50b
ILYA EHRENBUR6
death, he wrote a vile and slanderous notice in
Les Nouvelles
Lit·
teraires.
Together with several French writers I composed a letter to
the editors of this literary newspaper in which we expressed our
in·
dignation. The letter was signed by all decent French writers of
the
most divergent views; I don't remember anybody refusing to sign.
I took the letter to the editor, Maurice Martin du Gard (he
was
an insignificant figure, nothing like the great writer Roger Martin
du Gard ) . The editor calmly read through this extremely sharp
letter and then said: "I would like to ask you to make one small
change." I answered that the text could not be modified. "I
am
not asking for that, but perhaps you could change the phrase "We
are outraged that a literary journal" to "we are outraged that
the
greatest
of literalY journals." He didn't mind being slapped on the
face, but he wanted us to make clear that it was a big face. This
would have been a great theme for Mayakovsky....
Mayakovsky's fortunes in the world at large have been extra–
ordinary. Not long ago some writers from black Africa talked to me
about him; he had even reached them there. He orbits the world.
His verse is of course difficult to translate and much of what he
claimed to be the form of the future is now the form of the past.
But as man and poet he is young as always. Neither Aragon, nor
Pablo Neruda, nor Eluard, nor Tuwim, nor Nezval have ever writ·
ten an imitation of Mayakovsky. But they all owe much to Maya–
kovsky-he taught them not new verse forms but how to make a
courageous choice
in
life.
27
We must be able to distinguish between the modern and the
fashionable, between the pioneering spirit and various "novelties"
which appear old-fashioned twenty-five years later.... In 1940
nine-tenths of the budding poets broke up their lines in Mayakov–
sky's manner, but they are now imitating other examples; fashions
change. Mayakovsky was beaten about the head with volumes of
Pushkin, Nekrasov and Blok. Should we now pummel the young
with volumes of Mayakovsky?
I
I have said that Mayakovsky could have helped me figure "
many things out. I remember a conversation we had one night
in
27. i.e. the choice of becoming a communist, which was made by all the
poets mentioned, in various circumstances.
