GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. CCLXVIII.

Strangers in the Night.

 

“Machinegun fire cut down the square,

The embankments are empty.

And only fires are briskly burning

In the thick dusk.

And here, where the ground is viscous from the heat,

Because of fright or ice,

Holding his palms near the tongues of fire,

A soldier is warming up…”

V. V. Mayakovsky. It is Good!

 

Having concluded the previous chapter A Dress Rehearsal for Master and Margarita on the “sly” [“lukavy”] Bulgakov, I am moving on in the present chapter Strangers in the Night to a certain “sly” poet, as this poet has called himself. Considering that both of them, Bulgakov and this poet, are disciples of N. V. Gogol, which comes as no surprise, as mysticism in Russian literature starts with Gogol. I have written a great deal already about this great Russian writer in my chapter master… [see my earlier postings of that chapter]. Gogol has exerted a tremendous influence on all subsequent generations of Russian poets and writers, starting with his younger contemporary M. Yu. Lermontov.

Even though I had come to terms with the thought that master has a prototype, establishing this prototype is by no means easy, as the reader is going to find out in my subsequent chapters – by no means easy.

The present chapter Strangers in the Night is also hardly an easy one. It continues along the lines of a psychological thriller, just as I promised. Master’s prototype, whom I discovered by accident, is a poet. I had been led to N. V. Gogol on the legitimate grounds that Gogol, a consummate mystic, could not but influence the man I have in mind. On these grounds I continue to insist with a clear conscience that Gogol must have had at least an indirect influence on M. A. Bulgakov in his creation of the character of master.

There is also another possibility. With his mind set on splitting the prototypes of his characters, Bulgakov splits S. A. Yesenin into Ivan and Azazello, and he splits V. V. Mayakovsky into Ryukhin and Woland. Why then wouldn’t he want to combine Gogol, as part of master’s prototype, with the man who had so much wanted to be like him?

Master’s prototype is an amazing poet who even in our 21^st century still stands as number one on the pedestal of avant-gardism. My task now is to bring to my reader as much as possible of the poetry of this extraordinary mystic.

The poet I now have in mind was splitting himself already in 1903 into two Harlequins: old and young, as he writes about his “sly glance”:

 

“I’m Harlequin…

Oh if they only notice, notice,

Look into my eyes, because of my motley attire! –

Perhaps, at close range they just might meet

My sly, laughing glance…”

 

I came across this poet accidentally when I was working on my future chapter The Bard rereading V. V. Mayakovsky’s long poem It Is Good!

And so I give the honor of introducing this amazing poet to Mayakovsky, the prototype of the sly one (that is, the devil), in Master and Margarita, even more so, considering that Mayakovsky was his contemporary, and like other 20^th century Russian poets was under a considerable influence of this avant-garde poet:

“…And here… near the tongues of fire,

A soldier is warming up.

The fire fell upon the soldier’s eyes,

Lying down on the tuft of his hair.

I recognized him, was surprised, and said:

Hello, Alexander Blok.”

How elegant!

 

 

To be continued...