.[1]:212
In Sanna Turoma’s words, the psychiatric hospital of Gorbunov and Gorchakov as a metaphor of the Soviet State is one example of Brodsky’s perception of the Kafkaesque absurdity of Soviet surreality.[5]:105 Gorbunov and Gorchakov mirrors the balance that Brodsky struck when he was compelled to weigh the benefits and dangers of psychiatric diagnosis in his dealings with the Soviet state.[6]
Translations
There are several English translations of the poem including one by Carl Ray Proffer with Assya Kumesky,[7] one by Harry Thomas[1]:212 and one by Alan Myers.
References
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External links
- Иосиф Бродский. «Горбунов и Горчаков»
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