G.R. Derzhavin. "To Rulers and Judges"
History of creation
From 1786 to 1788 Derzhavin served as governor of the Tambov province. As in other services, here he was active and tried to change a lot in the existing order of the region. But he soon realizes that local nobles are hindering his transformation, and the ideals of education, duty and justice arouse open hostility from officials. He sees how the law is violated in high government positions, and the violators do not receive any punishment. He tries to restore order, but does not find like-minded people. It was at this time, in 1787, that he wrote the civil ode “To Rulers and Judges.”
As the basis for this work, Derzhavin took a previously written poem on a biblical theme, which was called “Psalm 81.”
Psalm - This biblical song addressed to god. The author of such songs is considered to be the Old Testament King David.
Derzhavin translated the ancient work into modern language, filled it with accusatory content and gave the poem a new title: “To Rulers and Judges.”
Main themes and ideas of the poem
Based on the biblical text, the author talks about modern life Russian state. In his home country Laws are violated with impunity, the weak are oppressed, injustice and evil triumph, and there is nowhere to look for justice. We can only trust in God, only he can restore order in the country. And if the Lord asks the rulers how they carry out the laws established by them?
The Almighty God has risen and judges
Earthly gods in their host;
How long, river, how long will you be
Spare the unrighteous and evil?
Your duty is: to protect the laws,
Don't look at the faces of the strong,
No help, no defense
Do not leave orphans and widows.
Your duty: to save the innocent from harm,
Give cover to the unlucky;
To protect the powerless from the strong,
Free the poor from their shackles.
They won't listen! They see - but they don’t know!
Covered with bribes of tow:
Atrocities shake the earth,
Untruth shakes the skies.
The poet angrily denounces the “unrighteous and evil.” The author reminds them that people endowed with power still remain people, and not omnipotent gods. Therefore, they should remember the highest punishment, how easily they violated the law of justice established by God himself. This is the main idea of the poem.
And you will fall like this.
Like a withered leaf falling from the tree!
And you will die like this,
How your last slave will die!
Of course, this work was perceived as a revolutionary proclamation. Indeed, in the last quatrain the poet calls for justice against the unjust government.
Resurrect, God! God of the right!
And they heeded their prayer:
Come, judge, punish the evil ones
And be one king of the earth!
The artistic originality of the poem
On the one hand, this the work can be classified as a spiritual ode, because it is based on the biblical text. The vocabulary and images of the poem indeed resemble a psalm, for example, the following words are used: in a host; they don’t listen; covered with bribes of tow; listen to their prayer. Author includes rhetorical exclamations, questions, appeals:“How long will you have mercy on the unjust and evil?”; “Kings! I thought you gods were powerful..."; “Rise up God! Good God! Thanks to such techniques an oratorical sound is created that convinces readers that the poet is right.
On the other hand, this poem is aimed at awakening the reader’s consciousness, arousing a desire to correct vices, it is a kind of warning, instruction from the “rulers”.
What is the meaning of this ode? Of course, Derzhavin was not a revolutionary, he was a monarchist, and his poem did not intend to cause a rebellion in society. But the lack of justice in the country greatly outraged him. In the future, a similar theme will appear in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov and other poets.
Derzhavin in this ode acts as an innovator: he combines Old Slavonic vocabulary with commonly used words, speaks about power from the point of view of universal, moral ideals. The poet does not glorify the ruler, as should be the case in an ode to classicism, but exposes the vices of kings and nobles.
History of creation. Derzhavin's unusually courageous, decisive and independent character was evident in everything, including in his poetic work. One of his poems almost caused expulsion and disgrace. It was an ode to “Lords and Judges” written in 1787, which the author called an “angry ode.”
Service in high government positions, including work as governor, convinced Derzhavin that Russian Empire Laws are constantly being broken. His fight against this phenomenon as a high-ranking civil servant was unsuccessful: he did not find support either in society or in the government. Lawbreakers successfully avoided deserved punishment. But at the same time, the poet firmly believed that Catherine herself was a virtuous monarch, surrounded by evil dignitaries. Indignation and anger needed an outlet. And then the poet decided to write an arrangement of the 81st Psalm - this is how biblical hymns addressed to God were called in ancient times. Their author is the Old Testament King David, whose works constitute one of the most poetic books Old Testament- Psalter.
The theme of this psalm turned out to be in tune with the spirit of the times. It is no coincidence that this 81st psalm was paraphrased by the Jacobins during the French Revolution in Paris, and the people sang it in the streets of the city, expressing indignation at King Louis XVI, who was subsequently executed.
Derzhavin made the first version of his transcription of Psalm 81 several years before its publication. He gave the poem to the St. Petersburg Bulletin. But the publishers, “frightened”, cut it out of the magazine’s already printed book. In the new version, written five years later, the poet even strengthened the accusatory pathos of the poem. He managed to achieve its publication. Moreover, he removed the previous title - “Psalm 81” - and published work under its title “To Rulers and Judges”.
Main themes and ideas. The content of Derzhavin’s ode, based on the biblical text, is associated with modern poet life of the Russian state. It is here that he sees the violation of justice, the violation of laws, the oppression of the weak, the triumph of untruth and evil, the analogy of which he finds in the Old Testament history:
How long, rivers, how long will you be
Spare the unrighteous and evil?
The need to subordinate everyone to the single law of supreme truth and justice is affirmed by Derzhavin in this poem, as in many others;
Your duty is: to protect the laws,
Don't look at the faces of the strong,
Do not leave orphans and widows without help, without defense.
Your duty: to save the innocent from harm, to provide cover to the unfortunate;
To protect the powerless from the strong,
Free the poor from their shackles.
But in real life he sees the evasion of this supreme law by those in power, who must first of all monitor compliance with the laws:
They won't listen! They see - but they don’t know!
Covered with bribes of tow:
Atrocities shake the earth,
Untruth shakes the skies.
That is why the voice of the poet-accuser of the “unrighteous and evil” sounds so angry. He asserts the inevitability of punishment for those “evil” rulers who do not obey the highest law of truth and justice - this is the main idea and the main idea Derzhavin's ode:
And you will fall like this.
Like a withered leaf falling from the tree!
And you will die like this,
How your last slave will die!
It is not surprising that the ode to “Rulers and Judges” was perceived not only by the court circle, but even by the empress, who was usually favorable to Derzhavin, as a revolutionary proclamation. After all, it talks about the fact that unrighteous power cannot be durable; it will inevitably face the wrath of God and fall. The poet seeks to warn the empress about this, in whose virtue he continued to believe. Otherwise, such “rulers and judges,” as the author asserts in the final quatrain of the ode, will inevitably be replaced by those who will be guided by the ideals of goodness and justice:
Resurrect, God! God of the right!
And they heeded their prayer:
Come, judge, punish the evil ones
And be one king of the earth!
Artistic originality.
An innovative poet, Derzhavin boldly goes to destroy the norms of classicism that were already familiar to his time and creates his own special poetic system. At the end of his life, Derzhavin, summing up the results of his work, writes “Explanations on Derzhavin’s works,” containing a kind of auto-commentary to the works, and finishes the work “ Discussions about lyric poetry, or about odes,” where he sets out his theory of literature and the history of world lyric poetry, explains his creative method and style. It is here that he speaks in detail about those genre varieties of ode that appear in his work starting with “Felitsa”. If the poet classifies this work as a mixed ode, the author calls the poem “To Rulers and Judges” an angry ode. If we follow tradition, then it would have to be attributed to the genre of spiritual ode, which was well developed by that time in Russian literature - after all, it is based on the biblical text. Moreover, in Derzhavin’s ode the vocabulary and many images really remind us of biblical poetry: in a host of them; covered with bribes of tow; listen to their prayers, etc. The solemn style of the ode is created not only due to the abundance of Slavicisms, but also with the help of special syntactic means: rhetorical exclamations, questions, appeals: “how long will you spare the unrighteous and evil?”; “Kings! I thought you gods were powerful..."; “Rise up God! Good God! In addition, the poet uses the technique of anaphora and syntactic repetitions: “Your duty is: to preserve the laws...”, “Your duty: to save the innocent from harm...”; “They don’t listen! They see and don’t know!”
All this gives the poem an oratorical sound, which helps the author to maximize the attention of readers and listeners. After all, of course, what we have before us is not so much a spiritual ode as, using the author’s definition, an “angry” ode, that is, one that is designed to express the bitterness of the author, who sees the depravity of his contemporary life, and to reflect the accusatory pathos of the poem, which should awaken in readers not only anger, but also the desire for cleansing and correction of vices.
The meaning of the work. We know that Derzhavin himself did not put a revolutionary meaning into his work; he was a monarchist in his political convictions, but such a vividly and emotionally expressed protest against the “unjust and evil” began to be perceived by many as a political proclamation. The author of “Felitsa,” praising the “virtues” of the empress and sincerely believing in her wisdom and justice, in the ode “To Rulers and Judges” appeared in a completely new guise: he became an angry denouncer of the vices of rulers who trampled on law and morality, and thereby opened literature one of its the most important trends. Subsequently, it received brilliant development in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov and many other remarkable Russian writers of subsequent decades. But for the contemporary reader, this work may also turn out to be close and understandable: after all, the vices of the unjust government, its desire to act in its own, and not the public, state interests, trampling laws and justice, unfortunately, remain relevant today.
Derzhavin. To rulers and judges
The Almighty God has risen and judges
Earthly gods in their host;
How long, rivers, how long will you be
Spare the unrighteous and evil?
Your duty is: to preserve the laws,
Don't look at the faces of the strong,
No help, no defense
Do not leave orphans and widows.
Your duty: to save the innocent from harm,
Give cover to the unlucky;
To protect the powerless from the strong,
Free the poor from their shackles.
They won't listen! they see - but don’t know!
Covered with bribes of tow:
Atrocities shake the earth,
Untruth shakes the skies.
Kings! I thought you gods were powerful,
No one is your judge
But you, like me, are passionate,
And they are just as mortal as I am.
And you will fall like this,
Like a withered leaf falling from the tree!
And you will die like this,
How your last slave will die!
Resurrect, God! God of the right!
And they heeded their prayer:
Come, judge, punish the evil ones,
And be one king of the earth!
Derzhavin’s ode to Rulers and Judges (see its summary and analysis) had three editions. The first did not satisfy the poet. The second ode was published in St. Petersburg. Vestnik,” however, the issue of the magazine that opened with the ode was suspended, and the sheet on which the ode had previously been reprinted. The ode truly came to the reader only in 1787, when it was published in its final edition in the magazine “Mirror of Light” under the title “Ode. Extracted from Psalm 81." In 1795, trying to ask permission to publish a collection of his works, Derzhavin presented Catherine II with a handwritten copy of the first part, where he included this ode. However, what went unnoticed in 1787, in 1795, after the Great French Revolution, the execution of King Louis XVI, etc., gave the impression of a bomb exploding. Then there was a rumor that the 81st Psalm was used by the Jacobin revolutionaries against the king.
When Derzhavin now appeared at court, the nobles avoided him and simply “ran” from him. The poet immediately wrote explanatory note- “Anecdote”, in which it “clearly proved” that the author of the psalm “King David was not a Jacobin”, and sent it to the most influential persons at court. After that, everything “just disappeared: everyone treated him as if nothing had happened.” Despite this, Derzhavin did not receive permission to publish his works, and the manuscript was given to Prince Zubov, who kept it until the death of Catherine II. In the 1798 edition, the ode was crossed out by censorship, and in the final edition it appeared under the title “To Rulers and Judges” only in Volume I of the 1808 edition.
It is possible that the immediate external impetus for writing the ode was the following incident, described by the poet himself: “In 1779, the Senate was rebuilt under the supervision of him [Derzhavin], and especially the hall of the general meeting, decorated... with stucco bas-reliefs..., among other things the figures depicted the naked Truth by the sculptor Rashet, and that bas-relief stood in the face of the senators present at the table; then when that hall was made and the Prosecutor General Prince Vyazemsky examined it, then, seeing the naked Truth, he said to the executor: “Tell her, brother, to cover her up a little.” And truly, from then on the government began to cover up the truth more and more.”
The poet Derzhavin wrote the poem “To Rulers and Judges” in 1780. At that time he worked as an official of the military department in the province and often encountered injustice towards ordinary people. This work is the cry of a desperate man, whose heart aches with compassion for the oppressed, the weak, the powerless. And at the same time, the author does not see any way out of this situation except the judgment of the Almighty God.
It should be noted that Derzhavin treated with great respect royal family, believing that all troubles come not from the ruler, but from those who are endowed with the power to judge and determine the fate of ordinary people.
It is to them that the author devotes angry lines on behalf of God himself. He lists their responsibilities - to administer a fair trial, protect the innocent, punish the guilty. But the “earthly gods” do not do this. They commit atrocities, their eyes are closed with bribes, and the iniquities they commit shake the earth and reach the heavens.
In the second part of the poem, the poet reminds all the wicked that the rich are as mortal as the poor, that they too will die in due time. Then they will face God's judgment, but people do not think about this and continue to do evil deeds. And the author himself does not see a way out of this situation; it seems completely hopeless to him. According to Derzhavin, only God is able to establish justice in Russia, ordinary people You can't deal with this. And the poet calls on God to come, punish all the guilty and rule over the whole earth.
The poem is accusatory in nature; the author himself called it an “angry ode.” Gabriel Derzhavin was one of the first poets who was not afraid to openly condemn the lawlessness and abuses of the authorities. In 1780, the poem was not published because censorship did not allow it to pass. Only 8 years later the work finally saw the light of day, and almost became the reason for the poet’s disgrace. The ode caused discontent and anger among those to whom it was dedicated. In those days, it was not customary to condemn those in power; this was the first attempt, but it was supported by poets of the next century, devoting their best works to this topic.
Analysis of the poem to the Rulers and Judges of Derzhavin
Gavriil Derzhavin wrote the ode “To Rulers and Judges” in 1787. Being statesman, he wrote, he was able to feel for himself all the injustice and anger of that society. Derzhavin’s independent struggle against violations of the law and the suppression of criminal activities of the upper strata of society did not bear any fruit. Then the poet decided to write an ode on the theme of Psalm 81.
Its whole essence was turning to God through righteous chants.
The poet's first work on this topic was never published due to editors who did not allow the release of Derzhavin's psalm. The publishing house of the St. Petersburg Bulletin considered the ode too pretentious and angry.
However, Gavriil Derzhavin achieved publication of his revised verse five years later. Having changed the title to “To Rulers and Judges”, the poet’s new creation is published.
The writer finds his thoughts and feelings in biblical tales, which he exalts into the poem in a revised form. Injustice, anger, human vices, oppression of the weak, anger, power and violation of laws - all these themes are included in the ode to “Rulers and Judges”.
Derzhavin lashes out in an angry tirade about non-compliance with these laws in real life. These lines of the poem reveal all the injustice towards the weak and their oppression.
But according to the writer, punishment for rulers for injustice and neglect of their duties is inevitable:
And you will fall like this.
Like a withered leaf falling from the tree!
This passage of the poem is literally saturated with Derzhavin’s anger towards people in power who turn a blind eye to all violations of the laws and encourage them.
In the last lines of the ode, the writer shows his faith in justice and a bright future, based on which we can say that good will definitely defeat evil and injustice.
The main theme that Gabriel Derzhavin raises in his poem “To Rulers and Judges” remains significant to this day. “Evil” rulers, whose actions are filled with anger, injustice and vices, remain one of the main problems of society at all times. But according to the writer, the day will definitely come when justice will triumph and defeat evil.
Analysis of the poem to Rulers and judges according to plan
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“To Rulers and Judges” Gabriel Derzhavin
The Almighty God has risen and judges
Earthly gods in their host;
How long, rivers, how long will you be
Spare the unrighteous and evil?Your duty is: to preserve the laws,
Don't look at the faces of the strong,
No help, no defense
Do not leave orphans and widows.Your duty: to save the innocent from harm.
Give cover to the unlucky;
To protect the powerless from the strong,
Free the poor from their shackles.They won't listen! they see and don’t know!
Covered with bribes of tow:
Atrocities shake the earth,
Untruth shakes the skies.Kings! I thought you gods were powerful,
No one is your judge
But you, like me, are passionate,
And they are just as mortal as I am.And you will fall like this,
Like a withered leaf falling from the tree!
And you will die like this,
How your last slave will die!Resurrect, God! God of the right!
And they heeded their prayer:
Come, judge, punish the evil ones,
And be one king of the earth!
Analysis of Derzhavin’s poem “To Rulers and Judges”
From the second half of the 18th century, Russian poetry ceased to be a salon and backstage phenomenon, gradually exerting more and more influence on the life of society. Beautiful poems written in “high style” gave way to accusatory works, on which more than one generation of rebels and revolutionaries subsequently grew up. One of the first Russian poets who was not afraid to publicly denounce those who abuse their power was Gabriel Derzhavin. It was he who wrote the poem “To Rulers and Judges,” written in 1780.
By this time, the author had left his military career and was successfully mastering the position of state councilor. In parallel with his achievements in the social and political fields, Derzhavin began to publish his first poems, which brought him wide fame, first in salons, and later in the palace of the Empress. In the wake of flirting with the French Republicans, Empress Catherine II encouraged bold statements among her subjects. It is for this reason that she reacted quite favorably to Derzhavin’s poem, which contains quite bold and harsh statements addressed to those in power.
The poet calls those who decide human destinies gods on earth and models a situation when they themselves will appear before the highest, divine court. Derzhavin does not consider himself a higher being, but he dares to speak on behalf of the Almighty, pointing out to his compatriots the inadmissibility of the actions that he commits. “How long, rivers, how long will you have mercy on the unjust and evil?” asks the poet.
In the first part of the poem, the author talks about what exactly is the duty of those in power. These people, according to Derzhavin, should “preserve the laws,” help widows and orphans, “save the innocent from harm,” and protect the weak over the strong. In addition, the poet voices the idea that it is necessary to “extricate the poor from their shackles,” that is, in essence, to abolish serfdom. Such a statement even in times reign of Catherine II was considered a manifestation of freethinking, but the empress, who favored Derzhavin, turned a blind eye to such insolence.
The second part of the poem is accusatory in nature. The author notes that people do not heed the arguments of reason and have long been living not according to God’s commandments, but according to worldly laws. “Atrocities shake the earth, untruths shake the heavens,” the poet states bitterly. Addressing the Russian tsars, Derzhavin admits that he considered them God's governors on earth. However, the author is convinced that “you too will fall like a withered leaf falling from a tree! And you will die just like your last slave will die! In the finale, the poet calls on the Almighty to descend to the sinful earth to bring judgment on people. “Come, judge, punish the evil ones, and be the only king of the earth!” exclaims Derzhavin, rightly believing that without intervention higher powers It is not possible for even the wisest and fairest ruler among mere mortals to restore order in Rus'.