“Hit Me as if a Sky Blue Shawl, My Messy Youth…” (Marina Tsvetaeva, 1921)

“Hit me as if a sky blue shawl, my messy youth,                                                                                                                

We’ve shawled enough with, to say the truth,

Time to part! Oh, my shocking, dancing,

Sweet, golden, amber youth, Your Eminence!”

Marina Tsvetaeva, 1921 (Translation by Valentina Pattison)

Extremely unusual images of a Great Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva were putting me in a poetic, lyrical mood. Listen more from her fine poetry:Film Based on M. Tsvetaeva’s Poems

“My messy youth as if a sky blue shawl” image row led me specifically to the recollections of my sister Emma who would have been 75 on the 5th of March of this year. She was a Jack of all trades, really, hand making crafts, knit shawls and did crochet the table cloths, pillow cases, runners, creating the most intricate clothes designs you can imagine. So the fashion gala show of knit and crochet models was named by me in her honor “Emma’s Garret”. Watch on the slide show:

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To pay a tribute to the beauty and talent of her hands I gathered the whole collection of her patterns and put it on the slide show as well. Watch the slide show “Emma’s Patterns”: 

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To the left a photo of her favorite model, and to the right Emma’s photo when she was young.

On the top of that, inspired by Marina Tsvetaeva whom Emma adored very much and even gave the poetess’s  “marine” name for her only daughter Marina, I myself composed a verse “Shawl”:

“Wrapped up in a kerchief as if by web of a spider,

Hard working from dawn “til late in dusk,

In sweat, without a single second,

Distracting from the main task.

The web looks now like a water drop,

Glistening and sparkling with many colors,

In sun beams, dancing through and on the top,

Of the open windows and traverse.

Kerchief designed in a form of spider web,

Spread along the shoulders and aft,

Look at it! A wonder crochet net,

Sitting proudly smiling, such a craft!

Go to one side or to the other,

Run around or stop at glance,

What a masterpiece, farther,

You retreat, better see at once.

Two designs competing: 1) done by hand,

And 2) by mother-nature,

The difference is impossible to comprehend,

Even if in the whole night lecture.

Airy, super light, azure shawl,

Recently flown as a gift for me,

So pity to leave you for a stroll,

Changing clothes for sporty.

Unwrapped out of the shawl,

Throwing it carelessly on the chair,

So lonely, incapable to crawl,

Chasing me in vain and despair.”

Completing those memorial lines, I put one more slide show “Emma’s Shawls”, dedicated to the golden hands of my sister. 

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Listen to the song “How Young We were” :“How Young We Were”, sung by Dmitriy Khvorostovsky