Lessons 38–39 · 2 lessons · M. E. Rozhnova, U. T. Yaminova. Russian Language, Grade 8 (textbook for general secondary schools with Uzbek and other languages of instruction), 2nd revised edition. “Uzbekistan” Publishing and Printing Creative House, Tashkent, 2019
39
Ya. V. Smelyakov: life. The poem «Хорошая девочка Лида»
Textbook: pp. 149–151
GoalLearn about Ya. V. Smelyakov; read «Хорошая девочка Лида» expressively and retell it; compare the poem with Aleksin’s story.
New words
девочка · qiz bolaлюбовь · sevgiимя · ismсозвездие · yulduz turkumi
Explanation
Ya. V. Smelyakov was born on 8 January 1913 in Lutsk (Ukraine) in a railway worker’s family. At two the family moved to Voronezh, his mother’s home town; he spent his childhood in a village. In Voronezh he attended a labour school and got to know the works of Lermontov and Yesenin; he began writing poems at ten. In 1924 he came to Moscow, finished a printing school and worked in a printing house; in his first working days he was entrusted with setting type for his own collection «Работа и любовь». His poems are reflections on life, labour and creativity; he also wrote articles and translated from Ukrainian, Belarusian and other languages. Famous poems include «Если я заболею…», «Хорошая девочка Лида», «Любка» and «Милые красавицы России». He died on 27 November 1972 and was buried in Moscow.
Worked examples
First half: a schoolgirl named Lida lives on an ordinary street in a southern town. The poet gives only a few bright details (braids, a flowered dress, freckles), not a full portrait: the reader imagines her. The neighbours, too, watch her with affection.
Second half: the boy who lives across the street knows what is good about Lida — he loves her deeply and has written her name on the pavement. The poet likens this love to that of great poets and pictures the boy growing up and writing Lida’s name across the whole world, even in the sky.
Class activity
“Two works”. Find what Aleksin’s story and Smelyakov’s poem have in common (first love, shyness) and write it in three sentences.
Practice
1
Where and when was Smelyakov born?
1913, Lutsk (Ukraine).
2
Where does Lida live?
On South Street, among white houses.
3
What does the boy do?
He writes Lida’s name on the stone slabs and dreams of writing it all over the world.
4
Why does the author not give Lida’s portrait?
So that each reader imagines her; what matters is the boy’s love.