Writers and the New Year

Here is Pushkin, he is sitting at the table and publishing his poems, while actively chewing tangerines. Somewhere in the corner sit Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, as always, suffering, and Tolstoy thinking deeply and throwing out comments on philosophy from time to time. Chekhov is also absent for now; he went outside, or rather, went to the store to buy sparklers. Gogol is in the kitchen cutting up ingredients for a salad, but he, Gogol, is constantly redoing it. Mayakovsky and Yesenin argue about poetry. Mayakovsky speaks loudly of futurism and revolution, while Yesenin, more quietly but clearly and proudly, speaks of the soul, melancholy, and lyricism.