A. Fainberg and N. Ilyin

In the book's section «Поэты Узбекистана» there are poems by Alexander Arkadyevich Fainberg (the book gives no biography of him). The first poem, «Здесь и просторно, и высоко», is a picture of a village teahouse. A wide, high place; the clay houses of the settlement run down to the riverside teahouse and seem to freeze in mid-run. The teahouse keeper is proud of himself: he seems to have grasped the starry worlds; the green light of tea from the bowl rises into the blue sky. A dog dozes under the awning; with «вечная дума о земном» the daughter-in-law, squatting, makes smoke under the cauldron. Niches, bowls, a low table, and in its centre a fresh flatbread — as round as before. For the poet everything is familiar from memory: snow on the peaks, the way of life, the gate, the yard, the house number; only the number of the century is forgotten. This is the feeling that time has stopped, and the stability of traditions. The second poem, «Саратан», names the hottest period of the Uzbek folk calendar. The heat and plaintiveness of an eastern flute, an endless sun above a salt marsh. A lizard's shadow hides in a crack, a camel stands drowsing, quails moan beyond the clay wall; an old woman with a clay face looks at a clay hearth. The home-made house is blind and crooked. The heat is motionless on all four sides, and on the wall is a green scorpion. Devices: epithets («глиняное лицо», «слеп и скособочен»), personification, a system of details (dog, camel, lizard, scorpion) and motionless action giving the feel of the season.