“Autumn is a dark horizon”, Shevchuk sings according to the famous song of the same name by the rock band DDT. That’s well said, isn’t it?! In the sunny summer everything is clear. But when autumn comes, everything is hidden behind a dark horizon. The term “dark horizon” at its core suggests a romantic approach to life. Most people connect the word “romance” with love, tenderness, roses. But actually, Romantic writers were melancholic, sad and even suicidal people. Let us recall Hoffman, Kleist, Musset and, finally, Hugo.
The following words that Shevchuk sings are:
“What is the autumn – it is the wind
Again fooling around in broken chains.
Autumn, tell me if we are able to snake or fly until we get the answer:
What will happen with our motherland and us?
Autumn, tell me if we are able to snake or fly till dawn?
Autumn, what will happen to us tomorrow?”
These are melancholy, threatening and metaphysical feelings, which are directed from the social-sphere to the personal: from concern for our motherland to a tremulous sorrow in each of us. Overall will we be able to make it until dawn?
Traditionally, I write more optimistically for the September issue. I write about the 1st of September, small schoolgirls wearing white aprons and large bows in pigtails, their merry parents bringing bouquets of flowers. All these exist annually.
Actually, September is never a sad month. Autumn starts with September. According to Vladimir Dal, the word “autumn” in Russian is derived from the verb “to shade” (‘oseniat′) or “to shadow”. But the other meaning of ‘oseniat′ is “to illuminate”, “to bless”, “make the sign of the cross over someone or something”. Truly beautiful, right?
Victor Loupan
