Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/csi.5079
"Verses on the Unknown Soldier" by Osip Mandelstam: Slow Reading Experience
Vasilij Pavlovich Moskvin
orcid.org/0000-0001-6849-253X
; State Social and Pedagogical University of Volgograd, Volgograd, Russia
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to explain several fragments of
one of the most difficult to understand works by Osip Mandel-
stam. The sources of obscurity in the literary text, in particular,
are: 1) the abundant use of semantic transfers, often lacking
the contextual support necessary for unambiguous interpreta-
tion (as is typical of symbolism employed by Aleksandr Blok,
Marina Tsvetaeva, and Osip Mandelstam); 2) reliance on a
consituation that is not known to all addressees or is deliber-
ately veiled; 3) the presence of intertextual associations that
are not always recognisable. To achieve the set purpose, a
multidimensional methodology for analysing dark places has
been developed, including a toolkit that comprises analysis of
horizontal and vertical context, consituative testing, and tech-
niques of transformational analysis. On this basis, a number
of explanations have been compiled. Thus, the central image
of this text, written in a rhetorically sublime, solemn style, is
a phantasmagorically grotesque image of a gas attack, sym-
bolically concentrating the horrors of war. Contextual anal-
ysis has shown that the substance in question is mustard gas,
since it causes: 1) the formation of ulcers, which later form
scars resembling smallpox marks–hence the metaphorical ep-
ithet ospennyj “smallpox” attributed by Osip Mandelstam to
this gas; 2) suffocation, referenced in the verse I borot’sya za
vozduh prozhitochnyj “suffocate”. The interpretation of this
gas as phosgene accepted in the scientific literature is ques-
tionable, since phosgene does not leave traces on the skin. The
image of the attack is made using the technique of deliberate
darkening, since: 1) the direct nomination of physiological
phenomena (such as ulcers, suffocation, vomiting, etc.) is in-
compatible with a high style of narration; 2) darkening gives
the description a prophetic character and heuristic value. It
should be assumed that the need to maintain the metrical struc-
ture and produce the desired rhyme, which is significant for
poetic speech, imposes significant restrictions on the choice of
words, affecting their order, leads to semantic anomalies and
obscuration of meaning, and thereby to relative (compared
with prose) tolerance of poetic speech: 1) to semantic inco-
herence; 2) to a certain degree of obscurity as a stylistic norm.
Keywords
poetics; imagery; semantic transfer; loci obscuri
Hrčak ID:
349363
URI
Publication date:
14.7.2026.
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