Russkie Skazki - Merry Siskins

[Alexandra Smith]

Dear Lily,

This poem was written together with Marshak. In fact, some people,  
including Sazhin, see this poem as Marshak's invention.
I would prefer to state that Marshak’s most whimsical fantasies —  
“Cheerful Finches” (“Veselye chizhi”, 1930) — that features forty-four  
finches living in a Leningrad flat as a community of friends sharing  
household chores, playing music and whistling before going to sleep —  
was written jointly with Kharms. It was published in 1930 in the first  
issue of “Finch” (“Chizh”). It was dedicated to orphanage number six  
on the Fontanka river in Leningrad.  The thrust of the poem lies in  
the sphere of exuberant rhythmical and sound variations challenging  
the rigidly organised models of the world presented in Soviet  
textbooks. Marshak claimed that the poem inteneded to imitate the  
allegro movement in Beethoven’s seventh symphony.  See V.N. Sazhin’s  
commentary in: Kharms, D. Sobranie sochinenii v 3 tomakh, volume 3:  
Tigr na ulitse, St Petersburg: Azbuka, p.229.
I'm not sure whether one can define it as a fairy tale...

All best,
Sasha Smith

-- 
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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