The Cloud in Trousers (Mayakovsky)
Short summary
Odessa, 1914. Vladimir Mayakovsky waited for Maria, who had promised to come at four o'clock.
Hours passed in agony as midnight struck. When Maria finally arrived, she announced she was getting married to someone else. The poet's heart caught fire with pain, and he cried out to his mother about his suffering. In his anguish, he declared himself superior to all great men and rejected traditional poetry. He condemned the street's inability to express itself while poets wrote about love and nightingales. The poet proclaimed himself and the downtrodden masses purer than Venice, holding the world's driving belts in their fists. He prophesied the coming revolution of 1916.
After Maria's rejection, the poet confronted God directly.
Listen, mister god!
Isn't it tedious
to dip your puffy eyes
every day into a jelly of cloud?
Let us—why not—
start a merry-go-round
on the tree of what is good and evil!
Detailed summary by parts
Part titles are editorial.
Poetic manifesto and challenge to conventional verse
The narrator proclaimed his revolutionary approach to poetry, rejecting traditional romantic verse. He declared himself capable of extreme transformation, promising to be either savage or tender as needed.
Part 1. Waiting for Maria and emotional despair
In Odessa, the narrator waited for Maria, who had promised to come at four o'clock. Hours passed - eight, nine, ten - but she never arrived. As night fell, he stood hunched by the window, his massive frame trembling with anticipation and growing despair.
When Maria finally appeared, she abruptly announced her engagement to another man. The narrator's emotional turmoil intensified as his nerves began to dance frantically throughout his body. He called out to his mother in anguish, describing how his heart was literally on fire.
I feel
my "I"
is much too small for me.
Stubbornly a body pushes out of me.
Part 2. Poetry, rebellion, and the role of the poet
The narrator rejected traditional literature and proclaimed himself superior to classical poets. He declared that modern poets must struggle with callused feet before creating art, while the street writhed in silence, unable to express itself. He positioned himself as a prophet of revolution, seeing the year 1916 approaching with its crown of revolutions.
He described his persecution by contemporaries who mocked him, yet proclaimed his role as a precursor to revolutionary change. The narrator declared that he had nailed himself to the cross of universal pain, cauterizing souls where tenderness once lived.
I am where pain is—everywhere;
on each drop of the tear-flow
I have nailed myself on the cross.
Nothing is left to forgive.
He promised to offer his trampled soul as a banner when the saviour arrived to lead the rebellion against the established order.
Part 3. Revolutionary fervor and social upheaval
The narrator encountered fellow poets in a moment of artistic revelation. He witnessed a panic-stricken man crawling through his screaming eye, who then announced that everything was fine.
He criticized another poet for his timid approach to art, declaring himself a common pimp and cardsharp in contrast. The narrator envisioned leading Napoleon like a pug on a leash while the earth yielded to his power. He called for revolution, urging the famished and oppressed to rise up, painting weekdays in blood to transform them into holidays.
In a saloon corner, he noticed a madonna's eyes that bit into his heart, questioning why such radiance was bestowed upon the tavern crowd. He proclaimed himself possibly the thirteenth apostle, suggesting that Jesus Christ might be sniffing the forget-me-nots of his soul whenever his voice rumbled bawdily.
Part 4. Final appeal to Maria and declarations of love
The narrator made a desperate final plea to Maria, begging her to let him in as he could no longer bear the streets. He described the rain-soaked city where people burst with grease and the degradation of urban life surrounded him. His passionate appeal revealed the depth of his suffering and longing.
Maria! Maria! Maria!
Let me in, Maria!
I can't suffer the streets!
You won't?
You'd rather wait
until my cheeks cave in
He confessed his love with raw honesty, asking simply for her body as Christians pray for daily bread. The narrator promised to cherish her with the devotion of a wounded soldier protecting his remaining limb. When she rejected him, he vowed to carry his broken heart like a dog carries its injured paw to its kennel.
Your body
I shall cherish and love
as a soldier,
amputated by war,
unwanted
and friendless,
cherishes his last remaining leg.
In his final confrontation with God, the narrator challenged the divine order, offering to round up beautiful girls from the boulevards and questioning why humans cannot kiss without torture. He threatened to rip heaven open with a shoemaker's knife, demanding entry despite divine resistance. The poem concluded with his defiant declaration that he was coming, as the universe slept with its huge paw curled upon a star-infested ear.
If you wish,
I shall rage on raw meat;
or, as the sky changes its hue,
if you wish,
I shall grow irreproachably tender:
not a man, but a cloud in trousers!