As for the degree of despair over the loss ot a loved one, which is expressed in our readiness to swap places with him, the a priori impossibility of the realization of such a wish is in itself comforting enough, for it serves as a certain emotional limit that spares the imagination further responsibility. Whereas the quality of vision responsible for perceiving "homeland" as "one of the stars" testifies not only to the ability of "Novogodnee's" author to switch the places of subtrahends but also to the ability of her imagination to abandon her hero and to look at even him from afar. For it is not so much Rilke who "sees" his homeland of yesterday as one of the stars, as it is the author of the poem who "sees" Rilke "seeing" all of this. And the question naturally arises : \Vhat is the author's own location and how does she happen to be there?