I saw a juniper bush in a dream. Nikolai Zabolotsky - Juniper bush: Poem by Zabolotsky I saw a juniper bush in a dream

I saw a juniper bush in a dream,
I heard a metallic crunch in the distance,
I heard the ringing of amethyst berries,
And in my sleep, in silence, I liked him.

In my sleep I smelled a slight smell of resin.
Bend back these low trunks,
I noticed in the darkness of the tree branches
A slightly living likeness of your smile.

Juniper bush, juniper bush,
The cooling babble of changing lips,
A light babble, barely reminiscent of resin,
Pierced me with a deadly needle!

The clouds float by one after another,
My garden, which has flown around, is lifeless and empty...
May God forgive you, juniper bush!

Analysis of the poem “The Juniper Bush” by Zabolotsky

The poem “Juniper Bush” was written by Zabolotsky in 1957 based on personal experiences. The reason for creating this poetic work It was a family drama: the poet’s wife left for someone else. Zabolotsky had a hard time being apart. However, the break was not final, and Ekaterina Vasilievna returned to the family after some time.

The main compositional points are clearly visible in the structure of the work.

The poem opens with audio images: “metal crunch”, “berries... ringing”. This is the plot of the work. At first, these sounds are pleasant to the lyrical hero. However, the next movement of the hero, when he tries to touch the bush, destroys the entire idyllic picture. In the branches of the juniper one sees a “slightly living semblance of a smile” of the beloved woman. Here, in the second stanza, we observe the development of the action.

And then, in the ringing of juniper berries, the poet imagines “light babbling” - these are the words that his beloved once spoke to him. However, these speeches only remind of suffering and pain, because... are associated with betrayal, as evidenced by the phrase “the cooling babble of changeable lips.” All the words of the beloved disappear, dissipate, there is nothing permanent in them. And this variability and with it betrayal painfully wound the poet’s heart: “Who pierced me with a deadly needle.” This is the highest point of tension, the culmination of the work.

Thus, we observe a metaphor: in the image of prickly juniper needles, the words of a woman who once wounded the poet appear. Moreover, this image is exaggerated: the injection turned out to be deadly, it killed the feeling of love and joy. This is confirmed by the last stanza, which talks about the garden, which is “lifeless and empty.” This is how the author metaphorically indicated the state of his soul. Now any reminder of the beloved, even if it is just “the semblance of a smile,” only brings suffering.

This state of emptiness emerges especially clearly through the use of the antithesis technique. The mental state of the lyrical hero is contrasted by a morning landscape sketch filled with light colors:

In the golden skies outside my window
The clouds float by one after another.

This is the moment of awakening, the denouement of the work. The lyrical hero saw a juniper bush, giving rise to transitions of mental state, in a dream, as stated in the very first line of the poem.

The symbolic content of the work includes, firstly, the juniper bush itself, which is a sign of eternity. However, in the context of this work, this symbolism takes on a perverted character, because the love feeling with which juniper is associated turned out to be not eternal.

Also interesting is the symbolism of the berries of the juniper bush, which the poet calls the epithet “amethyst.”

Amethyst is translated from Greek as “non-intoxicating.” It was believed that the owner of this stone could not be intoxicated. And again we see a distortion of symbolism: the lyrical hero was once seduced by the ringing of juniper berries (in the subtext we read - the babble of “changeable lips”).

Thus, the entire range of experiences of the lyrical hero unfolds only through one image of a juniper bush.

“Juniper bush” Nikolay Zabolotsky

I saw a juniper bush in a dream,
I heard a metallic crunch in the distance,
I heard the ringing of amethyst berries,
And in my sleep, in silence, I liked him.

In my sleep I smelled a slight smell of resin.
Bend back these low trunks,
I noticed in the darkness of the tree branches
A slightly living likeness of your smile.

Juniper bush, juniper bush,
The cooling babble of changing lips,
A light babble, barely reminiscent of resin,
Pierced me with a deadly needle!

In the golden skies outside my window
The clouds float by one after another,
My garden, which has flown around, is lifeless and empty...
May God forgive you, juniper bush!

Analysis of Zabolotsky’s poem “The Juniper Bush”

Almost every person has his own symbol of love - an object, natural phenomenon, plant or image that is inextricably associated with the closest and dear person. For the poet Nikolai Zabolotsky, such a symbol was the juniper bush, in which all the brightest hopes and dreams of the author were embodied. This poem was written in 1957, when the author experienced his second youth. The thing is that there was a rather difficult period in Zabolotsky’s life when his wife left him, giving preference to another man. However, the family was soon reunited, and Zabolotsky, perhaps almost for the first time in his life, turned to love lyrics. It was during this period that he created the cycle of poems “Last Love,” which included the work “The Juniper Bush.”

Simple and unpretentious in composition, but at the same time very difficult to perceive, this poem seems to expose the poet’s soul. Zabolotsky admits that now his life resembles an amazing dream that gives him a premonition of happiness. Its symbol is a juniper bush decorated with amethyst berries. The poet liked their ringing so much that it became synonymous with the joy of being.

Perhaps there really was an episode in Zabolotsky’s life that was etched in his memory thanks to a walk with his beloved woman through a juniper grove. However, it is possible that such a bizarre combination of images is just a figment of the poet’s imagination. One way or another, the key phrase of this work is the lines: “I noticed in the darkness of the tree branches a slightly living likeness of your smile.”

However, not everything was so easy and cloudless in the poet’s personal life. Having found his wife again, Zabolotsky is afraid to believe his own happiness. For him, the juniper bush is not only a symbol of love, but also “the cooling babble of changeable lips”, in every word of which the author subconsciously tries to find some kind of catch. At the same time, the poet himself still cannot fully understand own feelings, and it seems to him that the past is gone forever. It is for this reason that, turning to his beloved woman, he asks her for forgiveness in a veiled form, although he understands that he is not to blame for what happened. Nevertheless, in the finale the phrase sounds: “My garden that has flown around is lifeless and empty... May God forgive you, juniper bush!” In it he talks about his heartache, and that it will not be so easy to resurrect love, although at first glance there is no obstacle to two people being together again.

It seems that Hydepark is a place where people mainly display their social and sexual concerns. I am also a sinner. I wrote a lot of political and ideological stuff here. 17 of my posts from Hydepark made it to the top of Yandex. And most of them are not about poetry. And about politics. However, this is apparently the specificity of the top. They don't include poetry in it. And they talk about politics.

But I still really want that from time to time we encounter something beautiful, soulful, spiritual, subtle, pure, light, piercing, intelligent, high.

I will try to organize these meetings. I won’t come up with any special texts for them. I’ll just show something wonderful from poetry and music, maybe from other arts. Something completely unfamiliar or once known but forgotten.

Today it will be a poem by the great Russian poet Nikolai Zabolotsky “The Juniper Bush”. This is one of the best poems not only in Zabolotsky’s work, but in all Russian poetry. When the Lord allows a poet to write such a poem, He at the same time gives a sign: you have not lived your life in vain.

And here is an amazing song that the talented Russian bard Alexander Sukhanov made from this poem. He wrote the music himself and sang it himself.

I don't pretend to have any special comments. But if someone is hooked by a poem or a song or all of them, tell me. Let's chat.

Juniper bush

I saw a juniper bush in a dream.

I heard a metallic crunch in the distance.

I heard the ringing of amethyst berries.

And in my sleep, in silence, I liked him.

In my sleep I smelled a slight smell of resin.

Bend back these low trunks,

I noticed in the darkness of the tree branches

A slightly living likeness of your smile.

Juniper bush, juniper bush,

The cooling babble of changing lips,

A light babble, barely reminiscent of resin,

Pierced me with a deadly needle!

In the golden skies outside my window

The clouds float by one after another.

My garden, which has flown around, is lifeless and empty...

May God forgive you, juniper bush!

1957

It seems that Hydepark is a place where people mainly display their social and sexual concerns. I am also a sinner. I wrote a lot of political and ideological stuff here. 17 of my posts from Hydepark made it to the top of Yandex. And most of them are not about poetry. And about politics. However, this is apparently the specificity of the top. They don't include poetry in it. And they talk about politics.

But I still really want that from time to time we encounter something beautiful, soulful, spiritual, subtle, pure, light, piercing, intelligent, high.

I will try to organize these meetings. I won’t come up with any special texts for them. I’ll just show something wonderful from poetry and music, maybe from other arts. Something completely unfamiliar or once known but forgotten.

Today it will be a poem by the great Russian poet Nikolai Zabolotsky “The Juniper Bush”. This is one of the best poems not only in Zabolotsky’s work, but in all Russian poetry. When the Lord allows a poet to write such a poem, He at the same time gives a sign: you have not lived your life in vain.

And here is an amazing song that the talented Russian bard Alexander Sukhanov made from this poem. He wrote the music himself and sang it himself.

I don't pretend to have any special comments. But if someone is hooked by a poem or a song or all of them, tell me. Let's chat.

Juniper bush

I saw a juniper bush in a dream.

I heard a metallic crunch in the distance.

I heard the ringing of amethyst berries.

And in my sleep, in silence, I liked him.

In my sleep I smelled a slight smell of resin.

Bend back these low trunks,

I noticed in the darkness of the tree branches

A slightly living likeness of your smile.

Juniper bush, juniper bush,

The cooling babble of changing lips,

A light babble, barely reminiscent of resin,

Pierced me with a deadly needle!

In the golden skies outside my window

The clouds float by one after another.

My garden, which has flown around, is lifeless and empty...

May God forgive you, juniper bush!

1957