PEOPLE, YEARS AND LIFE
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extraordinary strength, broke wooden beams in two with his bare
hands, and bounced trouble-makers out of the cafe. Once the "real–
life futurist" decided to erect a monument to himself on Theater
Square; it was of plaster, not very big and by no means futuristic–
it was a statue of Goitschmidt in the nude. The passerby were
indignant, but did not dare tamper with the mysterious monument.
But later it was smashed to pieces anyway.
These are all things of the past. Two years ago two American
tourists-David Burlyuk and his wife-came to Moscow. In Amer–
ica, Burlyuk draws, makes a fairly good living, and has gone re–
spectable; the lorgnette and the "pregnant men" are no more. To
me futurism now seems far more ancient than ancient Greece. But
for Mayakovsky, who died young, it was, if not a living thing, stilI
close to his heart.
I went to the Poets' Cafe rather often and once I even per–
formed and was paid by Goltschmidt.
I remember an evening when Anatole Lunacharsky
13
came to
the cafe. He sat dO"ffi modestly at a rear table and listened. Maya–
kovsky asked him if he would like to speak. He refused. Mayakovsky
insisted: "Repeat what you told me about my poetry." Lunacharsky
had to speak. He talked about Mayakovsky's talent, but criticized
futurism and spoke in passing of the futility of self-advertisement.
Then Mayakovsky said they would soon put up a monument to
him at the very spot where the Poets' Cafe then stood. He was only
a few hundred meters off-the monument was erected not far from
Nastasinsky Street.
Was this conceit or arrogance? The question has often been put
by Mayakovsky's contemporaries. Take, for example, the way he
celebrated the twelfth anniversary of his career as a poet. He often
called himself the greatest of poets. He demanded recognition dur–
ing his lifetime--this was very much in the spirit of the times, and
part of that debunking of "idols" complained of by Balmont14 which
was aimed at drawing attention to art at all costs.
"I like to watch children dying . . ." Mayakovsky could not
even stand the sight of a horse being maltreated. A friend of mine
13. Then Minister of Education.
14. The Decadent poet, Konstantin Balmont.
