"Mtsyri" is the famous poem by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, created in 1839 on the basis of Caucasian impressions. This is one of the last classic examples of Russian romanticism. In the center of the poem is the image of a young lone hero, traditional for romanticism, who sacrificed his life for a short moment of freedom.
In 1830-1831, Lermontov came up with an idea for a work, the protagonist of which was to be a freedom-loving young man who was imprisoned in a prison or monastery (the poet considered the monastery to be the same prison). In 1830 he worked on the poem "Confession", the hero of which - a young Spanish monk - was imprisoned in a monastery prison. However, the work remained unfinished.
In 1837 Lermontov traveled along the Georgian Military Highway. In Mtskheta he met an old monk who told him about his sad fate. Born among the free people of the mountains, he was captured as a child by the troops of General Ermolov. The general took him with him to Russia, but on the way the boy fell ill, and Ermolov decided to leave him in the monastery.
The child was destined to become a monk, but he could not get used to life behind the high monastery walls and tried many times to flee back to the mountains. One of these attempts turned into a serious illness, and the young man was forced to come to terms with his sad fate, forever remaining in the monastery.
The story of the ruined life of a monk made a strong impression on the poet, forcing him to return to a long-abandoned idea. Now the plot basis was borrowed from real life, and the scene of the action was the Caucasian monastery, standing at the confluence of the Kura and Aragva.
Georgian folklore, well known to Lermontov, also had a noticeable influence on the content of the poem. For example, the central episode of the poem - the battle of the hero with the leopard - is based on the plot of a folk song about a tiger and a young man, later reflected in Shota Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin".
Initially, Lermontov's poem was to be called "Beri", which means "monk" in Georgian. But then the poet chose a more meaningful name "Mtsyri". In the Georgian language, this word has 2 meanings: "novice" or "lonely stranger". Indeed, Lermontov's Mtsyri dies, never having time to take the tonsure and remaining in the memory of the monks who raised him as an incomprehensible and lonely foreigner.
The main character of the poem, a seventeen-year-old boy living in a monastery in a foreign land, is already ready to become a monk, but the thoughts of freedom do not leave him, and he goes to flight. Only three days Mtsyri enjoyed his freedom, but they brought him more than all the previous years of captivity. He saw the incredible beauty of nature, felt a feeling for a young Georgian woman that he himself did not fully understand, and fought with a worthy opponent - a mighty leopard.
In the finale of the poem "Mtsyri" dies in a monastery, not at all regretting his deed. The hero is driven by the romantic idea that a moment of freedom is more precious than a long and bleak life in captivity.
