As part of the 5th International Children’s Cultural Forum, Dmitry Bak, Director of the Vladimir Dahl State Museum of the History of Russian Literature and curator of the Literature and Journalism programme, delivered the lecture «Poetry for All Time: How Classical Poetry Answers the Questions of Today».
The Vladimir Dahl State Museum of the History of Russian Literature is a partner of the Forum and Russia’s largest museum devoted to the history of the country’s literature. Its collection comprises more than 400,000 items, and one of the museum’s key missions is to introduce new generations to the legacy of Russian writers.
During the lecture, participants discussed why works written many years ago still resonate with readers today. Using Alexander Pushkin’s «Elegy» as an example, Dmitry Bak demonstrated how poetry can express meanings that cannot be conveyed in ordinary words:
«The vanished revelry of reckless years
Weighs heavily on me, like a troubled haze.
Yet, like old wine, the sorrow of days gone by
Grows stronger in my soul as time goes by.»
The poet reflects on joy and sorrow and on how a person’s view of the past changes over time. Yet the feelings he writes about remain just as understandable today.
