Ночь (Night) by Alexander Blok
- Myron Kharkover
- May 5, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 23, 2020
"Night" (Ночь) was written by Alexander Blok on October 10th, 1912. Below is the original text, and an English translation below it.
Ночь, улица, фонарь, аптека,
Бессмысленный и тусклый свет.
Живи ещё хоть четверть века –
Всё будет так. Исхода нет.
Умрёшь — начнёшь опять сначала,
И повторится всё, как встарь:
Ночь, ледяная рябь канала,
Аптека, улица, фонарь.
Night, street, lamp, drugstore, A dull and meaningless light. Go on and live another quarter century - Nothing will change. There's no way out. You'll die, then start from the beginning, It will repeat, just like before: Night, icy ripples on a canal, Drugstore, street, lamp.
Alexander Blok, the author of this piece, was a big supporter of the 1905 Russian Revolution. The 1905 Revolution was precipitated by the Russo-Japanese War that took place in 1904 and 1905. The Russian tsar at the time, Nicholas II, was equipped with an incredibly strong and powerful Army. This motivated him to attempt to expand Russia as far as he could. While expanding, Nicholas II attempted to push into present-day Korea. However, once the Russian Army reached the land, they were met with conflict from the Japanese. This conflict resulted in a two-year-long war with the Japanese. Russia ended up losing the war, which was considered an embarrassing defeat. This defeat further inspired Russian left-wing industrial workers to stage a revolution in an attempt to set up a democratic government and grant more rights for the oppressed peoples. In response to this uprising, Nicholas II issued a manifesto that declared that the Russian parliament (the Duma) would be democratically elected and that citizens would be granted liberal civil rights. However, Nicholas II imprisoned or killed political agitators, and essentially eradicated all of the Duma's power.
About 7 years after the revolution, Blok wrote this poem. While writing the poem, tensions were rising in Europe which ultimately climaxed in the form of the first World War. At the time, more than four-fifths of the entire Russian population were peasants. This meant that out of 128 million Russian citizens, 102 million of them were peasants. His message in the poem is that as gruesome as Russian life may be, there is no way to change it. It is a reflection of the revolution and prediction of the future. The line, "There's no way out," really brings this sentiment to fruition. He carries a morbid and pessimistic tone throughout which can be best seen when he writes, "You'll die, then start from the beginning, It will repeat, just like before:". The scene he describes in the poem is also a metaphor for Russian hope. What he describes is an empty street which is akin to the empty hope of the Russian people. He states that "Nothing will change," just like nothing will change for the Russian people's social and economic status.
The sense that some things will always remain the same, no matter how much anyone tries to change them can be compared to many things. However, perhaps the best comparison is that of the political climate of America. Many people currently carry around the same feeling about hope that Blok was writing about in terms of uniting the country. America is now effectively a bipartisan country, the left vs the right. Tensions are very high between the two sides of the political spectrum. People have effectively halted all attempts at uniting the two sides as they have no hope anything will work. They feel that "Nothing will change," and it will always be the left vs. the right.
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