Strangers in the Night.
Blok Split Continues.
“Look, I am retreating
into the shadows,
And you are still in doubt,
Still afraid to meet the day,
Not sensing the coming of the
night…”
Alexander Blok. Verses
About a Fair Lady. III.
A.
Blok’s feminine side gets off her high horse. We know that people are seeking
God when they are in trouble, not when they are happy with their life. The
woman in this Blok’s cycle is no exception.
“Slowly
toward the door of the church
Was I walking unfree in my
soul.
I was hearing love songs,
And crowds of people were
praying…”
The
following lines demonstrate that A. Blok is indeed writing from the person of a
woman, helping the woman:
“…Or
in a minute of losing faith,
He sent me relief?”
“He”
in this case is not God, but the poet, the author of this cycle A. A. Blok.
“These
days I enter the doors of the church
Without any doubt…”
The
woman had fallen, it looks as though she is never to rise again.
“Evening
roses are falling,
Falling softly, painfully,
But I am praying still with
more devotion,
Weeping and confessing
painfully…”
From
this moment on, there starts a see-saw between the feminine and masculine sides
of Blok himself. The next poem is the most interesting and telling in this
struggle.
“I am
trying to catch the thin dust of hope…” –
[Blok
starts the poem from his masculine side…]
“…You
are slowing down your fast pace,
But through the locked
eyelids…”
[…of
Blok’s feminine side…]
“…The
words are burning: Not a friend but foe.”
The
duel between Blok’s feminine and masculine sides is far from over. It is only
flaring up.
“…Just
to burn out – and the truth comes closer…”
In
other words, Blok’s masculine side wants clarity, an end to this relationship.
But doubt comes in right away:
“Or
else, – oblivious dreams pass slowly
And I burn lower [sic!], and
you are higher [sic!].
And then in a saving
oblivion,
A smile is wandering over the
face…”
In
other words, not everything is lost. Hope awakens in the masculine half that
things may be remedied.
“Tomorrow,
in a new oppression,
A longing for a bridal crown.”
That
is, Blok’s masculine half is in love with his state of being in love. As Blok
writes in another poem of his:
“I
want to own you alone,
But I cannot and don’t know
how.”
The
poet’s feminine half is not “in love.” She just loves. A stable feeling. It
looks as though everything is lost.
“The
door creaked. The hand trembled.
I walked out into the sleepy
streets.
Up there under the heavens
clouds are swimming,
Lit through the fog.
With them I hear after me the
familiar:
Will the heart be now
reawakened?
Whether the answer is from a
new or former life,
Or perhaps they would be
imagined together?”
Blok’s
feminine side has her hope revived, as she believes in her love.
“…Had
the clouds been carrying evil,
My heart would not have
fluttered…”
And
now, a very interesting ending to this remarkable poem:
“The
door creaked. The hand trembled.
Tears. And songs. And
complaints.”
From
this moment on, Blok’s masculine side appears weaker and weaker still. When the
feminine side is sincere in her love, the masculine side only reduces
everything to her complaints and tears, while at the same time he has nothing
to say in consolation except for empty meaningless words (“songs”).
The
culmination of this poetic cycle is decided in a dramatic death of the woman.
However, the poet’s masculine side is in denial.
“The
glow is white, yellow, red,
Shouting and bells ringing in
the distance.
You won’t deceive me,
groundless anxiety,
I see the lights on the
river.
With this bright glow and
late-hour shouting
You are not going to destroy
the dream,
The ghost can be seen with
great eyes
Because of the human hubbub.”
The
last stanza shows us that Blok’s feminine side has won:
“With
your death I will only entertain the gazes…”
How
cruel is the sound of that last line!
“…So,
burn your ships!
There they are, soft, bright,
fast,
Speeding toward me from afar.”
Yes,
Blok’s feminine side dies here, but it is precisely she who gives birth to this
poetic cycle!
To
be continued…
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