"Hamlet" (A Poem)

Doctor Zhivago, first published in 1957, is a complex novel which explores the Russian Revolution of 1905 through the eyes of the fictional physician and poet Doctor Yuri Zhivago. Due to its progressive stance, the work was banned in the USSR and Boris Pasternak had to seek publication in Italy.[1] One of the many poems written by the novel's protagonist, "Hamlet," as Edith Clowes argues, is the most influential in expressing one of the story's central themes: the concept of Fate and our ability/inability to control its effects upon our lives.[2] Indeed, Donald Davies likens Zhivago's Hamlet to the biblical Jesus, claiming both are thrust into an existence where their inevitable deaths have been predetermined by the actions of their fathers.[3]

The plaudits slowly fade away.
Again I come upon the stage.
I strain to hear in dying echoes
The fate that waits our present age.

Through thousands of binoculars
The night of darkness stares at me.
If possible, O Abba, Father,
Then take away this cup from me.

I love Thy stern design, and I am
Content to act this role of woe.
But there's another play on stage;
Then spare me now, and let me go.

The acts are plotted, planned with care;
The end, foredoomed. I stand alone.
The Pharisees exult in pride.
O hard the way - our ways of stone.[4]

Works Referenced

Clowes, Edith. "Doctor Zhivago in the Post-Soviet Era: A Re-Introduction." Doctor Zhivago: A Critical Companion. Ed. Edith Clowes. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1995. 3-48.
 
Davie, Donald. The Poems of Dr. Zhivago. New York: Manchester University Press, 1965.
 
Pasternak, Boris. Doctor Zhivago. Trans. Eugene Kayden. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 1977.
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[1] Clowes, 3-4.
[2] Clowes, 16-17.
[3] Davie, 51-54.
[4] Pasternak, 614.