Konstantin Dmitrievich Bal'mont

A poet representing early Russian Symbolism. Born into a landowning aristocratic family. He entered Moscow University in 1886, but was expelled for participating in student protests. He began to become more aware of himself as a poet around the time of his attempted suicide in 1890, and was at his most popular from 1894 to 1904. His poems are highly musical, with many alliterations and internal rhymes, and are characterized by good tone and rich sound. He made a strong assertion of his ego, likening his poetry and himself to the fundamental forces of nature and the universe, such as the wind, the sea, the sun, and fire. His representative collections of poems include "Under the Northern Sky" (1894), "In the Infinite" (1895), "Burning Buildings" (1900), and "Let's Be Like the Sun" (1903). His works were too slogan-like and prone to monotony, and he gradually lost his influence, but that doesn't mean he didn't write good poems after that when he was able to restrain his writing. He was also a translator of Western poetry, and produced excellent translations of works by Shelley, Whitman, Poe, and others. He was also a traveler who traveled all over the world. After the 1917 revolution, he went into exile and spent his later years in solitude and poverty, dying near Paris.

[Takeshi Kodaira]

"Studies on Russian Symbolism by Tatsuo Kuroda (1979, Kowado)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

初期ロシア象徴主義を代表する詩人。地主貴族の家に生まれる。1886年モスクワ大学に入学したが、学生運動に参加して放校となった。自殺未遂事件のあった90年ごろから詩人としての自覚を深め、94年から1904年にかけてもっとも人気を集めた。その詩は頭韻、内的韻などを多用して、きわめて音楽的であり、音調のよさ、音響の豊かさに特色がある。風、海、太陽、炎など自然や宇宙の根源的な力に自分の詩や自らをなぞらえる強烈な自我主張を行った。代表的な詩集は『北方の空の下で』（1894）、『無限の中で』（1895）、『燃える建物』（1900）、『太陽のようになろう』（1903）など。あまりにスローガン的にすぎて単調になりやすく、しだいに影響力を失っていったが、その後も筆の抑制がきいた場合は、よい詩を書かなかったわけではない。西欧詩の翻訳家でもあって、シェリー、ホイットマン、ポーなどの優れた翻訳がある。世界各地を旅行した旅行家でもあった。1917年の革命後に亡命、晩年は孤独と窮乏のなかで過ごし、パリ近郊で没。

［小平　武］

『黒田辰男著『ロシヤ・シンボリズム研究』（1979・光和堂）』

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