18 June 1939
Marina Tsvetaeva, a poet, novelist, and translator, returned to the USSR after 17 years of exile.
With a lantern, search the entire sublunary light! That country is not on the map, not in space. Drunk as from a saucer, the bottom glistens. Is it possible to return to a house that is torn down?
Marina Tsvetaeva was born in 1892. Her father was a philologist and professor at Moscow University, and her mother was a pianist. In 1909, she became a member of the Moscow Symbolist circle. She married the writer Sergei Efron and gave birth to a daughter, Ariadna.
I like that you are not sick with me, I like that I am not sick with you
She had a romantic relationship with the poet Sofia Parnok. She experienced the breakup as "the first catastrophe" of her life. She returned to her husband.
To love only women (for a woman) or only men (for a man), deliberately excluding the usual opposite—how awful! And only women (for a man) or only men (for a woman), deliberately excluding the unusual, familiar—how boring!
In 1917, she gave birth to her second daughter, Irina. She didn't feel much love for her. During the Civil War, she gave the children to an orphanage. When visiting, she paid more attention to the older one. The younger one died at age three.
Listen and remember: anyone who laughs at another's misfortune is either a fool or a scoundrel; most often both.
In 1922, Tsvetaeva and Ariadna left for Prague, where Efron, a White Army officer, lived. In 1925, after the birth of their son Georgy, the family moved to Paris. There, Tsvetaeva's collection of poems, "After Russia," was published during her lifetime.
Extra! Highest! A native! A challenge! Upward, Not weaned… Not having accepted the gallows… In the rags of Vega's currencies and visas – a native
The family was destitute. There was no money. In 1937, Efron, who had embraced Soviet ideas and collaborated with the NKVD, left for the USSR. His daughter did the same. In 1939, when Tsvetaeva and her son returned to the country, the daughter and father were arrested. Ariadna spent 15 years in the camps. Efron was executed in October 1941. Six weeks earlier, Tsvetaeva had committed suicide.
I'm seriously ill, I'm not me anymore. I love you madly. Understand that I couldn't live anymore. Tell Dad and Alya—if you see them—that I loved them until the last minute and explain that I've reached a dead end. (From a suicide note to her son)
