Strangers In
The Night.
Alexander
Blok. Falling In Love.
Ophelia.
“…You, my Ophelia,
Have been taken far away by
the cold of life,
And I perish, a prince in his
own land,
Pierced by a poisoned blade.”
Alexander Blok. I am
Hamlet.
A. A. Blok’s “flower theme” is clearly connected not
just to Ophelia, but also to the theater which he loved so much:
“I
dreamt of you again, in flowers, on a noisy stage,
Insane
like passion, calm like sleep.
And
I, brought down, was on my knees,
And
thinking: That’s happiness, I am conquered again!..”
In other words, Blok is once again entering the state
of being in love, which he desperately needs as much as wine to be able to
write his amazing poems.
“…But
you, Ophelia, were looking at Hamlet –
Without
happiness, without love, a goddess of beauty…”
But Blok himself was exhilarated, feeling flowers showering
upon him:
“…And
roses were pouring on the poor poet [Blok],
And
pouring with the roses were his aspirations…”
Blok is in the theater. He is in heaven.
“…You
died all in a rosy glow,
With
flowers on your breast, with flowers on your curls,
And
I was standing in your fragrance –
With
flowers on my breast, on my head, in my hands…”
It is quite striking how Blok finds inspiration even
without being physically present in a theater, but as though falling asleep
with a thought about Ophelia and pursuing this thought in his dream. This 1998
poem is untitled, as are two others, all taken from Blok’s poetry collection Ante Lucem (1898-1900).
“The
ever-radiant glow of past days
Illumines my whole soul as
before.
But the early autumn with its
pensive sadness
Has blown at me its
languishing breath…”
It is amazing that this poem was written down on May
28, 1900. He probably calls “autumn” his own extinguished feelings.
“…The
parting is near. The night is dark.
And still like in the young
days, that sound from afar:
The fair Ophelia – Nymph, in
thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
And the soul is overcome
uneasily and in vain,
By a memory distant and
beautiful.”
And now it becomes virtually incomprehensible whether
Blok had indeed experienced these feelings or, being short on inspiration in
his real life, he was looking for it in Shakespeare.
For the following untitled poem dated June 1 1900
starts like this:
“Do
not try to summon and do not promise
An
erstwhile inspiration for the soul.
I
am a lonely son of the earth,
And
you are a radiant vision…
I
know your triumphant face,
I
can clearly hear your summoning voice,
Your
speech is comprehensible to the soul,
But
you are calling me in vain…”
If it does not help to move forward, I try to retrace
Blok’s steps backwards, and I find my answer in a poem written before the one
with the Shakespearean quote:
“The
fair Ophelia – Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.”
The poem in question, also untitled, was written on
May 16, 1900:
“The midnight
star fell down
Without
leaving a trace…”
This is already not good! –
“…The
window was silently opened…
Forgive
me, my winged wish!
For,
as long as you are breathing-in the night,
I
will keep repeating: Forgive me!”
This only proves that Blok indeed had a relationship
with a young woman, and was disappointed.
In a much later poem written in 1907, Blok explains:
And I was so many times
In women’s rosy chains.
And everything went the way
it was supposed to go:
Love, verses, anguish…”
To be continued…
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