Nikolaj Kljuev (1884-1937) est l’une des figures les plus fascinantes de l’« Âge d’argent » russe et du modernisme. Longtemps interdite après son exécution, son œuvre n’a été redécouverte qu’à la faveur du « boom » éditorial de la perestroïka, la publication de poèmes épiques tardifs suscitant un vif intérêt pour son œuvre témoignage de la violence de la collectivisation. Né dans le Nord russe, engagé pour la cause paysanne, correspondant d’Alexandre Blok entre 1907 et 1915, idéologue du néo-populisme dans les années 1910, bolchevik en 1919, Kljuev est devenu, dans les années 1920, une référence pour la génération des jeunes poètes soviétiques (Harms, Vvedenskij, etc.), un conservateur de la culture russe ancienne et un modèle d’anti-comportement, dans le contexte d’un champ littéraire en pleine reconfiguration. Attirant un public très divers, modulant sa personnalité littéraire et sa voix en fonction de son auditoire, Kljuev s’épanouit sur scène comme dans le cadre privé du cercle et du couple. Alors qu’il a trouvé, au cours des années 1910, un matériau esthétique de choix dans le folklore russe, la vieille foi et les chants populaires, c’est le « je » qui demeure au centre de son univers poétique, sous la forme d’un héros lyrique évoluant au sein des cycles. Ceux des années 1917-1932 occupent une place cruciale dans sa trajectoire poétique, dans la mesure où c’est en leur sein que s’élabore le « cosmos de l’Isba », au cœur de l’univers poétique kljuevien. Éminemment charnel et homoérotique, le «je» est aussi désincarné dans un Verbe qui devient le vecteur de l’intentionnalité du texte poétique, au même titre que les masques du poète se font le véhicule de son identité narrative. / Nikolai Klyuev (1884-1937) is one of the most fascinating figures of the Russian «Silver age» and modernism. Forbidden for half a century after the poet’s execution, his work was almost fully recovered only at the end of the 1980’s, and the publication of the late epic poems sparked an intense interest in those poetic testimonies of the violence of collectivization. Born in the Russian North, committed to the peasant revolution, Alexander Blok’s penpal between 1907 and 1915, ideologist of neo-populism in the 1910’s, bolshevik in 1919, Klyuev became in the 1920’s a reference for the young generation of soviet poets (Harms, Vvedenski, etc.), a keeper of Russian folk culture and an example of anti-behavior whithin the frame of a mutating literary field. Attracting a diverse crown and modifying his literary persona as well as his voice regarding his audience, Klyuev thrives on stage as well as within the private circle and couple. Whilst he has found during the 1910’s a valuable aesthetic material in Russian folklore, old belief and popular songs, his poetic universe gravitates around his «self» in an egocentric manner. The utopian formula of the «isba cosmos» is formulated precisely within the lyric cycles of the 1920’s that correspond to the intimate intention of his verse. Carnal and homoerotic, the «lyric hero» is also disembodied in the Word that carries the poetic intention, the same way the mask Klyuev dons in public becomes the vehicle of his narrative identity in perpetual representation

Il lavoro propone la traduzione annotata del poema “Pogorel'ščina“ (Terra bruciata, 1928), una delle ultime opere di Nikolaj Alekseevič Kljuev (1884-1937), inedita fino al 1954, e mai apparsa in lingua italiana. La traduzione si mantiene il più possibile aderente al testo originale, che accosta il registro basso del canto popolare e quello alto letterario, liturgico ed epico. Le note al testo illustrano gli arcaismi e i localismi, tipici del linguaggio kljueviano, e approfondiscono alcuni motivi legati al folklore e alla tradizione ortodossa così come a quella vecchio-credente e settaria. Completano il lavoro i dati relativi alla storia redazionale del poema, la cronologia della vita e delle opere dell'autore, fra i protagonisti della cosiddetta “Età d’argento” della poesia russa novecentesca, e un’appendice iconografica. / Our work offers a commented translation of the poem “Pogorel'shchina“ (The Burned Ruins, 1928), one of Nikolai Alekseevich Klyuev’s (1884-1937) last works. It was composed in 1928, remained unpublished until 1954 and was never translated into Italian. In our translation, we have endeavoured to adhere to the original lexicon and syntax of the original text, which combines the low register of the folk songs with the upper, liturgical and epic register. In our notes to the text we illustrate the archaisms and localisms that are typical of Klyuev’s language and explore motifs related to the folklore, to the Orthodox tradition as well as to the Old Believers’ and sectarian tradition. Finally, our work includes the redactional history of the poem, the chronology of the life and works of the author, one of the protagonists of the so called “Silver Age“ of XXth century Russian poetry, and an iconographic appendix.