CHAOS WITHOUT COSMOS (ON THE POEM BY O. E. MANDELSTAM “TELL ME, DESERT DRAFTSMAN…”)

In the article there is carried out a structural-semantic analysis of Mandelstam’s poem “Tell me, Desert Draftsman…”. Interpretation of a number of mysterious fragments is suggested. In particular, this concerns “Judaic troubles”. We argue that in this context they are connected with the motif of scattering because of the wind activity. We also find interlingual interference between Russian and French. Its meaning is related to the motifs of mutual metamorphosis and inseparability of entities typical of primary chaos. The key feature of the world embodied in the poem consists in the impossibility of unambiguous separation to opposite entities such as creator and destroyer, creation and annihilation, linear and cyclic processes, etc. In this case, no cosmos creates from chaos, the world remains “not embodied”.