Venice cemetery where Brodsky is buried how to get there. Russian graves in Venice: Diaghilev, Brodsky, Stravinsky. Does it really matter where the "insensible body ... decay"

One of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. You can love or not love his poems, but the fact that he is a man in whose blood Poetry flows, says every line. Unlike some poetic hiccups (I will not name names), who, during the so-called thaw, managed to please with their verses of Soviet ideology, but at the same time be known as rebels persecuted by the authorities, nevertheless receiving all kinds of benefits from it, Joseph Brodsky simply wrote poetry, publishing them in samizdat. And he really suffered for his desire to live as his conscience dictates, and not as prescribed by the framework of Soviet ideology. A criminal case was opened against I. Brodsky on charges of parasitism (1964). He was arrested and after the trial, which had a fairly wide publicity, he was exiled to the Arkhangelsk region for five years. But after a year and a half, under pressure from the world community, he was released.
In 1972, I. Brodsky was forced to leave the USSR. He settled in the USA. He wrote poetry and prose, critical essays, taught at the university. Received wide recognition in scientific and literary circles in the USA and Great Britain. Laureate Nobel Prize (1987). In 1992 he was awarded the title of Poet Laureate of the USA.
I.A. Brodsky on January 28, 1996 in New York. By the will of the poet, he was buried in Venice, in the Protestant part of the cemetery on the island of San Michele.

"What a biography, however, they make to our redhead!" Anna Akhmatova joked sadly at the height of the trial of Joseph Brodsky. In addition to a loud trial, the controversial fate prepared the poet a link to the North and the Nobel Prize, incomplete eight years of education and a career as a university professor, 24 years outside his native language environment and the discovery of new possibilities of the Russian language.

Leningrad youth

Joseph Brodsky was born in Leningrad in 1940. 42 years later, in an interview with a Dutch journalist, he recalled his hometown this way: “Leningrad shapes your life, your consciousness to the extent that the visual aspects of life can influence us. It is a huge cultural conglomerate, but without bad taste, without a mess. An amazing sense of proportion, classic facades breathe peace. And all this affects you, makes you strive for order in life, although you realize that you are doomed. Such a noble attitude to chaos, resulting in either stoicism or snobbery ".

In the first year of the war after the blockade winter of 1941-1942, Joseph's mother Maria Volpert took him to evacuation to Cherepovets, where they lived until 1944. Volpert served as an interpreter in a prisoner of war camp, and Brodsky's father, a naval officer and photojournalist Alexander Brodsky, participated in the defense of Malaya Zemlya and breaking the blockade of Leningrad. He returned to his family only in 1948 and continued his service as head of the photographic laboratory of the Central Naval Museum. Joseph Brodsky all his life recalled walking through the museum as a child: “In general, I have quite wonderful feelings in relation to the navy. I don't know where they came from, but here is childhood, and father, and native city... As I remember the Naval Museum, St. Andrew's flag - a blue cross on a white cloth ... There is no better flag in the world at all! "

Joseph often changed schools; was not crowned with success and his attempt to enter after the seventh grade in the naval school. In 1955 he left the eighth grade and got a job at the Arsenal plant as a milling machine operator. Then he worked as an assistant dissector in a morgue, a fireman, and a photographer. Finally, he joined a group of geologists and took part in expeditions for several years, during one of which he discovered a small uranium deposit in the Far East. At the same time, the future poet was actively engaged in self-education, became interested in literature. The poems of Yevgeny Baratynsky and Boris Slutsky made a strong impression on him.

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: yeltsin.ru

Joseph Brodsky with a cat. Photo: interesno.cc

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: dayonline.ru

In Leningrad, they started talking about Brodsky in the early 1960s, when he performed at a poetry tournament at the Gorky Palace of Culture. The poet Nikolai Rubtsov told about this performance in a letter:

“Of course, there were poets with a decadent scent. For example, Brodsky. Grasping the microphone leg with both hands and bringing it close to his mouth, he loudly and burstingly, shaking his head in time to the rhythm of the verses, read:
Everyone has their own stuff!
Everyone has their own grob!
There was some noise! Some shout:
- What does poetry have to do with it ?!
- Down with him!
Others yell:
- Brodsky, more! "

Then Brodsky began to communicate with the poet Yevgeny Rein. In 1961, Rein introduced Joseph to Anna Akhmatova. Although the influence of Marina Tsvetaeva, with whose work he first became acquainted in the early 1960s, is usually noticed in Brodsky's poems, it was Akhmatova who became his full-time critic and teacher. The poet Lev Losev wrote: "The phrase of Akhmatova" You yourself do not understand what you wrote! " after reading "The Big Elegy to John Donne" entered Brodsky's personal myth as a moment of initiation ".

Judgment and world glory

In 1963, after a speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the first secretary of the Central Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, among young people, they began to eradicate "Idiots, moral cripples and whiners"writing on "Bird jargon of idlers and half-educated people"... Iosif Brodsky, who by this time was twice detained by law enforcement agencies, also became a target: the first time for publication in the manuscript journal "Syntax", the second - on the denunciation of a friend. He himself did not like to remember those events, because he believed: the poet's biography was only "In his vowels and hiss, in his meters, rhymes and metaphors".

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: bessmertnybarak.ru

Joseph Brodsky at the Nobel Prize. Photo: russalon.su

Joseph Brodsky with his cat. Photo: binokl.cc

In the newspaper "Vecherny Leningrad" dated November 29, 1963, an article appeared "Near-literary drone", the authors of which branded Brodsky, quoting not his poems and juggling with invented facts about him. On February 13, 1964, Brodsky was arrested again. He was accused of parasitism, although by this time his poems were regularly published in children's magazines, publishing houses ordered translations for him. The whole world learned about the details of the trial thanks to the Moscow journalist Frida Vigdorova, who was present in the courtroom. Vigdorova's notes were forwarded to the West and made it to the press.

Judge: What are you doing?
Brodsky: I write poetry. I am translating. I guess…
Judge: No "I suppose." Stand well! Don't lean against the walls!<...> Do you have a regular job?
Brodsky: I thought it was a permanent job.
Judge: Answer exactly!
Brodsky: I wrote poetry! I thought they would be printed. I guess…
Judge: We are not interested in "I suppose." Tell me why you didn't work?
Brodsky: I worked. I wrote poetry.
Judge: We are not interested ...

The poet Natalya Grudinina and prominent Leningrad professors-philologists and translators Efim Etkind and Vladimir Admoni acted as witnesses for the defense. They tried to convince the court that literary work cannot be equated with parasitism, and the translations published by Brodsky were made at a high professional level. The prosecution witnesses were not familiar with Brodsky and his work: among them were a manager, a military man, a pipe-laying worker, a pensioner and a teacher of Marxism-Leninism. A representative of the Writers' Union also sided with the prosecution. The verdict was harsh: exile from Leningrad for five years with obligatory involvement in labor.

Brodsky settled in the village of Norensk, Arkhangelsk region. He worked on a state farm, and in his free time he read a lot, became interested in English poetry and began to study english language... Frida Vigdorova and the writer Lydia Chukovskaya were concerned about the early return of the poet from exile. A letter in his defense was signed by Dmitry Shostakovich, Samuil Marshak, Kornei Chukovsky, Konstantin Paustovsky, Alexander Tvardovsky, Yuri German and many others. Brodsky also stood up for his "friend Soviet Union»French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In September 1965, Joseph Brodsky was officially released.

Russian poet and American citizen

In the same year, the first collection of Brodsky's poems was published in the United States, prepared without the author's knowledge on the basis of samizdat materials sent to the West. The next book, Stopping in the Desert, was published in New York in 1970 - it is considered Brodsky's first authorized publication. After the exile, the poet was enrolled in a kind of "professional group" at the Writers' Union, which avoided further suspicions of parasitism. But at home, only his children's poems were printed, sometimes they gave orders for translations of poetry or literary processing of dubbing for films. At the same time, the circle of foreign Slavists, journalists and publishers, with whom Brodsky communicated personally and by correspondence, became wider. In May 1972, he was summoned to the OVIR and asked to leave the country to avoid further persecution. Usually, the paperwork to leave the Soviet Union took from six months to a year, but Brodsky's visa was issued in 12 days. On June 4, 1972, Joseph Brodsky flew to Vienna. His parents, friends, former lover Marianna Basmanova, to whom almost all of Brodsky's love lyrics are dedicated, and their son, "a Russian poet, an English-speaking essayist and, of course, an American citizen", remained in Leningrad. Poems included in the collections Part of Speech (1977) and Urania (1987) became an example of his mature Russian-language creativity. In a conversation with Valentina Polukhina, a researcher of Brodsky's work, poetess Bella Akhmadulina explained the phenomenon of a Russian-speaking author in exile in this way.

In 1987, Joseph Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature with the wording “For a comprehensive literary activitycharacterized by clarity of thought and poetic intensity. " In 1991, Brodsky took over as the US Poet Laureate, a consultant to the Library of Congress, and launched the American Poetry and Literacy Program to distribute cheap volumes of poetry to the public. In 1990, the poet married an Italian woman with Russian roots Maria Sozzani, but their happy union was released only five and a half years.

In January 1996, Joseph Brodsky died. He was buried in one of his favorite cities - Venice, in the old cemetery on the island of San Michele.

This summer I visited Italy, on the coast near Venice. In Venice itself, I managed to spend only one day, which, however, was remembered for a long time.

For a very long time, I wanted to visit the island of San Michele, the famous island cemetery, where many famous people are buried, including great writer Joseph Brodsky. The island is visible from the pier, and getting to it - as we naively assumed - is extremely simple and quick: fifteen minutes by water by any kind of water transport. It was not so! Either the day was not ours, or the shadows of the great people, to whom we were heading, were offended at us for something, but the trip to San Michele just didn't work out easy.

Islands of Venice. San Michele

A river taxi ticket cost 15 euros. We took our places, the boat set sail. Everything was fine! .. Until I discovered that the island, located opposite the pier, somehow completely unexpectedly and inopportunely mysteriously completely disappeared from view, and we found ourselves in a place absolutely unknown to us. To my questions, Italian passengers nodded their heads in unison and spoke in a friendly manner: si. Why "si", if no San Michele was visible at all, I did not understand at first. But then I figured it out. I pointed in the direction where the island was supposed to be. So they seemed to think that I was proud of my knowledge of Venetian geography and correctly pointing the direction to their local landmark. Of course, they supported my erudition with their si - I showed it correctly!
Having gotten a little frightened, that a little more - and we will generally sail to no one knows where, we jumped out at the nearest stop. Note that by that time we had been sailing for about thirty minutes!
As soon as we got out, I started looking for the name of the island on the river taxi route, but there was no name. That is, it was, of course, but since I do not know Italian well, we did not manage to understand which word is translated as “cemetery” for a long time.
It was at this moment that it occurred to me that, perhaps, our journey into the mystical areas also turns out to be somehow mystical. And where there is mysticism, there is nothing for the mind to do, intuition leads there! I relied on my sixth sense, jabbed my finger at the map - and I was not mistaken: cimitero really translates from Italian as a cemetery.
We didn't have to wait long for the next taxi. Fifteen minutes later it arrived. "Tweedledum-lyalala!" - the cheerful and friendly driver addressed us in melodious, beautiful, but, unfortunately, incomprehensible Italian. "Сimitero!" - in one voice we sang a mystical spell to him.
And in the most mysterious way, everything has changed. Another forty minutes in the opposite direction - and we were there.
... The San Michele cemetery was very large. Huge seagulls flew over the famous graves. Being on San Michele, you feel yourself in a different reality, in a different time, in a different space.
Having passed the entire cemetery, we reached Brodsky's grave. Signs in Russian lead to his grave. His grave is strewn with flowers and decorated with ribbons. I stood near a letterbox, which was almost filled to the brim, and in my head the lines from a film shot shortly before his death sounded in my head: "You have no idea how glad I am to show Venice to the Russians ..."
It was a strange journey.
Italy. Venice. Brodsky.

Maria Pakhomova

01/28/2016 Polina Elistratova

On January 28, 1996, the greatest poet of our time, Iosif Alexandrovich Brodsky, passed away. He died in his apartment in Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of the largest US city of New York, and this event truly marked the "end of a beautiful era."

On Saturday evening, January 27, 1996, Joseph Brodsky collected manuscripts and books in a portfolio to take with him the next morning and go to the city of South Hadley, where he taught at the university (the spring semester began). Wishing his wife good night, he said that he still needs to work and went up to his office.

In the morning, his wife found him dead on the office floor. On the desk next to the spectacles lay an open book - a bilingual edition of Greek epigrams. The poet's heart stopped suddenly. Heart attack. On February 1, a funeral service was held in one of the churches near Brodsky's house. The next day, the body of the poet, in a coffin covered with metal, was placed in a crypt at the Holy Trinity Cemetery on the banks of the Hudson River, where it rested until June 21, 1997.

A proposal sent by a telegram from a deputy of the State Duma Russian Federation Galina Starovoitova to bury the poet on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg (“I don’t want to choose either a country or a churchyard, I’ll come to die on Vasilievsky Island…”) was rejected. Brodsky's friend, the poet Lev Losev, said the following about this: "This would mean solving the question of returning to his homeland for Brodsky." And this question was one of the most painful for the poet: "I abandoned the country that fed me, from those who forgot me you can make a city."

A memorial service was held on March 8 in Manhattan at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. There were no speeches. Poems were read by almost everyone present, among whom were the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, a native of Saint Lucia and the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature Derek Walcott, an Irish writer and poet, also Nobel laureate on literature in 1995, Sheimus Heaney, Soviet and American ballet dancer and choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov, poets Lev Losev and Eugene Rein, the poet's widow Maria Sozzani-Brodskaya and others.

It took more than a year to resolve the issue of the poet's final resting place. According to Brodsky's widow Maria, one of his friends expressed the idea of \u200b\u200bthe possibility of burying the poet's body in Venice. Brodsky loved Venice almost as much as Petersburg. In addition, Maria Sozzani-Brodskaya is Italian, and as she herself said: “Speaking selfishly, Italy is my country, so it was better for my husband to be buried there”.

On June 21, 1997, the body of Joseph Brodsky was reburied at the old cemetery of San Michele in Venice. Initially, it was planned to bury the poet in the Russian half of the cemetery between the graves of Stravinsky and Diaghilev, but this turned out to be impossible, since the poet was not Orthodox. For burial in the Catholic part of the cemetery, the corresponding clergy also did not agree. As a result, the poet's body was buried in the Protestant part. At first, the resting place was marked with a modest wooden cross named Joseph Brodsky.

San Michele - Venetian necropolis

A few years later, a monument by the artist Vladimir Radunsky was erected on the grave.

On the back of the monument there is an inscription in Latin - this is a line from the elegy of Propertius - Letum non omnia finit - “Death does not end with everything”. Two years ago I was able to see Brodsky's grave with my own eyes, and this event was destined to become one of the most exciting and brilliant events in my life. From the mainland of Venice to the small island on which the cemetery is located, it is about five to seven minutes on the Vaporetto water tram. Despite the fact that quite a lot of tourists landed on the island with me, no unnecessary fuss arose, everyone somehow quietly scattered around the island, which, it should be noted, is not so small.

Finding the poet's grave was quite simple - following the signs, of which there are many. On that sunny day, I brought the poet a couple of packs of Marlborro cigarettes: he smoked a lot and was a drinker, so to this day, Brodsky's admirers from all over the world bring cigarettes and whiskey to the genius's grave, as well as pebbles, letters, poems, pencils and photos. All this is very touching, emotions are difficult to contain. At some point, I noticed that there is a place nearby where anyone can take a small watering can, collect water and water the flowers on the graves.

I went over to take one of the watering cans. At that moment, an old Italian watchman came up to me and in broken English asked where I came from and whose grave I had come to put in order.

- Brodsky? The man smiled. - A relative?
- No, admirer.
- A lot of people come to him, - the old man took a watering can from my hands and helped to draw water. - Have you brought cigarettes?

I nod back, the man smiles again and hands me a watering can.

While I was watering the flowers, interested tourists from other countries passed by the grave along neat paths.

- Who is it? Brodsky? Oh, I like his poetry, like his essays, you know. (English - "Who is this? Brodsky? Oh, I like his poetry, I like essays").

- Brodski? Pass auf! Das ist das Grab des Dichters Joseph Brodski. Lies, was es hinten geschrieben ist! Das ist Latein. (German - "Brodsky? Look! This is the grave of the poet Joseph Brodsky. Read what is written behind it! It's in Latin").

- La tombe du poète Joseph Brodsky! Oh mon Dieu, regardez ce marbre blanc! (French - "The grave of the poet Joseph Brodsky! Oh, my God, look at this white marble!").

The American writer and friend of the poet Susan Sontag once remarked that Venice is the ideal place for Brodsky's grave, since Venice is nowhere. "Nowhere" is the return address that Brodsky gives at the beginning of one of his most lyrically rich poems: "Nowhere with love ...".

A person of a difficult character, a person with a difficult fate, a recognized genius, an unsurpassed master of words, an admirer of language as the highest form of all that exists, a fighter for freedom and human rights, the voice of the era. Each has his own Brodsky. I can hardly imagine my life without the creativity of this person, and I don’t want to imagine. 20 years have passed since the death of one of greatest geniuses of all time.

“Let time be silent about me.
Let the harsh wind cry easily
And over my Jewish grave
Young life is screaming persistently. "

Photo source:spbhi.ru

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San Michele Cemetery Island in Venice

Cemetery of San Michele. The island of San Michele is located in a lagoon near Venice, on this island in the early 19th century, the city's cemetery was located. Since Venice is an island community, it should come as no surprise that the cemetery is also an island, although it can be rather odd at first.

San Michele was designed by Mauro Codussi in the distant 1460s and was one of the earliest Renaissance churches in Venice. The facade of the church was made of white marble, and the church itself was overlooking the lagoon. Church opening hours are limited and may be shortened if services are held.

But, you should still visit this place, not only to look at the church, but also to see the beautiful Emiliani Chapel. The Emiliani Chapel is a chapel located at the very edge of the lagoon.

Italian cemeteries.

Cemeteries in Italy are usually not landmarks, and there are no tourist routes. They are usually located outside the cities. Italian families make a pilgrimage to the graves of their loved ones on November 1 and 2 to lay flowers (you can buy flowers near the cemetery gate).

The secret of Brodsky's death. Why did the poet's ashes rest a year and a half later?

In Venice for these dates there is a special ferry delivery of people to the cemetery.

It is important to remember that in Italy chrysanthemums are flowers that are laid on the graves of dead people, and giving them to living people is considered bad form and bad manners.

Tombs and memorials for important historical figures are generally easier to reach and can be quickly found by tourists following the signs.

Despite the fact that the cemetery at San Michele is prepared for visitors and contains signs showing how to get to the graves of famous people, it should be remembered that this is still a cemetery, most of the tombs here are relatively recent and are visited by grieving families. Therefore, visitors must observe not only silence in this cemetery, but also certain rules (you cannot dress brightly, you must wear a modest dress).

Graves.

The cemetery is divided into many sections, and without a map, you can easily get lost. The signs will lead visitors to the graves of Orthodox Protestants; other graves will be more difficult to find. But it's worth walking around this cemetery. For example, one site is devoted to modest memorials of nuns and tombs of priests.

The Orthodox part of the cemetery is a charming walled garden that catches the late sunlight and is full of flowers and animals (lizards can run around here).

In this cemetery, you can also find the graves of our compatriots: Sergei Diaghilev (Russian theater and art figure) and Igor Stravinsky (Russian composer), Joseph Brodsky (Russian poet).

As over time, there was no more space on the island, and the graves began to stand very closely to each other. Therefore, the relatives of the deceased Venetians are allowed to bury their loved ones here for several years, after about 10 years, the remains are exhumed and stored in another place.

How to get there.

San Michele is located off the north coast of Venice and stands out for its high walls and cypress trees. There are regular routes to the island. The stop is called the "cemetery". Remember, the Church of San Michele is closed at lunchtime.

The North Funeral Home offers you funeral services. We understand that the loss of a loved one is the most difficult loss. Guide a person on his last journey with dignity, and entrust us with organizing this path.

There are many rumors around the death, especially the poet's funeral. His close friend and concurrently secretary I. Kutik clarifies the situation somewhat:

“Two weeks before his death, he bought himself a place in the cemetery. He was terribly afraid of death, he did not want to be either buried or burned, he would be satisfied if he was somewhere walled up. So it happened at first. He bought a place in a small chapel in an awful New York cemetery bordering bad Broadway. It was his will. After that, he left a detailed will on Russian and American affairs, made a list of people to whom the letters were sent. In them, Brodsky asked the recipient to sign that until 2020 he would not talk about Brodsky as a person, would not discuss his private life in the press. Let them talk as much as they like about Brodsky as a poet. In Russia, almost no one knows about this fact, so many of those who received that letter do not keep this word.

And then there was a reburial in Venice. This is generally a Gogol story, which in Russia, too, almost no one knows about. Brodsky was neither a Jew nor a Christian for the reason that perhaps a person is rewarded not by his faith, but by his deeds, although his widow Maria Sodzani (they married in September 1990, and three years later Brodsky had a daughter ) buried him according to the Catholic rite. Joseph had two definitions for himself: a Russian poet and an American essayist. And that's all.

So, about reburial. The mysticism began already on the plane: the coffin opened in flight. I must say that in America, coffins are not hammered in with nails, they are closed with screws and bolts, they do not open even from differences in height and pressure. Sometimes even in case of plane crashes they do not open, but here - for no reason. In Venice, they began to load the coffin on the hearse, it broke in half. I had to transfer the body to another domina. Let me remind you that this was a year after his death. Then he was taken by gondolas to the Isle of the Dead. The original plan involved his burial in the Russian half of the cemetery, between the graves of Stravinsky and Diaghilev. It turned out that this is impossible, since the permission of the Russian Orthodox Church in Venice is necessary, but she does not give it, because he was not Orthodox. As a result, the coffin stands, people are standing, waiting. Throwing, hesitation, confusion began; negotiations went on for two hours. As a result, a decision is made to bury him on the evangelical side. But there are no empty seats, while in Russian - as much as you like. Nevertheless, the place was found - at the feet of Ezra Pound. (I will note that Brodsky could not stand Pound as a person and an anti-Semite, but he valued him very highly as a poet.

Brodsky's grave

In short, not the most the best place rest for a genius.) We began to dig - a rod of a skull and bones, it is impossible to bury. In the end, poor Joseph Alexandrovich, in a new coffin, was carried to the wall behind which electric saws and other equipment were howling; they put a bottle of his favorite whiskey and a pack of his favorite cigarettes on him, and buried him practically on the surface, barely sprinkling it with earth. Then they put a cross in their heads. Well, I think he will bear this cross too. "

And one more circumstance, which was reported only in Italy. Russian President Yeltsin sent six cubic meters of yellow roses to Brodsky's funeral. Mikhail Baryshnikov and his comrades transferred all these roses to the grave of Ezra Pound. Not a single flower from the Russian authorities has remained on the grave of the Russian poet, and still does not exist. Which, in fact, responds to his will.
………………………………………….

source -http: //www.newrzhev.ru/articles.php? id \u003d 199

Living in the USSR Brodsky dreamed of Venice.
When he left the country, he came to Venice for seventeen years. Exclusively in winter.
Wrote about Venice "Embankment of the Incurable."
After his death, the poet's body was reburied in Venice, on the island cemetery of San Michele.

It will be about two Venetian places associated with Brodsky - about the "Embankment of the Incurables" and the island of San Michele.

What is the "Embankment of the Incurable", which is not on modern maps of Venice?

Let's turn to Brodsky's text:

“From the house we went to the left and in two minutes we found ourselves on Fondamenta degli Incurabili.
Ah, the eternal power of language associations! Ah, this fabulous ability of words to promise more than reality can give! Ah, the tops and roots of the writing craft. Of course, "Embankment of the Incurable" refers to the plague, to the epidemics, century after century, half devastated the city with the regularity of a census producer. This name brings to mind hopeless cases - not so much wandering along the pavement, as lying on it, literally losing their breath, in shrouds, waiting for them to come - or, more precisely, to sail. Torches, braziers, gauze masks protecting from infectious vapors, the rustle of monastic robes and vestments, the fluttering of black cloaks, candles. The funeral procession gradually turns into a carnival, or even a walk, when you have to wear a mask, because everyone in this city knows each other. "

(Joseph Brodsky "Embankment of the Incurable")

Those who want to find the famous Brodsky embankment should look for Fondamenta delle Zattere on the map, the Plot embankment in the Dorsoduro quarter, about two kilometers long, opposite the Giudecca island. This embankment was in the "plague" times the embankment of the Incurables (Fondamenta degli incurabili). The attentive will notice the hint signs "Zattere agli Incurabili" ("Zattere, the former Incurables").
In 2009, a memorial plaque to Joseph Brodsky appeared on the embankment.

Island of the Dead, San Michele became a cemetery in 1807, by order of Napoleon.
Before that, there was a monastery on the island, and later - a prison. Before the cemetery appeared, the Venetians buried the dead in the city: in gardens, churches, basements. In some cases, the Venetian authorities allow outstanding people to be buried on San Michele.

Buried on San Michele is Igor Stravinsky - a Russian composer, conductor and pianist - he died in Venice in 1971. Several years later, his wife was buried next to Stravinsky.

Not far from Stravinsky's grave, Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, a Russian theatrical and artistic figure, organizer of the "Russian Seasons" in Paris, who died in Venice in 1929, is buried.
Ballet shoes are attached to the Diaghilev monument.

On January 28, 1996, Joseph Brodsky died in New York.
There are several versions of why they decided to bury the poet in San Michele.
Some argue about his own disposition in this regard in the will.
Others - about the proposal of one of the poet's friends, supported by Brodsky's widow Maria Sozzani.
Be that as it may, but on June 21, 1997 in Venice, with the permission of the city authorities, the body of Joseph Brodsky was reburied in the cemetery of San Michele.
The place was allocated on the Protestant part of the cemetery, as for a person without religion.
On back side the words from the elegy of the Properties of Letum pop omnia finit ("Death does not end") have been knocked out of the modest monument.

I write these lines sitting on a white chair
in the open air, in winter, in one
jacket, giving, pushing the cheekbones
phrases in the native language.
The coffee will get cold. The lagoon is splashing, hundreds
small glare dull pupil execution
for striving to remember a landscape that can do without me.

(Joseph Brodsky "Venetian stanzas (2)" 1982)

How to get to San Michele: take vaporetto 41 or 42.
From Fondamente Nuovo one stop to Cimitero.

At the cemetery, I asked "where is Brodsky's grave", I thought that they would just wave "there," and the ministers kindly escorted me to the place.
But you can also find your way using the signs.

There are many rumors around the death, especially the poet's funeral. His close friend and concurrently secretary I. Kutik clarifies the situation somewhat:

So, about reburial. The mysticism began already on the plane: the coffin opened in flight. I must say that in America, coffins are not hammered in with nails, they are closed with screws and bolts, they do not open even from differences in height and pressure. Sometimes even in case of plane crashes they do not open, but here - for no reason. In Venice, they began to load the coffin on the hearse, it broke in half. I had to transfer the body to another domina. Let me remind you that this was a year after his death. Then he was taken by gondolas to the Isle of the Dead. The original plan involved his burial in the Russian half of the cemetery, between the graves of Stravinsky and Diaghilev. It turned out that this is impossible, since the permission of the Russian Orthodox Church in Venice is necessary, but she does not give it, because he was not Orthodox. As a result, the coffin stands, people are standing, waiting. Throwing, hesitation, confusion began; negotiations went on for two hours. As a result, a decision is made to bury him on the evangelical side. But there are no empty seats, while in Russian - as much as you like. Nevertheless, the place was found - at the feet of Ezra Pound. (Note that Brodsky could not stand Pound as a person and an anti-Semite, but he valued him very highly as a poet. It turns out halfway. In short, not the best resting place for a genius.) They started digging - a rod of skull and bones, it is impossible to bury. In the end, poor Joseph Alexandrovich in a new coffin was carried to the wall behind which electric saws and other equipment were howling; they put him a bottle of his favorite whiskey and a pack of his favorite cigarettes, and buried him practically on the surface, barely sprinkling it with earth. Then they put a cross in their heads. Well, I think he will bear this cross too. "

Joseph Brodsky

Memories

White sky
spinning over me.
The earth is gray
rumbles under my feet.
On the left are trees. On right
another lake
with stone shores,
with wooden banks.

I pull out, pull out
feet from the swamp,
and the sun shines on me
small rays.
Field season
fifty-eighth year.
I am to the White Sea
slowly making my way.

The rivers flow north.
The guys wander - waist-deep - along the rivers.
White Night above us
lightly dawns.
I'm looking for. I make myself
human.
And so we find
we go to the coast.

Bluish wind
it already reaches us.
Earth turns into water
with a short splash.
I raise my hands
and i raise my head,
and the sea comes to me
its whitish color.

Who do we remember
who are we forgetting now
what are we worth
what we are not yet worth;

here we stand by the sea
and the clouds are passing by
and our footprints
sucked in water.

Monument to Pushkin

... And Pushkin falls in blue
wadded prickly snow
E. Bagritsky.

And silence.
And not a word more.
And an echo.
And even fatigue.
... Your poems
ending with blood
they sank to the ground.
Then they looked slowly
and gently.
They were wild, cold
and strange.
Leaning over them hopelessly
gray-haired doctors and seconds.
Stars above them, shuddering,
sang,
stopped over them
winds ...

Empty boulevard.
And the blizzard singing.
Empty boulevard.
And a monument to the poet.
Empty boulevard.
And the blizzard singing.
And the head
lowered wearily.

On a night like this
toss and turn in bed
more pleasant
than stand
on pedestals.

source -http: //www.newrzhev.ru/articles.php? id \u003d 199