Strangers in the Night.
A. A. Blok.
Madness.
“…But my fearsome
avenger wasn’t sleeping:
His visage was lit with wrath
During these nights upon a
rock…”
Alexander Blok. Retribution.
A.
A. Blok writes:
“…A
fallen angel, I was met
In their camp, like a
youthful god…”
It
wasn’t of course “a youthful god” A. Blok who came on his own will to a “camp
of fiends.” He was actually summoned there by master’s mistress Margarita aka
the Radiant Queen. At the same time,
Blok writes:
“…Like
a beautiful nebozhitel [heaven-dweller],
Was I noticed by the Tsarina,
And I entered her chamber…”
Queen
and Tsarina in this case have the same meaning. Only master “has not deserved light,” but only “rest,” as Matthew Levi would explain.
Yeshua/Jesus Christ Himself interceded on master’s and Margarita’s behalf so
that neither of them would be sent to Hell.
Blok
writes:
“…But
my fearsome avenger wasn’t sleeping:
His visage was lit with wrath
During these nights upon a
rock…”
In
Bulgakov’s novel, the avenger is Pontius Pilate, but not without some help from
the devil, who stayed with Yeshua to the end, tempting him. And only when he
was fully convinced that the Son of God had indeed taken a martyr’s death, the
devil chose the side of the good and helped punish evil in this version of the
story of Judas.
Next,
Blok says:
“…And
sunrise looked into my eyes…
There was fluttering of wings,
Someone dipped into the
heaven past me,
Like an infuriated shadow…”
Bulgakov
turns these words into master’s forgiveness of Pontius Pilate:
“He cupped his hands and shouted through
them so that an echo started jumping over the desolate and bare mountains: ‘Free! Free! He is waiting for you!’ The
rocks transformed Master’s voice into thunder and that same thunder destroyed
them. The cursed rocky mountains came down. Only the platform with the stone
chair remained… A lunar path stretched out, long-awaited by the procurator, and
the pointed-eared dog was the first to run along that path. The man in the
white cloak with red lining got up from his chair. It was impossible to make
out whether he was laughing or crying, and what it was that he was shouting.
One thing could be seen for sure, that he ran after his faithful guard.”
Back
to Blok:
“…Mad
delirium, passionate babble,
Vows, remorse, and
reassurances
Were all carried forth to me…”
These
words can be explained through their connection with the following dialog
between master and Margarita. –
“Sobs were smothering Margarita. She was whispering [another
favorite word of Blok], choking with words: No,
no, no! Be not afraid of anything… I am with you… I am with you…”
As
I already wrote before, repetition is also a trademark of Blok.
“Margarita was pleading with master in a trembling voice: Drink it, drink it! Are you afraid? No, no,
trust me that they will help you!”
As
the reader may remember, Koroviev was serving master glass after glass of “something.” Blok liked drinking wine,
especially the golden Ai.
As
for “something,” as Woland puts it,
or “remedy,” as Margarita calls the
contents of glass after glass, the reader will learn much more about it in my
chapter The Bard, where A. A. Blok
holds a prominent place.
Meanwhile,
Blok continues:
“…But
chased away by my anguish,
The vermin dropped off, and
suddenly
The cruel day, the day of
iron,
Irretrievably drew around me
A closed circle…”
This
is why Bulgakov decides to return the hapless couple to master’s basement
apartment and to give them both on their last day on earth a little bit of last
earthly happiness…
“…There’s
no end and no beginning,
There’s no escape – steel and
steel [instead of iron].
And the formerly endearing
distance
Is presenting itself to my
poor soul
As a useless desert [sic!]...”
Here
what Blok calls the “endearing distance” implies that selfsame “Rest,” that is,
the last refuge which he had been dreaming about. Moreover, the author [A.
Blok] believes that his destination is Hell.
“…I’m
not hiding anything from you.
Just look at me:
I am standing among fires,
Singed by tongues of flames
Of the Infernal Blaze.”
The
poem closes with an unexpected appeal:
“Where
are you? Do not tarry any longer.
You are like me, not waiting
for a star.
Come to me, comrade,
To share the joyless travails
Of the earthly abode.”
And
so Bulgakov sends Azazello to master and Margarita’s basement, and Azazello’s
prototype, as we know, is Sergei Yesenin, the great “people’s poet,” as he used
to call himself.
What
else is most interesting in this arrangement is that Yesenin was influenced by
this amazing poet. Blok’s influence on the poetry of both Vladimir Mayakovsky
and Sergei Yesenin is shining through their works.
To
be continued…
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