Laughter and Tears in the Lyric Poetry of Arseny Tarkovsky

The subject of this study is laughter and tears (crying), inherent in the human psyche since ancient times, as reflected in the poetry of Arseny Tarkovsky. The object of careful analysis is a selection of poems by A. Tarkovsky in which these phenomena are mentioned. An intertextual connection has been established between the poem “Two Moon Tales,” specifically Part II (“The Moon and Cats”), and Alexander Blok's poem “The Factory” (both works feature the motif of hellish laughter). A tragic view of the painful pages of Russian history in A. Tarkovsky's poems and the connection between his poetry and ancient poetics can also be traced in the example of the use of the complex epithet “noisy” in the poem “The Proximity of War.” Other works by the poet that embody various aspects of these phenomena (laughter and tears (crying)) are also examined in detail. These examples confirm the deep connection between A. Tarkovsky's poetry and symbolism. This article uses cultural-historical, comparative-historical, typological, intertextual, formal, and motivational research methods. The main conclusions of the study are as follows. Laughter in A. Tarkovsky's poetic works is only a small, insignificant, but vivid and enlivening element of a diverse reality, often serving as a “background” to what is happening. Sometimes it is a mockery of attempts to rationalize reality, a spontaneous manifestation of emotions. Crying in A. Tarkovsky's poetry is a consequence of a sense of loss, the impossibility of love, and sometimes it expresses deep bitterness from experiencing social cataclysms, such as war or the destruction of the familiar urban environment for the sake of progress. Crying in A. Tarkovsky's poetry is an element inherent in female images, expressing the tragedy of separation and loss. Traditionally in Russian literature, tears are expressed in the image of raindrops or rain. It is curious that Tarkovsky's lyrical hero himself rarely laughs or cries; this is the prerogative of the heroes of his works. His position is stoic. All these numerous trends correspond to the context of general seriousness and tragedy in Russian poetry, which has similar roots in antiquity, as taken up by the Silver Age and symbolism.