Mandelstam’s camp poem: an attempt at reconstruction
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2026-1-6
- Pages
- 88-97
Abstract
The article examines Osip Mandelstam’s last poem, recorded from the poet’s voice in a transit camp. Two main tasks are pursued: the verification of authorship and the reconstruction of the original text. The poem is analysed against the background of the Russian poetic tradition and within the context of Mandelstam’s late work. It is argued that the extant record is not a fragment of a lost text, but a complete poem—a one-line epigram. Rhythmic and phonetic analysis brings this poem close to the experiments in ancient versification found in “Stone”. The collision of stressed syllables places these verses beyond the limits of dol’nik and taktovik. Since the number of syllables is equal in each line, it is suggested to use the term syllabometric, employed by Mikhail L. Gasparov to designate the earliest stage of ancient Greek versification. For Mandelstam, ancient metrics serves as an instrument for the conservation of time; and since time itself is conceived as a prison, the camp epigram overcomes time by enclosing it within the frame of verse. The prison motif appears in his poetry before it becomes a biographical reality. The epigram continues the poetics of the Voronezh period and thus brings evidence for its authenticity. It is not necessary for the camp poem to be composed in the camp: orality is inscribed in the text itself. Considered within its full context, Mandelstam’s last poem allows us to relate his poetics to the modernist project of synchronisation of history.