Is it true that the author of the poem “There is aunts like aunts” - Vladimir Mayakovsky?

For many years, a short obscene work, attributed to the poet of the Silver Age, has been walking over the network for many years. We checked whether Mayakovsky really composed it.

The poem looks like this:

There are aunts like aunts
There are uncles like uncles
There are people like people
There is b *** and how b***And.
But in life sometimes happens differently:
There are uncles like aunts
There are aunt like uncles
There is b***And like people
And people like b***And.

Signed by Mayakovsky, this nine spreads on entertainment sites (Joyreactor, anekdot.ru, "YaPlakal","Picabu") And in social networks (Tiktok, "VKontakte" Telegram). On Facebook some publications More than 2000 reposts were scored with this work.

It is popular that Mayakovsky often used obscene words in his work. In many ways, this idea has developed thanks to the ending of his software poem "To you!":" I better in the bar b *** pits will // Serve Pineapple water! " However, I found out The researcher of Russian futurism Alexander Parnis, this obscene word is found in the works of the classic only three times, and with public author's readings of the poem "You!" Ephemism was used "fuy". Two other examples are the lines “Poet, like b***b ruble, lives with any "from the poem"Verlaine and Cezan", As well as" according to the squares where tuberculosis is groaning, where***b with a bully and syphilis ”from the entry to the poem"Long voice".

IN 13-volume The complete works of Mayakovsky, published in 1955-1961, “verified” did not find anything remotely similar to a poem about aunt, uncle and people. Moreover, in the database of the project "Google Books"It does not meet at all, that is, very likely, appeared several decades after Mayakovsky’s death. It could be inspired five -stroke Kira Bulycheva, first published in 1992:

In the world of little people
A lot of B *** is found.
But there are these b *** and
Less often - aunts
More often - uncles.

In some sources, the poem in question is attributed to the author named Gosh Novikov. Indeed, on his page on the website "Poems.ru" a similar workHowever, in the middle, it is significantly different from the version attributed to Mayakovsky. Below is the author’s note: “On my part, there was only a small addition to the completeness of the image and rhyme, the author of these lines V. Mayakovsky my respect!”

However, earlier, as follows from the archive copy of the page, Novikov indicatedthat “the author of the idea is Natasha Lebedeva,” and gave link On another poem from the same site. Indeed, the Lebedeva page is given in the “classical” form, however, this publication, posted in September 2013, is mistakenly considered the earliest post with this poem. In this version, nine appeared On the network no later than 2009.

But the simplified option (without the middle line “But in life sometimes happens in different ways”) there is even longer on the Internet. It can be found in publications From the archive of the “Living Journal” (the earliest - 2002), but the author’s name there, as a rule, is not called. Some users and resources Later, a certain writer Gennady was mentioned as a possible creator of eight -playing.

Indeed, in the electronic version of the book of the Test City and Phrases, which collected, as indicated, the most vivid statements of the author, this is a work There is. It is notedthat the collection was first published in France and only then published in Russia. Given the age indicated in the author’s biography (1956 of birth), he could well write his poem, for example, in the 1990s. However, upon closer examination, it turns out that biography The terms told on his page on the Prose.ru website and became the basis for biographical notes about the author on others resources, full of fiction. It claims that his poems and novels are very popular in the West, published in huge circulations and were awarded with many prestigious prizes, including Pulitzer. Essa is supposedly friends with the famous writers of our time, such as Bernard Verber and Neil Gaiman, and in his youth he met John Tolkien himself, who came to the USSR. In addition, the writer allegedly at one time was awarded the Order of the Honorary Legion. All this, of course, is mystification and is easily refuted by information in open sources. In addition, users repeatedly They accused ESSU in theft of other people's works. Therefore, it is impossible to say unequivocally that he is the author of the poem about aunt and uncle.

Nevertheless, it is possible to say with an extremely high degree of confidence that the creator of the popular nine -end is not Vladimir Mayakovsky, but it appeared decades after the death of the classic.

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?