This poem is from the cycle The Image of Reagan in Soviet Literature. Prigov comments that these poems are motivated not by politics but by the archetype of Russia’s “metaphysical enemies.” Reagan is just one instantiation of the cultural enemy – in another historical moment, it could have been Napoleon, the Mongol Khan, D’Аnthès (who was responsible for Pushkin’s death in a duel), or Hitler.
The first stanza is a matter of fact declaration in the passive tense stating that a new President of the United States has been selected and the old President has been discarded. Its style is formal, and could even be taken as journalistic. By the second stanza, the poem’s syntax changes, shifting into an oral and colloquial register, with the question “а нам-то что — ну” or “what is it to us?” In the second to last line Prigov drops a syllable from the word “President” to maintain the meter, leaving “prezdent” of the United States, highlighting the tension between the structure of the meter and the content. The text is still understandable, as “President of the United States” has at this point become a refrain.
Text
Вот избран новый Президент
Соединенных Штатов
Поруган старый Президент
Соединенных Штатов
А нам-то что — ну, Президент
Ну, Съединенныx Штатов
А интересно все ж — Прездент
Соединенных Штатов
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