AND or in an apartment
Forty four,
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Chizh - dishwasher,
Chizh is a scrubber,
Chizh is a gardener,
Chizh is a water carrier,
Chizh for the cook,
Chizh for the hostess,
Chizh on parcels,
Chizh is a chimney sweep.
The stove was heated,
The porridge was cooked
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Siskin with a ladle,
Siskin with a stalk,
Siskin with a rocker,
Siskin with a sieve.
Siskin covers
Chizh convenes,
Siskin spills,
Chizh distributes.
Having finished work,
We went hunting
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Siskin on a bear
Chizh on the fox,
Siskin on the grouse,
Siskin on a hedgehog
Siskin for turkey,
Siskin to the cuckoo
Siskin on a frog,
Siskin for snake.
After the hunt
Picked up the notes
Forty four
Happy siskin.
They played together:
Chizh - on the piano,
Siskin - on the dulcimer,
Chizh - on the pipe,
Chizh - on the trombone,
Chizh - on the accordion,
Siskin - on a comb,
Siskin - on the lip.
We went to see our aunt
To Aunt Tap Dance
Forty four
Happy siskin.
Chizh on the tram,
Chizh by car,
Siskin on a cart,
Siskin on a cart,
Siskin in a bowl,
Siskin on the heels,
Siskin on the shaft,
Siskin on the arc.
Wanted to sleep
Making beds
Forty four
Tired siskin:
Chizh is on the bed,
Chizh is on the sofa,
Chizh is on the bench,
Chizh is on the table,
Siskin - on the box,
Chizh - on a reel,
Chizh - on a piece of paper,
Chizh is on the floor.
Lying in bed
They whistled together
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Chizh - triti-liti,
Chizh - Tirli-Tirli,
Chizh - dili-dili,
Chizh - ti ti-ti,
Siskin - tiki-riki,
Chizh - riki-tiki,
Chizh - tyuti-lyuti,
Chizh - bye-bye-bye!
- END -
And now the same thing, but with illustrations by May Miturich:
The information about how they were composed is also interesting.
Artist Boris Semyonov, according to Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak, recalls:
“Once, in the carriage of a country train (we then lived next door in Kavgolovo), Marshak told me how he and Daniil Ivanovich wrote “Merry Siskins.”
The poem was based on the allegretto from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Kharms loved to repeat this tune - that’s how the first lines appeared: “Forty-four Forty-four cheerful siskins lived in an apartment...” Then it was told how the siskins worked together, did housework, played music - and so on.
A lot of couplets were written with a comic, cheerful and melodious content (what a pity that they were all sent to the trash!). In the end, the co-authors began to put their feathered friends to bed and placed them where: “Chizh - on the bed, siskin - on the sofa, siskin - on the basket, siskin - on the bench...”.
That's all: the job is done, the siskins are sleeping peacefully. Finally, you can straighten your tired backs. It’s deep night outside, there are crumpled drafts on the table and under the table, empty cigarette boxes...
But then Kharms, already out into the front of Marshak’s sleeping apartment, suddenly sang softly, raising his finger above his head:
— Lying in bed, Forty-four cheerful siskins whistled together...
Well, what could Marshak object to?! Of course, such an unexpected turn seemed very lively and funny to him. In fact, the restless siskins couldn’t fall asleep without whistling to their heart’s content... I had to go back to the table and write the funny ending..."
(Boris Semyonov. A true and joyful eccentric. In the magazine: “Aurora”, 1977, No. 4, p. 70).
If you don’t know that “Chizhi” was written to the tune of an allegretto from Beethoven’s symphony No. 7, then you’ll probably read them at a brisk pace, cheerfully and abruptly, but after you’ve sung along to Beethoven at least once, it’s difficult to switch to a more frivolous wave. Orderly and harmonious joint life of forty four siskins grows in scale, which is why the mischievous humor becomes sharper, and natural travesty emerges. For me, this poem-song caused an unexpected association with the novel “We” by Zamyatin due to the parody-heroic spirit of the description of the life of the sissy numbers calculated according to the Tablet of Hours.
“All of us (and maybe you) as children, at school, read this greatest of the monuments that have reached us ancient literature- "Schedule railways"But even put it next to the Tablet - and you will see graphite and diamond side by side: both contain the same thing - C, carbon - but how eternal, transparent, how diamond shines. Who doesn’t take your breath away when you roar rush through the pages of the “Schedule.” But the Tablet of Hours turns each of us into a steel six-wheeled hero in reality. great poem. Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour and at the same minute, we, millions, rise as one. At the same hour, one million people begin work and one million people finish. And, merging into a single, million-armed body, in the same second, designated by the Tablet, we bring the spoons to our mouths and at the same second we go for a walk and go to the auditorium, to the hall of Taylor Exercises, and go to bed.. "E. Zamyatin. We
The Chizhi, one might say, have achieved the ideal of the United State, having completely entered the day into their Table of Hours - they have no personal hours left at all. “We” was published in Russian for the first time in 1927, although abroad, and, I think, was known to Marshak and Kharms in 1930, when “Chizhi” was written.
Lived in an apartment
Forty four,
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Chizh - dishwasher,
Siskin - scrubber,
Chizh is a gardener,
Chizh - water carrier,
Chizh for the cook,
Chizh for the hostess,
Chizh on parcels,
Chizh is a chimney sweep.
The stove was heated,
The porridge was cooked
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Siskin with a ladle,
Siskin with a stalk,
Siskin with a rocker,
Siskin with a sieve.
Siskin covers
Chizh convenes,
Siskin spills,
Chizh distributes.
Having finished work,
We went hunting
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Siskin - for a bear:
Siskin - like a fox,
Chizh - to the grouse,
Siskin - like a hedgehog,
Siskin - like a turkey,
Siskin - to the cuckoo,
Siskin - on a frog,
Chizh - like a snake.
After the hunt
Picked up the notes
Forty four
Happy siskin.
They played together:
Chizh - on the piano,
Siskin - on the dulcimer,
Chizh - on the pipe,
Chizh - on trombone,
Chizh - on the accordion,
Siskin - on a comb,
Siskin - on the lip.
We went to see our aunt
To Aunt Tap Dance
Forty four
Happy siskin.
Chizh on the tram,
Chizh by car,
Siskin on a cart,
Siskin on a cart,
Siskin in a bowl,
Siskin on the heels,
Siskin on the shaft,
Siskin on the arc.
Wanted to sleep
Making beds
Forty four
Tired siskin:
Chizh - on the bed,
Chizh is on the sofa,
Chizh is on the bench,
Chizh is on the table,
Siskin - on the box,
Chizh - on a reel,
Chizh - on a piece of paper,
Chizh is on the floor.
Lying in bed
They whistled together
Forty four
Merry siskin:
Chizh - triti-liti,
Siskin - tirli-tirli,
Chizh - dili-dili,
Chizh - ti ti ti,
Chizh - tiki-riki,
Chizh - ricky-tiki,
Chizh - tyuti-lyuti,
Chizh - bye-bye-bye!
The first issue of the magazine of the same name "for children" was opened with a poem about siskins younger age"It seems that the only evidence of the history of writing "Chizhi" remains the story of the artist Boris Semyonov from the words of Marshak:
“Once in the carriage of a country train (we lived next door in Kavgolovo at the time), Marshak told me how he and Daniil Ivanovich wrote “Jolly Siskins.” The poem was created based on the allegretto from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Kharms loved to repeat this tune - like this and the first lines appeared: “Forty-four Forty-four cheerful siskins lived in an apartment...” Then it was told how the siskins worked together, did housework, played music - and so on.A lot of couplets were written with a comic, cheerful and melodious content (what a pity that they were all sent to the trash!). In the end, the co-authors began to put their feathered friends to bed and placed them where: “Chizh - on the bed, siskin - on the sofa, siskin - on the basket, siskin - on the bench...”.
That's all: the job is done, the siskins are sleeping peacefully. Finally, you can straighten your tired backs. It’s deep night outside, there are crumpled drafts on the table and under the table, empty cigarette boxes...
But then Kharms, already out into the front of Marshak’s sleeping apartment, suddenly sang softly, raising his finger above his head:
- Lying in bed, Forty-four cheerful siskins whistled together...Well, what could Marshak object to?! Of course, such an unexpected turn seemed very lively and funny to him. In fact, the restless siskins couldn’t fall asleep without whistling to their heart’s content... I had to go back to the table and write the funny ending..."
Boris Semenov. A true and joyful eccentric. // "Aurora", 1977, No. 4, p. 70.
There is something very poignant in this story, especially when you know the circumstances of Kharms’ work in children’s literature and how he ended his life.
When publishing “Chizhi”, their dedication to the 6th Leningrad Orphanage (located on Fontanka Embankment, 36) was indicated. As culturologist I.V. Kondakov writes, “this gives modern researchers grounds to consider it as an allusion to the St. Petersburg song “Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?” “44 siskins” are the pets of the orphanage - chicks of the revolution, foundlings, children without a past, without names, without surnames, adopted by the Soviet government, hatched from a common nest. Here they are - “new people”, born of a revolutionary “today” for the sake of a communist “tomorrow”. Shared house, common interests, common activities, a close-knit team, unbridled fun, inspired work, life in flight... "Homunculi of the new world!"
True, the author of the article cannot believe that the presented image of Soviet collectivism is so optimistically harmless. He finds reason for doubt in the stanza about hunting siskins (this stanza was excluded in later publications):
“What kind of hunting is there! This is just some kind of roundup of all imaginable animals, birds and reptiles: both large and small predators (bear, fox), and game (grouse), and poultry (turkey), and completely innocent representatives of the fauna, which no one has ever hunted (hedgehog, cuckoo, frog, really...) This is a class struggle with everyone who is not a “siskin”, who is not one of the “44” adherents of equality. , who is not in the same pack with homeless activists... We can say that this poem is not only about the orphanage, but also about RAPP (the organization founded by M. Bulgakov under the name Massolita was at that time stronger than ever, and easy to reprisal). By the way, it is not for nothing that among the creatures that siskins hunt is a hedgehog ("Hedgehog" and "Siskin" are two Leningrad children's magazines in which Kharms was mainly published. Further, we can conclude that this is also a poem about). collectivization. After all, the year just past 1929 was the year of the Great Turning Point!”
These verses of the two poets opened the first issue of the new magazine “for young children”, which began to be published in Leningrad, “Chizh”. The poems were associated with the name of the magazine and seemed to set the tone for its content.
The artist Boris Semyonov recalled how they were composed from the words of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak.
“Once in the carriage of a country train (we lived next door in Kavgolovo at the time), Marshak told me how he and Daniil Ivanovich wrote “Jolly Siskins.” The poem was created based on the allegretto from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Kharms loved to repeat this tune - like this and the first lines appeared: “Forty-four Forty-four cheerful siskins lived in an apartment...” Then it was told how the siskins worked together, did housework, played music - and so on.
A lot of couplets were written with a comic, cheerful and melodious content (what a pity that they were all sent to the trash!). In the end, the co-authors began to put their feathered friends to bed and placed them where: “Chizh - on the bed, siskin - on the sofa, siskin - on the basket, siskin - on the bench...”.
That's all: the job is done, the siskins are sleeping peacefully. Finally, you can straighten your tired backs. It’s deep night outside, there are crumpled drafts on the table and under the table, empty cigarette boxes...
But then Kharms, already out into the front of Marshak’s sleeping apartment, suddenly sang softly, raising his finger above his head:
Lying in bed, Forty-four cheerful siskins whistled together...
Well, what could Marshak object to?! Of course, such an unexpected turn seemed very lively and funny to him. In fact, the restless siskins could not fall asleep without whistling to their heart's content... I had to return to the table and write a funny ending..." (Boris Semyonov. A true and joyful eccentric. In the magazine: "Aurora", 1977, No. 4 , p. 70).
V. Glotser "About writers and artists, about their poems, stories, fairy tales, stories and drawings."
"We lived in an apartmentForty four,
Forty four
Happy siskin..."
People! I'm hopeless :(
I bought a book: thin, grimy, wrinkled, on disgusting paper, which almost turned into a “rag” and I am in seventh heaven.
There I also read information about how they were composed.
Here are the artist's memories Boris Semenov from the words of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak.
“Once, in the carriage of a country train (we then lived next door in Kavgolovo), Marshak told me how he and Daniil Ivanovich wrote “Merry Siskins.”
The poem was based on the allegretto from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Kharms loved to repeat this tune - that’s how the first lines appeared: “Forty-four Forty-four cheerful siskins lived in an apartment...” Then it was told how the siskins worked together, did housework, played music - and so on.
A lot of couplets were written with a comic, cheerful and melodious content (what a pity that they were all sent to the trash!). In the end, the co-authors began to put their feathered friends to bed and placed them where: “Chizh - on the bed, siskin - on the sofa, siskin - on the basket, siskin - on the bench...”.
That's all: the job is done, the siskins are sleeping peacefully. Finally, you can straighten your tired backs. It’s deep night outside, there are crumpled drafts on the table and under the table, empty cigarette boxes...
But then Kharms, already out into the front of Marshak’s sleeping apartment, suddenly sang softly, raising his finger above his head:
Lying in bed, Forty-four cheerful siskins whistled together...
Well, what could Marshak object to?! Of course, such an unexpected turn seemed very lively and funny to him. In fact, the restless siskins couldn’t fall asleep without whistling to their heart’s content... I had to go back to the table and write the funny ending..."
(Boris Semyonov. A true and joyful eccentric. In the magazine: "Aurora", 1977, No. 4, p. 70).<…>
Not only have I loved this poem since childhood, but it was also illustrated by one of my most adored artists - Georgy Karlov
Praise be to the publishers for the fact that “the ice has broken” and they noticed that it was time to start publishing his drawings again.
In depicting animal facial expressions, perhaps, Karlov has no equal (as well as Migunov’s “human” facial expressions)
"FUNNY SISKS"
("Publication of the art workshop of the Central House of Artists", 1948, artist G. Karlov)
In Forty-four cheerful siskins
Comrade K dug up somewhere and quoted to me a poem that I had never heard before. Marshak and Kharms, "Merry Siskins". As it turned out later, there are several versions of this poem with varying degrees of abridgement and adaptation, but general meaning is saved.
And these little siskins really blew my mind with their irrational reality. Everything in the poem seemed illogical to me and raised many questions.
Well, how could forty-four of them live in one apartment! - I was indignant. - What are they, migrant workers?
Judging by the set of professions listed, most siskins actually occupied low-paid positions: siskin dishwasher, siskin scrubber, siskin parcel worker, siskin chimney sweep. But among them there was a siskin “for the mistress,” which confused me. For the owner of the apartment? Or did it mean that this is a siskin-housewife in the sense of “a woman on the farm”? The structure of the siskin society remained unclear. For example, are these positions on duty, or, being a dishwasher, are you doomed to wash dishes for forty-three of your feathered brothers for the rest of your life?
Again, from general series The siskin gardener was really struggling: what kind of gardening is he doing in the apartment? Or does he have a separate garden somewhere? Why then does he live in a city apartment with forty-three other siskins? (oh, an introvert's nightmare!)?
Next, the siskins prepared dinner, and then “took up the notes,” which also raised questions. Firstly, the set of instruments set my teeth on edge as a musician. A combination of piano, cymbal and accordion. Okay, let's assume they are avant-garde artists. But tell me, how can a siskin play on its lip? Where does the siskin's lip come from?
“And he played on someone else’s lip,” Comrade K answered calmly.
- On whose?!
- Another siskin.
Comrade K. was definitely in the paradigm of Marshak and Kharms logic.
Then the siskins went to visit their aunt, and everyone chose different types transport, which for me was obvious evidence of their social disunity.
If they have an aunt, then they are relatives,” I reasoned. - It’s logical to go to your aunt all together? But why didn't they all take the tram? Why is one on a tram, another on a car, and the third on a shaft?
Well, let’s say a marginal siskin like me was riding on the shaft, but why was the siskin in the car traveling alone when he could have given at least three more a lift? It drove me crazy and raised a lot of new questions. Did he hate other siskins? Maybe they played on his lip and he was offended? And it’s still not clear which of these siskins could afford a car - a scrubber, a dishwasher? Or was it a siskin not listed in the previous list - a major siskin living among poor relatives?
Night came, and I still couldn’t calm down. The siskins also went to bed and distributed sleeping places. Someone got a bed, someone a sofa, someone a bench. But most of all I was outraged that outsiders got places on the reel, on the paper and on the floor.
Sleeping on the floor was, at least, honest lumpenism.
But the siskin sleeping on the piece of paper touched my heart endlessly: it was a siskin that had not yet fully descended, which had not yet crossed the last threshold. Obviously, the piece of paper does not protect either from the cold or from drafts, it was simply a gesture of a desperate heart fighting to maintain dignity while other siskins occupied the bed and sofa.
I was especially perplexed by the coil as a sleeping accessory.
- How can you sleep on a coil?
“Well, there are different coils,” replied Comrade K. - For example, a cable reel.
The cable coil as a whole did not raise any questions, I agreed that you could sleep on it. In addition, I remembered how I myself once slept on the lid of a piano on the stage of the Bryansk Philharmonic.
The siskin sleeping on the bed caused me boundless indignation. Why, why does one sleep on a bed and the other gets to sleep on a roll?
“Actually, it’s quite comfortable to sleep on a coil,” said Comrade. K. - Siskins sleep sitting up.
- Then why the hell was it necessary to take up an entire bed with one little chizh?! Yes, they could all sit there and sleep!
- It was a small, little bed. They wouldn't all fit.
- Then we could buy a set of coils instead of a bed!
While studying the issue, Comrade K read an article about the history of writing the poem, and it turned out that Kharms and Marshak wrote about street children (much became clearer), and then I read that when writing Kharms, he was inspired by Beethoven’s seventh symphony, on which the text of the poem fit perfectly.
It was impossible to stop here, and we listened to the corresponding fragment of the seventh symphony, which turned out to be completely in the spirit of Beethoven, that is, heartbreaking. As a result, for the last few days I can’t stop singing about forty-four. Listen too, and you will understand me.
Pure postmodern imagine how Kharms sings this with a serious and tragic face. Sooooo four,ooooooooooooooooooooooooofofof times are of fun-loving siskins.