Джозеф

The song Joseph is based on two poems by Joseph Brodsky: New Stanzas to Augusta and To Rumyantsev’s Victories.

Opinions on Zemfira’s song have been sharply divided among listeners. Some fans enthusiastically welcomed the single, the singer’s first after a five-year hiatus.

Others, including the brilliant poet’s son, argue that combining two different poems in this way is disrespectful to Brodsky, his poetry, and the meaning he put into his verse.

We, however, believe that this is an entirely normal process. Art can be compared to a gigantic machine moving in a certain direction, absorbing reflections of numerous independent fragments and creations, combining them and producing something entirely new—a synthesis of what came before, a product that is itself an independent work of art.

For this reason, we believe that judging something solely on the basis of the foundations from which it grew is, at the very least, subjective, since every new creation constitutes a new basis that cannot be represented (or broken down) in terms of the basis that preceded it. Thus, we think it is entirely possible that this willful compilation of Brodsky’s texts is not particularly respectful of the poet’s memory; nevertheless, as an independent work of art, the song is magnificent.

The song’s title is an English-language rendering of Joseph Brodsky’s first name.