"What can I oppose to the overwhelming aesthetics of antiquity? Will not the revolution require me to have a serious education?" — asks Mayakovsky in his autobiography "I Myself." He considers himself uneducated and tries to learn in order to create new art. Life itself has been completely transformed into an act of building life in the spirit of the times. And it awaits the arrival of the New Man: "And he, \/ free, \/ I scream about whom, \/ man — \/ he will come, \/ believe me, \/ believe!" ("War and Peace"). Whether the poet was happy in his personal life can be traced through his love poems: "And only \/ my pain \/ is sharper — \/ I stand, \/ wrapped in fire, \/ on an indestructible fire \/ of inconceivable love..." ("Man"). The book includes Mayakovsky's early lyrics, the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky," love poems "Cloud in Trousers," "Flute-Spine," "I Love," "About This," as well as "War and Peace," "Man" and 20 portraits of colleagues, friends, and the poet's loved ones, created by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Among them is a female portrait of an unknown woman, presumably Maria Denisova, most likely also the hand of Vladimir Mayakovsky. "But the artist's experience will help him perceive poetry through images and search for the most accurate rhymes, so that the reader not only hears, but also sees the slanted cheekbones of the ocean, the howling, tortured violin, the tram that has bounced the pupils into the air..." — writes Natalia Kachur in the introductory article to this book.
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