GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. CCXXI.

Margarita and the Wolf.

 

“And as though striking matches,

I say the words of love.”

S. Yesenin.

 

The image of Margarita in her wild side (her destruction of the critic Latunsky’s apartment, etc.), is remarkably similar to the portrait of the witch in Yesenin’s poem The Enchantress. This amazingly rhythmical poem by Yesenin is such a delight to recite. ---

“Her braids disheveled, scary and white,

She runs and runs, agile and daring…

The enchantress waves her bony arms,

Snakes, like earrings, are hanging under her clumpy hair,

She spins with the whirlwind, scarily and madly,

The enchantress dances to the jingle of the pine forest…”

Incidentally, this is the reason why Bulgakov puts such a big emphasis on the pine forest across the river from the psychiatric clinic and during Margarita’s floorbrush flight also over pines. This is precisely the ringing-of-the-pines sound she hears ringing in her ears right after the Great Ball of Satan.

There is another very interesting poem by Yesenin, which explains Margarita. ---

“This night no one will guess

Why the cranes were crying.

This night, to the green enclosure,

She ran out from the reeds,

Golden clumps of hair were thrown

All over the chiton by a white hand.

She arrived, glanced into the fast brook,

And painfully lowered herself onto a tree stump…”

Here Yesenin is talking about a woman hiding in the reeds, apparently, an unfaithful or “rambunctious” wife. Even the cranes do not know where her “tender servant” is. This woman has had a very hard time. (“She arrived, glanced into the fast brook, And painfully lowered herself onto a tree stump.”) The next couple of lines are of extreme importance:

“…And in her eyes wilted the daisies [in Russian: margaritki],

Like the little fires of the marshes become extinguished.”

As we know from the chapter Margarita of the second part of Master and Margarita, Bulgakov presents her to us as a witch already, without explaining how that happened. ---

“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?”

Aside from the word “little fire,” Bulgakov uses two more words, namely, “of the marshes” and “daisies, margaritki.”

Naturally, the name “Margarita” serves Bulgakov well because it starts with an “M,” like master.

Meantime, one more word remains: “of the marsh,” which relates to Margarita. In chapter 20 of Master and Margarita, Azazello’s Cream, ---

“…Margarita saw inside the [gold] box some kind of fatty yellowish cream. It seemed to her that it smelled of marsh detritus… Margarita put a small smudge of the cream on her palm, which at the same time increased the smell of marsh herbs…”

The idea of making Margarita a “queen” comes to Bulgakov also from Sergei Yesenin. Let us not forget that the “Great Ball of Satan” is not only called “the ball of the spring full moon,” but also “the ball of a hundred kings.” But, as Koroviev tells Margarita, ---

“The ball will be splendid, which I am not going to hide from you. We’ll see persons whose range of power was extremely great in their time. But truly, when one thinks how microscopically small all their powers have been, compared to the abilities of the one in whose retinue I have the honor to belong, this becomes laughable, and even… sad…”

[Curiously, Bulgakov’s “Pushkin” here alludes to M. Yu. Lermontov’s famous line: “This would have been laughable, had it not been so sad.”]

Thus Koroviev underscores that Woland is the only real king at the ball and that he needs a queen because “Messire is a bachelor.”

Bulgakov’s devil has no spouse because M. Yu. Lermontov deprived him of the ability to love, in his incomparable long poem Demon.

Yesenin’s Margarita is a complex character. Yesenin has a poem Queen, from which, alongside his poem The Enchantress, Bulgakov draws his inspiration for painting this enigmatic portrait.

“A spicy evening. The dawns are dying out.

Fog is crawling over the grass.

On the slope by the fence

Your sundress showed its whiteness.

In the charms of the starry tune

Poplars are languishing.

I know that you, queen, are waiting

For the young king…

There, behind the grove,

One can hear the ringing of the hooves…”

Bulgakov also uses this image in his play Adam and Eve, where the heroine is having one and the same recurring dream:

“I sleep and each night I am having one favorite dream: a black stallion, with a necessarily black mane, carries me away from these woods.”

In Yesenin we have the “young king.” ---

“The suntanned horseman gallops,

Firmly holding the reins.

He will boldly carry you

To faraway cities.”

M. Yu. Lermontov was Yesenin’s favorite poet, and this poem, like many others, was written under the influence of the great poet, whom Bulgakov in Master and Margarita depicts as Kot Begemot.

The word “suntanned” is likewise used by Bulgakov in Master and Margarita in the portrayal of King Woland. ---

“The skin on Woland’s face was as though forever burned by suntan.”

And it is precisely Woland the “suntanned horseman,” who carries Margarita away from Moscow in his retinue.

Have you ever wondered why on leaving Moscow there are only two characters who talk to each other: Woland and Margarita? Not only are the others silent, but they do not even say farewell!

“Why has he changed so much? – asked Margarita softly.

This knight once made an unfortunate joke, replied Woland…”

Wouldn’t it be simpler for Margarita to pose this question not to Woland, but directly to the dark-violet knight? After all, this was Koroviev, her designated chaperon!

“This is your road, master, this one! Farewell! My time has come!” – [says Woland.]

“Farewell! – replied Margarita and master to Woland in one cry. Then black Woland, following no road, threw himself into a chasm, and after him all his cavalcade did the same.”

The departure of Woland & Company from Moscow is the most complicated place in Master and Margarita, which is more proof that Bulgakov’s novel is written on several planes. Margarita’s conversation with Woland, rather than with the Dark-Violet Knight, indicates that here we are in the domain of the psychological thriller where master and Margarita are one and the same person. This can be proven not only by Margarita’s conversation with Woland to the exclusion of everybody else, but also by master and Margarita’s farewell “in one cry,” as well as by master’s continued silence on their way to the “Eternal Home.”

To be continued…