Strangers In
The Night.
Alexander
Blok. Falling In Love.
Ophelia.
“…There are many of us
– free, young, handsome,
Who die having never loved…
Give me shelter in the limitless
beyond!
How can one live and weep
without you [Russia]!
Alexander Blok. Autumn
Will.1905
Aside
from the “fall” of the woman, Blok in his poems also picks the
Shakespearean-Ophelian theme of “flowers,” frequently using the word
allegorically.
There
is a good reason why Bulgakov follows the Blokian suit. On the day when
Margarita first met master, whose prototype is of course A. A. Blok, she was
carrying “yellow spring flowers” in her hands.
The
yellow color is the color of betrayal in Bulgakov. Being a married woman,
Margarita betrays her husband through her affair with master. And, following in
Blokian tracks, first comes the fall, and then comes death. However, the tale
of his love for Margarita told by master to Ivanushka notwithstanding, nor in
the actual pictures of their second meeting, nor in the scenes of the lovers’
return to master’s basement apartment, per Margarita’s wish, – can any kind of
passion be felt on master’s part.
Probably,
Bulgakov felt that in his personal life Blok had been a very reserved, even dry
man, or what we might call a “square.” It is only in Margarita that we
encounter unbounded passion.
And
so, from Ophelia we get a confirmation that, to begin with, Blok considered the
first stage of being in love as the most important one in a man’s relationship
with a woman. And, secondly, Blok was in agreement with Shakespeare that women
ought to preserve their chastity until marriage, or else, their constancy would
always be suspect, which was a very important consideration for Blok.
Untrustworthiness in one thing leads to untrustworthiness in every aspect of
interpersonal relationships.
In
the last 6th cycle of Verses
About a Fair Lady Blok writes in an untitled 1902 poem:
“By
my face, consumed by trembling,
You will guess my thoughts…
Like then, with a voiceless
smile,
You’ll be able to read upon
my brow
Of love, unfaithful and
wobbly,
Of love that once flourished
on earth.”
This
is what Blok writes on the subject of woman’s faithfulness in two untitled 1905
poems:
“In a
land alien and dark,
How are you going to remember
about me?..
Even though your soul is
fleeting,
Unchanging over you
Stands your young pride,
My feminine faithfulness.”
And
another poem from the 1904-1908 collection The
City, in which Blok depicts a poor working girl singing a song. –
“What
can I do? With my scarlet blood
I can adorn my tenderness for
you.
With my woman’s faithfulness,
eternal love, –
Craft a Ring-Suffering for
you.”
Bulgakov
joins this faithfulness line, extolled by Blok in his poetry. As the reader may
remember, Margarita did not intend to abandon master in the face of danger,
that is, on the night when they came to arrest him. And she agreed to live with
master in his basement, subjecting herself to extreme deprivation. (Woland
calls it “impoverishment.”)
In
this, Bulgakov follows Blok’s 1906 poem Cold
Day from the poetry collection The
City:
“And
now we went where we’d be living under a low ceiling,
Where people destroyed by
hard labor had cursed one another…
You turned back and
trustingly looked into my eyes…
Work will help us to while
away the time.
A hammer for me, and a needle
for you!”
“A needle for you…” Hence Margarita sews
up a little black cap for master.
In
another untitled 1907 poem from the 1906-1916 poetry cycle Motherland, Blok writes about his ideal:
“In
thick grass you’ll be lost up to your head,
You’ll enter the quiet house
without knocking…
She’ll wrap you in her arm, weave
around you with her plait,
And, majestic, she will say:
Hello, Prince.
Here I have a bush of white
roses,
Right here yesterday ivy was
creeping.
Where were you? What news
have you brought?
Who loves us, who doesn’t,
who chases us off?..”
…This
is how Blok imagines a woman’s faithfulness. This is why Bulgakov makes
Margarita and master “faithful lovers.” As for “thick grass,” “white roses,”
and “ivy,” this is how Bulgakov describes master’s and Margarita’s “quiet
house”:
“Look, there, ahead is your
eternal home. I can already see the Venetian window and the clinging grapevine
[instead of ivy]. It creeps up to the very roof...”
Instead
of a “bush of white roses,” in Woland’s description of the house, this is what
he says:
“…Wouldn’t you like during
the day to walk with your companion under the cherry trees about to blossom?”
Here
again this is in accordance with Blok’s lines:
“My
beloved, be brave, And you will be with me,
I will be waving over you like
white cherry blossom…”
Meanwhile,
Blok goes on:
“…Like
before, you’ll forget that days are passing by,
Like before, you’ll forgive
the proud and malicious ones…”
[…that is, the enemies of Russia…]
“…And
you see storm clouds gathering in the distance,
And hear the songs of faraway
villages…”
[…that is, the enemies are already attacking Russia’s
borders…]
“…The
heart will weep for the other place,
Will ask to do battle, will
call and beckon…”
[…the Russians do not abandon other Russians in peril…]
“…And
she will just say: Farewell, come back to me!
And again behind the tall
grass jingles the little bell.”
Here
once again Blok extols the nobility and faithfulness of the Russian woman. And
what a difference it makes from his 1899 poem from Ante Lucem, titled Ophelia’s
Song:
“Parting
with your dear maiden,
Dear friend, you pledged your
love’
Departing for the abhorred
land,
You pledged to keep your
oath!
There, beyond our happy
Denmark,
Your shores are hidden in the
haze,
An angry talkative wave
Washes away the tears on the
rock.
My dear warrior is not
returning
All clad in silver.
A bow and a black feather
Will stir heavily in the
coffin.”
Returning
to the Russian woman, the bride of the prince, here is Bulgakov:
“I know that in the evening
you will be visited by those you love, those who interest you and those who do
not upset you. They will play for you, they will sing for you, you will see the
color of the room when the candles are burning. You’ll be going to bed having
put on your soiled and eternal night cap; you’ll be falling asleep with a smile
on your lips. The sleep will strengthen you, you’ll be reasoning wisely. And
you will never be able to chase me away, for I will be the one guarding your
sleep.”
To
be continued…
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