GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. XXVII.

Galina Sedova’s Bulgakov.

The Fantastic Love Story of Master and Margarita Continues.

 

“We recognized each other in a crowd,

We came together and we’ll part again.

There were no joys in our love,

The parting then will be without grief.”

 

M. Yu. Lermontov.

 

…And so, Master loved to take walks around Moscow, and in one of such walks something out-of-ordinary happened to him, when he spotted Margarita on Tverskaya Street. It was the same Tverskaya where…

“…Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, tilting his head, attentively watches Tverskoy Boulevard, buzzing at his feet. What he is thinking about--- nobody knows.” [Bulgakov: Red-Stone Moscow.]

We very well know what Alexander Sergeevich was thinking about on that day, and not just thought, as it was precisely Koroviev-Pushkin who picked Master as the author of the Pontius Pilate novel, and Margarita as the hostess of Woland’s Ball, both of which picks received the approval of Woland himself. In Margarita’s case, Woland approvingly observes: “Yes, Koroviev is right: how whimsically has the deck been shuffled! Blood!” and: “Blood is a great thing!”

And in Master’s case, Woland shows his approval by reciting his Pontius Pilate novel from memory to Berlioz and Ivanushka on the Patriarch Ponds, already on the 7^th page of Master and Margarita.

And now, on this day, it is precisely Koroviev-Pushkin who unites these Russian Tristan and Isolde on his own Tverskoy boulevard.---

“Ivan found out that the guest and his secret wife had come to the conclusion already in the first days of their affair that it was fate herself that had brought them together on the corner of Tverskaya and a side street, and that they had been created for each other for all time.”

The very first thing which struck Master unpleasantly in that first meeting were the flowers in Margarita’s hands:

“She was carrying in her hands some disgusting, disturbing yellow flowers. The devil knows what they are called, but for some reason they are always the first ones to appear in Moscow. And these flowers contrasted very sharply against the blackness of her spring coat. She was carrying yellow flowers! Not a good color!”

Once again, Bulgakov is trying to send the reader on a false trail. The color is not the point. We need to figure out what kind of “devil’s flowers” they were. Bulgakov gives their name in the chapter on Margarita, and he also provides us with additional information, which is indispensable for our understanding of what and how transpires during their first meeting:

“What was she after, this woman in whose eyes a certain incomprehensible little fire was always burning? What did she need, this slightly squinting in one eye witch, who had adorned herself that spring with acacia?”

At last we find out what kind of flowers Margarita was carrying in her hands on that day, fateful for them both. Now, before I had become engrossed in homoeopathy, I studied botany, that is, the properties of the medicinal plants. Botany is interesting because it gives us an understanding of history, geography, religion, mythology, symbolism, and folklore of different peoples. The English word “acacia”  in the passage above corresponds to the Russian word “mimosa,” actually used by Bulgakov. Indeed, “mimosa” is a type of acacia, and probing into this matter we can easily find out that---

“…according to Near-Eastern Christian legend, a thorny species of acacia was used for Christ’s crown of thorns.”

And also:

“Acacia was a sacred wood for the ancient Hebrews. According to God’s instructions, Moses used acacia wood in the building of the Ark of the Covenant and the sacred Tabernacle (Exodus, chapters 25-40).”

(Both quotations are taken from Dr. John Lust’s The Herb Book. Section Legend and Lore. Acacia.)

It is thus for the reason of their connection to the Passion of Jesus Christ that these “disgusting, disturbing yellow flowers” must be evoking such negative emotions in Master, whose novel, as we know, deals precisely with that subject. No wonder then that Bulgakov devotes so much space to the flower scene. He focuses the reader’s attention on the flowers, returning to them again and again. Margarita throws out these flowers not just once but twice, as after the first time she does it, Master picks them up and carries them for her. Yet, Master doesn’t fail to mention to Margarita that his favorite flower is the rose, after which Margarita would no longer allow Master to carry acacia for her, and throws the flowers away the second time, this time for good. By contraposing the rose to acacia, Master wins. Curiously, both flowers have deep religious significance. Bulgakov’s rose in all probability comes from Pushkin’s poem (contained in his unfinished play Scenes from the Times of Knights, and undoubtedly influenced by Dante) about a certain knight receiving a secret vision from the Mother of God. The vision was utterly---

“…impenetrable to mind,

And the deepest of impressions

It cut straight into his heart.

Lumen Coeli, Sancta Rosa,

He would cry out, wild and zealous…”

 

There is also a peculiar Christian legend about roses without thorns, growing peaceably in the Garden of Eden before the Fall of Adam and Eve, but following the Fall, thorns appeared on the rose to remind people of their sinful imperfect nature.

How engrossing is Bulgakov’s writing! The flowers dialogue contains a deep religious meaning. Acacia is coming from the Bible, and the rose from Dante’s Commeddia Divina.

Bulgakov is unequivocal. The devil does not receive the souls of Master and Margarita. Master draws the poor woman out of her condition, as the demonic force even at that early time of their first meeting had succeeded in turning her into a witch without her knowledge. Margarita is now saved by Master.

“She was saying that she went out that day with the yellow flowers in hand in order to be found by me, and if that had not happened she would have poisoned herself, because her life was empty.”

Bulgakov stresses the importance of the whole situation.

Knowing now that Margarita had already become a witch during her first meeting with Master, it will be easier for us to understand what was going on. We become witnesses of a struggle of good and evil.

Here Bulgakov illustrates the struggle through the symbolism of flowers. This time the good side wins. Yet there are many temptations ahead, especially after Margarita is left alone.

(To be continued tomorrow…)