Prose in the work of Osip Mandelstam occupies a separate place, representing the most complex phenomenon of artistic language. The story "Egyptian Mark" (1928), which does not fit into any familiar framework and is difficult to understand, was commented on in a special way for this publication. Especially for this purpose, a community of eg_narka was created in LiveJournal, in which fragments of the story with detailed explanations were posted day after day; they, in turn, were overgrown with new notes; then some of them were transferred to the final book version. The authors of the explanations comprehensively and stereoscopically comment not only on everyday realities, literary and artistic allusions, but also on the video sequence, sound and other signs of time. Of particular interest are illustrations that are part of the commentary.