Strangers in the Night Continues.
“Just for a moment in
the airy world
I’ll look back to see
How the earth in a green
feast
Celebrates spring.
And then I’ll keep going my
way,
A burdensome way,
To live with my wretched soul
As a paltry pauper.”
Alexander Blok. (1905)
We
are left with the “greenish kerchief of nightly light” in which master appears
in the no-good apartment #50. The green color in Blok is associated with
spring, with the earth, with the world, in other words, with life. Already in
the 5th cycle of Verses About
a Fair Lady Blok compares himself to a greening maple tree (1902):
“I am
young, and I’m fresh, and in love,
I’m alarmed, in angst, and
pleading,
I am greening, the mysterious
maple,
Always bending toward you.
A warm wind will rustle the
leaves…
You will come under the broad
marquee
To dream in the green shade.
You’re alone [sic!], in love,
and with me,
I will whisper to you a
mysterious dream…
I am with you, my greening
maple.”
In
a 1905 poem, Blok continues:
“…And
it’s the same garden looking into the windows,
Green like the world, high
like the night…”
And
also in another 1905 poem:
“Just
for a moment in the airy world
I’ll look back to see
How the earth in a green
feast
Celebrates spring.
And then I’ll keep going my
way,
A burdensome way,
To live with my wretched soul
As a paltry pauper.”
Bulgakov
changes that “burdensome way” of Blok to his final place of rest by providing
him with a mistress fashioned after his personal specifications. Also awaiting
him at the end of his journey is a house with an old manservant.
Although
later, in the 1908-1916 collection of poetry Harps and Violins, Blok compares “the fresh smell of wild mint” to “the lifeless, bluish light of night,” which, as a matter of fact,
it is, -- in an earlier 1905 poem Echo from
the 1904-1905 poetic collection Bubbles
of Earth, we finally get a straight answer from Blok himself. –
“Appealing
and listening to the green dale,
I am walking upon the
rustling leaves.
And the cold crescent stands
never burning out,
Like a green sickle in the
blue.”
Which
leads the reader to yet another proof that Bulgakov knew Blok’s poetry pretty
well, as of course he was also well versed in the poetry of other Russian
poets.
Having
said farewell to Woland, master [Blok] walks not with his soul, like it says in
one of just quoted Blokian poems, but with his female soul mate.
“Listen to the soundlessness,
Margarita was saying to master, and the sand rustled under her bare feet…”
…Just
like leaves were rustling under Blok’s feet in his last-quoted poem.
But
if that in itself is not convincing enough, there is an even more compelling version
of it in Blok’s poem dedicated to his mother, the only woman he apparently ever
loved. The poem written in 1913 or 1914, is part of Blok’s poetic collection Motherland (1907-1916). In this poem
Blok writes:
“Let
me take a breath, do tarry, for the love of God,
Do not rustle, sand!
From a distance, the
monastery cross
Is made golden by the glow of
glory.
Shouldn’t I make a turn to
eternal rest?
What kind of life is there
without a monk’s hood?..”
Bulgakov’s
master does not get into a monastery, therefore, he has no capuche. His “last
refuge” is indeed the last refuge, as Blok died in 1921. But for some reason,
master does not get to keep the little cap that Margarita had sewn for him. He
gets to wear a kolpak [fool’s cap] instead. But this “tale,” as Blok would call
it, belongs in another chapter.
As
for master’s little cap, it comes out of Blok’s 1906 poem Cold Day from the poetry collection The City (1904-1908). In this poem, Blok writes:
“You
and I met in a temple,
And lived in a joyful garden…”
Bulgakov
unveils this Blokian allegory in the chapter The Appearance of the Hero, where master relates to Ivanushka his
meeting with Margarita. But already there come out what Blok would call “dark”
undertones.
Master
does not have a formal job, but he is writing his novel Pontius Pilate, while living in the basement where Margarita has to
come in order to spend some time with her lover, reading and rereading the
pages of his novel, claiming that in this novel she had found her life, empty
until then.
In
the 24th chapter of Master and
Margarita, The Extraction of Master,
Margarita decides for them both to return to the basement, “so that everything becomes like it was
before.”
In
his farewell words to Woland, master confesses that he has “no fantasies and no inspirations.” He
has been broken and all he wants is to be back in his basement. And it is right
here that Blok’s poem Cold Day comes
into effect.
Woland
asks:
“And what are you going to
live on? You’ll have to endure poverty, you know. –
Readily, readily! – replied master.”
All
of this reflects Bulgakov’s inspiration, if I can say so, derived from Blok’s Cold Day. –
“We
passed all gates
And in each window we saw
How hard is work’s burden
On each bent back.
And now we went where we
shall
Be living under a low ceiling
[sic!] …”
(This
is where master’s basement apartment comes from…)
“No!
Happiness is a vain worry,
As our young years are long
passed.
Work will help us to while
away the time.
A hammer for me, and a needle
for you!”
So
that’s where Bulgakov takes the idea of master’s little cap from. Margarita
uses a needle to sew it…
To
be continued…
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