Strangers in the Night Continues.
Blok’s Unknowns.
“—And how did you find out it was me?
Where did
you see me before?
What is this, indeed, as
though I’ve seen you somewhere?
--I too as though have seen
you somewhere?
--Where? – Where?
--I have surely seen your
eyes somewhere… But this cannot be!
I just said it like that… I
haven’t even been here before.
Perhaps in a dream…”
F. M. Dostoyevsky. The
Idiot.
Used as the second epigraph to A. Blok’s play The Unknown.
I
am now turning in this chapter Strangers
in the Night to the very interesting theme of Blok’s Unknowns, which V. V. Mayakovsky good-naturedly mentions in his
long poem It is Good! with his unique
brand of humor, paying tribute to the Spartan self-control of Alexander Blok.
Let
us not forget that the year was 1927, – six years after Blok’s death, two years
after Yesenin’s suicide, and three years before Mayakovsky himself would take
his own life. Mayakovsky honored Blok for being a fellow avant-garde poet, as
in Mayakovsky’s own poetry we can find traces of Blok’s influence.
Mayakovsky
was obviously familiar with Blok’s play The
Unknown [Woman], written back in 1906.The author had supplied this play
with two epigraphs from the great Russian writer F. M. Dostoyevsky’s novel The Idiot.
Bulgakov
managed to assimilate all these unknowns of Dostoyevsky, Blok, and Mayakovsky
in his novel, which allowed Bulgakov to introduce Dostoyevsky’s name in the 28th
chapter of Master and Margarita: The Last
Adventures of Koroviev and Begemot. (See my chapter master… for more of Dostoyevsky and other writers mentioned in the
same context.)
In
their travels in Moscow, Koroviev and Begemot decide to have dinner at the
restaurant of the “Writers’ House.” While trying to get inside, they are asked
for their ID’s proving that they are indeed writers and are entitled to dine at
the Writers’ restaurant.
Koroviev
shows his outrage:
“Do you need to ask
Dostoyevsky for an ID to establish that he is a writer? Take any five pages
from any work of his, and without any ID you will find out that you are dealing
with a writer. Besides, I don’t think he ever had an ID!”
In
this hilarious manner Bulgakov is paying his tribute to Dostoyevsky who was the
first one, in his 1868-69 novel The Idiot,
to introduce an “unknown woman,” followed by the Russian painter Ivan Kramskoy
in 1883 with his celebrated Portrait of
an Unknown [Woman], which is in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. (Incidentally,
the current director-general of the Tretyakov Gallery is by no means an
unknown. She is Zelfira Ismailovna Tregulova, a highly respected Russian art
scholar of Tatar descent.)
In
his 1906 play The Unknown, Blok pays
tribute to them both, providing two epigraphs from Dostoyevsky’s Idiot, and making explicit references to
Kramskoy’s painting through the hero of his play, a poet sitting in a pub.
And
so, I am proceeding now directly with Blok’s gallery of the Unknowns.
***
Already
in the last cycle of his Verses About a
Fair Lady, in 1902, Alexander Blok raises the theme of the Unknown [Woman].
–
“She
is shapely and tall,
Always haughty and stern.
Every day from a distance
I was watching her, ready for
anything…”
This
untitled poem is different from his subsequent poems on the same theme. It
reads more like a detective story than a love story:
“I
knew the hours when she would descend,
And together with her, a
wobbly glimmer,
And like a villain, behind
the street turn,
I was running after her,
playing hide-and-seek…”
Let
us keep in mind that it was a 22-year-old Blok writing.
“…Yellow
lights were flashing by,
And electric candles.
And he [sic!] was meeting her
in the shadows,
And I was watching, and
singing their meetings…”
What
a torture!
“When
suddenly feeling awkward
They would sense something,
I was hidden deep inside
A blind dark gateway…”
In
this first poem about the unknown [woman], Blok is having a lot of fun, playing
an experienced sleuth:
“…And
I, unseen by all,
Was watching the man’s coarse
profile,
Her silvery-black furs,
And the lips whispering
something…”
This
theme of tailing must have been amusing Blok, as in the poetry collection A Frightful World (1909-1916), he
pursued this theme already past reaching adulthood:
“There
is this game: walking in cautiously,
So that people’s attention
would be lulled;
And, finding the prey with
your eyes,
To watch that prey inconspicuously…”
Blok
probably engaged in such experiments, considering that his description of
people’s reaction is right on:
“…That’s
what is frightful about a glance unseen,
That it is impossible to
catch;
You can sense it, but you
can’t figure out
Whose eyes are watching you…”
This
is the reason:
“…No
matter how impassive and coarse
Is the person who is being
watched,
He will sense the
scrutinizing glance,
At least in the corners of
barely quivering lips.
And another, he will get it
right away:
His shoulders and his hand
will tremble;
He will turn around – and
there is nothing there,
Meanwhile, his uneasiness
keeps growing…”
Blok
must have been enjoying these psychological experiments, because being a poet,
he needed to study human nature.
“…It’s
not profit, not love, not revenge;
Just a game, like the games
children play:
[It really must be fun!..]
And in each gathering of
people
There are such secret
sleuths.
And you’ll never figure it
out,
Why such a thing happens
sometimes:
You are coming to people as
yourself,
But you’re leaving them as
somebody else…
It
is impossible here not to recall master watching Azazello in the 30th
chapter of Master and Margarita: It’s
Time! It’s Time! –
“…Margarita poured Azazello some brandy and he drank it with
eagerness. Master wasn’t taking his eyes off him, and from time to time was
surreptitiously slightly pinching the wrist of his left hand under the table.
But these pinches were not helping him. Azazello was not dissolving in the air…
There was nothing scary in this reddish-haired small-stature man, except maybe
that he was wall-eyed... and his dress was rather unusual too: some kind of
robe or cloak… again, if one thinks about it, that should not be uncommon
either. He was a skillful drinker of cognac also, like all good people, he
drank it by full glasses without taking a bite of food with it… He started
looking at Azazello with much greater attention, and became convinced that he
found in his eyes something forced, a certain thought [sic!], which he was not
eager to share for the time being. He is
not here for a mere visit. He’s come here on some kind of errand! – master
thought. His power of observation did not fail him.”
Master’s
prototype in the psychological thriller of Master
and Margarita is Blok, and Bulgakov used this particular “detective” poem
by Blok to point the reader implicitly toward that extraordinary poet. It must
be noted, however, that in Bulgakov’s case, it is not the visitor Azazello who
changes as a result, but master and Margarita who do. Having been poisoned by
Azazello’s wine of Pontius Pilate and dying, they are revived different.
“…In front of his eyes, the face of the poisoned woman was
changing. Her temporary witch’s squint was disappearing in the eyes, as well as
the former cruelty and wildness of her features was leaving them. The face of
the deceased lightened up and at last softened, while her scowl stopped
being a predatory scowl, but merely a suffering woman’s grimace.”
In
master’s case:
“Here master got up, looked around with a lively and radiant gaze,
and asked: So, what is the significance
of all this newness?”
In
other words, master is no longer gloomy and suspicious, and sees his future
with hope.
To
be continued…
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