Nikolay Zabolotsky, “Do not let your soul be lazy”
Nikolay Alekseyevich Zabolotsky (1903–1958) began to publish in 1926. He is a lyrical poet of a philosophical turn, reflecting on nature, man's place in it, harmony and the universe; the theme of human souls and fates also sounds in his work. He is the author of the collections «Столбцы», «Венчание плодами», «Город и степи», «Творцы дорог» and an excellent translation of «Слово о полку Игореве» into modern language. In his later poems he thinks much about a person's inner world, conscience and work. «Не позволяй душе лениться» (1958) is advice addressed to the soul: it turns to the reader (or to himself). The soul is personified: it tends to laziness, so it must be driven «from house to house», dragged through snow and hollows, kept strictly, given no indulgence. If it is spared, it will tear off «the last shirt», that is, deprive the person of everything. The last stanza shows the soul's two faces: it is both slave and queen, worker and daughter. The lines «Душа обязана трудиться / И день и ночь, и день и ночь!» from the first stanza return almost word for word at the end: this stresses the duty to work «day and night». Meaning: inner work is the condition of being human.
“A talk with the soul”. Pairs turn the poem's commands into “rules of inner work” in their own words and write three rules (for example, read, learn, help).