Yasnov Mikhail Davidovich is a wonderful St. Petersburg poet, whose poems are mostly written for children and about children.
Pure clear lines, piercing to the depths of the soul with their sincerity and kindness, easily found their admirers among the audience of all ages.
Mikhail Yasnov: poems for children
The heroes of the poet’s fascinating works are ordinary children living near us. Affectionate, restless, observant and funny, they get acquainted with the outside world, make interesting discoveries, try to take independent steps and look for their own life path.
“I grow up”, “I teach a kitten”, “I help in the kitchen”, “I wash my hands”, “I draw a thunderstorm” - the names of the poems by Mikhail Yasnov seem to speak with the voices of the guys with whom the author merged. The poet, like a magician, turns a variety of life stories into a fun unpredictable game that captivates the reader in his own maelstrom.
The childhood and youth of the author
It all began on January 8, 1946, when Mikhail Davidovich Yasnov was born in the city of Leningrad. The future author grew up on the works of Korney Chukovsky and Samuel Marshak, listened with interest to the lessons of the poetic language of the children's poet Alexander Alexandrovich Shibaev.
Misha learned to read early, and not from books, like most children, but from his mother standing in endless lines for groceries. This happened in the hungry post-war years, as a reading aid were numerous posters on theatrical pedestals and store signs. The first memorable words were the names of the playwrights and the names of the performances, which at that time were completely incomprehensible to the boy. The first self-read book was “This is my little book about the sea and about the lighthouse” by Vladimir Mayakovsky.
The main event in his fate, Mikhail Yasnov, considers acquaintance and friendship with the famous children's writer Valentin Berestov, the man who showed him the way to the bright world of Childhood.
The beginning of the creative path
In school years, Mikhail Yasnov quite actively attended the literary club of the City Palace of Pioneers, where, like many peers, he learned the subtleties of the Russian language with pleasure and learned to be attentive to the word: he wrote epigrams and parodies, played words. The imperceptibly manifested love of poetry determined the choice of Mikhail's life path.
Mikhail Davidovich began to engage in professional literature after graduating from the philological faculty of Leningrad State University. It is especially easy for the author to manage literary translations, occupying a particularly reverent niche in his work. The Leningrad writer masterly sets out into Russian the French authors: S. Baudelaire, A. Rimbaud, P. Verlaine, G. Apollinaire, as well as poems and tales for young readers.
Books by Mikhail Yasnov
The first book for children "The Cure for Yawning" was released in 1979. Then I saw the light “Learning to write”, “March Eighth”, “ABC Book Festival”, “Cheek, cheek - two bags”, “Visiting Pig Tomorrow”, “Nosomot with a Begerog”, “Miracle”, “Puppy Alphabet”, Stuffed meow "," Games for the puppy "," Visiting Segezian. " A book for the adult public was published in 1986.
Where does the author get poetry themes? How is the creative process going? What comes first: rhyme or theme? A huge number of questions.
Everything happens in different ways. There is one unexpected word uttered by children's lips, or a snippet of a phrase, heard completely by accident, immediately “begs” for poetry. Or the basis for the rhymed lines becomes a certain plot, prompted by the younger generation. The poet’s rhymed lines turned into many children's songs, the music for which was mostly written by the composer and part-time friend Grigory Gladkov. A large number of records, CDs with verses and children's songs were released.
Where do the strings come from?
Mikhail Yasnov, whose books have been translated into several languages ​​(Polish, French, English, Romanian, Latvian, Estonian), has been conducting various children's programs on radio since 1991: Cricket, Poetry Book, which were necessarily associated with poetry. His love of organizing the poetic process led Mikhail to the editors, where he fully enjoys his favorite work: he edits children's pages in newspapers and magazines, writes about children's books, meets with readers.
Meetings with children's audiences have long been an important part of his life. Speaking with his own works in this case for the author turns into a joint “work on mistakes”: some verses are caught by the audience on the fly, the second ones require some refinement, the third ones simply disappear into the shadows. In addition, such meetings are of great benefit to the younger generation, because they teach sincerity, kindness, love for one's neighbor. Since 1995, Mikhail Yasnov has been working closely with literary gifted children and supports their participation in various international competitions.