Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani: 5 of the happiest American years of the poet's life

Friends and relatives of the poet Joseph Brodsky stubbornly keep silence about his personal life. Maria Sotstsani is ready to discuss the work of her husband Brodsky, but she never supports the conversation about their family. Only one thing is known: Joseph Brodsky was very happy the last five years of his life, which he spent in the United States, the newspaper writes Culturology.

Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani. / Photo: www.podrobnosti.ua

Emigration

4 June 1972, the plane took Joseph Brodsky to Vienna. He was deprived of his citizenship and forced to leave his homeland. In Vienna, Karl Proffer was waiting for him, who immediately voiced an invitation to work from the University of Michigan.
Brodsky was not at all inclined to make a sacrifice of himself. He spent some time in Europe, met with Western writers and went to the United States to begin work as a guest poet. Talented, received recognition of the world community, not even having a full secondary education, he became one of the most favorite lecturers of the university. And then he began to read his lectures in Canada, France, Ireland, Sweden, England, USA, Italy.

He did not study pedagogy and did not own any methods. But he entered the audience and began his constant dialogue about poetry, its meaning in life. As a result, a lecture, a seminar, a forum or just a meeting turned into an exciting poetic act.

Brodsky during his lecture. / Photo from the archives of the University of Michigan.

True, often the manner of teaching shocked his colleagues, but they had to come to terms with the vagaries of genius. He could smoke during a lecture and drink coffee. Soon it was not surprising to anyone, it was even strange to imagine Brodsky without a cigarette.

Lecture Brodsky. / Photo from the archives of the University of Michigan.

His fame grew. It was already possible to talk not about what he did and what he wrote about, being a citizen of the Soviet Union, but about how much he had managed, having changed his citizenship.

Loneliness

The poet, who, shortly before emigration, suffered a heavy break from his beloved, and then turned out to be simply thrown out of his country, found solace in his work and teaching.

Brodsky and Mississippi's favorite cat. / Photo: www.blogs.germany.ru

In 1976, he suffered a first heart attack, and in 1978, he had a heart surgery. Joseph Brodsky needed postoperative care and care for loved ones. But his parents were again and again denied the right to see his son. He was not allowed to feel the warmth of parental hands. Brodsky's father and mother died without seeing their son.

There was in his life a long and tragic love story with Marina Basmanova. In this relationship, as if incinerated himself. He could not forgive his lover neither her betrayal, nor his own loneliness.

Parents of Joseph Brodsky. / Photo: www.loveread.me

Celebrating his fiftieth birthday in May 1990, Joseph Brodsky says: “God decided otherwise: I was destined to die single. The writer is a lone traveler. ” But this prophecy did not come true.

He was quite lonely and always stressed that loneliness allows him to create sharper and more productive. Perhaps that is why for a long time he did not make any serious relations with women. But then a beautiful Italian with Russian roots appeared in his life.

Maria Sozzani

Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani. / Photo: www.mycdn.me

They first met at the Sorbonne in January 1990. At the lecture of the poet Joseph Brodsky, the Nobel laureate, flew Italian Maria Sozzani. Charming beauty, studying the history of Russian literature. Her mother comes from a Russian noble family, her father works in a high position in the Pirelli company.

It is unlikely that the poet then singled out Mary from the crowd, too many people attended his lectures. But he soon received a letter from her from Italy. And for several months, postal letters became a connecting thread between the great poet and a young Italian student.

Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani. / Photo: www.lipetsk.ru

Already in the summer, Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani leave for Sweden together. It was in Sweden that Brodsky very often visited. 1 September 1990 was a marriage of Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani, who was younger than the poet by almost 10 years 30, in the Stockholm City Hall. Bengdt Yangfeldt and his friend, a philologist-slavist and translator, helped his great poet to marry the wedding.

Family

The poet's marriage came as a surprise to both his friends and admirers of his talent. It was a very quick decision about the wedding. But Brodsky, as always, did not care about the opinions of others. For the first time in many years, he was finally, unconditionally happy. Many friends of the poet will say later that the life of Joseph Brodsky, married to Maria, turned out to be happier than all previous 50 years.

Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani. / Photo: www.nationmagazine.ru

He was very gentle towards his wife, almost fatherly. If you look at the photos of Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani, it is impossible not to notice some kind of inner luminous glow of both.

On Christmas 1993 of the year, 25 of December a poem will appear, and many will wonder for a long time who is hiding behind the initials of the dedication. MB - this is how Brodsky always wrote verses dedicated to Marina Basmanova. But MB is the initials now his wife, Maria Brodskaya.

What is needed for a miracle? Sheepskin casing,
pinch today, a little bit yesterday,
and to handful tomorrow add to the peephole
A bit of space and sky piece.
And the miracle will happen ...

Poems dedicated to Marina were full of tragedy, expectations of something inevitable and terrible. And here there is a clear, open hope, waiting for a miracle. And the miracle really happened, however, a little earlier.

Joseph Brodsky and Maria Sozzani. / Photo: www.skd-ug.ru

In the same year, 1993, Joseph and Maria gave birth to little Anna. The family spoke English, but Maria tried to teach her daughter Russian, so that she could later read the works of her great father in the original.

He loved his Nyusha immensely, spending every free minute with her. But 28 January 1996, the poet's heart stopped. He went up to his office to work, in the morning his wife found him dead ... And Nyusha will dictate letters to her mother for a long time and ask him to tie them to a ball that will fly to her father.

Joseph Brodsky and his daughter. / Photo: www.polyarnik.org

Today Anna Alexandra Maria Sozztsani, who has matured, gets acquainted with the work of her father and admits that for her this is communication with the closest person.

As he wrote ForumDailyAnna Alexandra Brodskaya-Sozzani lives in Italy, where she recently moved from England. The granddaughter of Brodsky Pelagia Basmanova, the daughter of Sergey's son from his first marriage, lives with his family in St. Petersburg, where he studies at the Interregional Institute of Economics and Law at the Faculty of Communicative Design. A student who is very similar to her grandmother, the poet's first love, dreams of opening her own branding agency.

Brodsky's daughter Anna Alexandra Brodskaya-Sozzani

Granddaughter of Brodsky Pelagia Basmanova

Maria transported the body of her spouse to Venice. And she returned from America to her homeland, in Italy. Joseph Brodsky handed over his entire archive to the Russian National Library before the 1972 year, and shortly before his death, he left instructions to close access to personal records for exactly 50 years after his death. Literary heritage is open to study and research. The great poet wanted to be judged by his creativity, and not by the stories about his private life.

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