Margarita Beyond Good And Evil
Continued.
“I
sing my lying blood in treacherous veins.
I
drink to all the treacherous lovers of mine:
The
ones to come…”
Marina Tsvetaeva. 1919
A.
A. Block studied A. S. Pushkin, like M. Yu. Lermontov before him, and V.
V. Mayakovsky and S. A. Yesenin after him.
Pushkin’s
fairytales were of great interest to Blok, and they inspired him to write
poetry on their subjects. Blok’s poem In
the Attic can serve as an example.
The
very strange inner conversation of Margarita, sitting by herself under the
Kremlin Wall, can also be explained by the fact that Marina Tsvetaeva and Blok
were never lovers. It follows an unsuccessful attempt of a man passing by to
strike a conversation with Margarita, which she discourages. –
“Here is a good example, -- Margarita
was mentally addressing him who possessed her. – Why did I send this man away? I am bored, and there was nothing wrong
with that Lovelace…”
“He who possessed her…” This is how
Bulgakov saw the bizarre relationship of Tsvetaeva and Blok, and this is how he
portrayed it, considering that Blok had his own “Margarita, the”
“woman-stranger” living inside him.
Such
strange places in Master and Margarita ought
to draw an even greater attention to this unique work of genius. These strange
places challenge the reader to conquer yet another peak in the mountain range
of Bulgakov’s masterpiece.
The
poetry of A. A. Blok “possessed” Marina Tsvetaeva to such an extent that she
started writing poems to Blok, beginning in 1916.
Bulgakov,
naturally, read the works of all his major contemporaries, as he shows
through the character of Maksudov in the Theatrical
Novel.
Bulgakov
became interested in Tsvetaeva because of her poems To A. S. Pushkin (1913) and also To A. A. Blok (1916, 1920, 1921). Having already devised the
creation of “Woland and Cie,” which would include great Russian poets, Bulgakov
understood that to ensure a complete success of his undertaking, he needed a
love story. Thus, such a love story emerged from his take on M. Tsvetaeva’s
poems to Blok.
It
is such a great pity that Marina Tsvetaeva wrote her My Pushkin so late in life (1937), and while living abroad. In this
work, her childhood reminiscences are intertwined with her acquaintance in
Paris with the Russian painter Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, grandniece of A.
S. Pushkin’s wife Natalia Nikolayevna Goncharova.
In
Moscow, Marina Tsvetaeva lived with her parents, brothers, and sisters near
Nikitskiye Gates, and they were neighbors there of the Goncharov family, but,
as it often happens, they did not know each other.
Tsvetaeva’s
father was a widower with two children when he married the young girl who was
to become the mother of Marina Tsvetaeva. This young girl, Marina’s future
mother, had submitted to her father’s request, giving up on the man she loved,
to marry a widower with two children from a previous marriage, still deeply in
love with his dead wife.
Here
already, Bulgakov borrows the place of work for his master, namely, the museum,
regarding which M. Tsvetaeva writes in her 1933 reminiscences The Laurel Wreath, dedicated to her
father.
I
am naturally unaware whether Bulgakov read these reminiscences or not. But what
a coincidence! Most likely, Tsvetaeva’s father, like master, knew that many
languages. From Nikitskiye Gates, nannies were taking the children for walks on
Patriarch Ponds or to the Pushkin Monument on Tverskoy Boulevard.
Yet
another coincidence.
Master and Margarita begins on Patriarch Ponds, but Marina Tsvetaeva says
that she always preferred walking toward the Pushkin Monument. –
“…Because I liked to walk from it down the sandy or snowy alley,
and to return up the sandy or snowy alley toward it, toward his back with the
hand, toward his hand behind his back…”
“…The Pushkin Monument was black as a grand piano. Because of the
Pushkin Monument I have my insane love for the blacks, which I have carried
through all my life…”
“…I liked it that whether we were coming or leaving, he is always
standing there. Under the snow, under the fallen leaves, at dawn, in the
blueness, in the hazy milk of winter, – always
standing there…”
I
was right when, even not realizing yet that Marina Tsvetaeva was Margarita’s
prototype, I wrote that the meeting on Tverskaya means for every Russian that
Pushkin Monument, cast in black iron, showing the African heritage of the great
Russian poet.
The
Pushkin Monument is “a monument to freedom – the elements – fate.”
Hence,
in Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
writes:
“Ivan found out that the guest and his secret wife had come to the
conclusion already in the first days of their affair that it was fate herself that had brought them
together on the corner of Tverskaya and a side street, and that they had been
created for each other for all time.”
We
can now say: for the ages, because Bulgakov’s novel Master and Margarita is immortal, and together with the novel, all
its characters, their prototypes being well-known real personalities.
The
love story of master and Margarita will continue to dominate, but how important
it is to learn that behind Bulgakov’s characters stand these two Russian poets
of the early 20th century: Alexander Blok and Marina Tsvetaeva.
Thanks
to Marina Tsvetaeva’s poems to Blok, and Blok’s attraction to the
“stranger-woman,” Bulgakov is not only joining them in a love story anybody can
envy, but is also showing us the historical background of his time...
…In
order to say, after his hero Pushkin:
“…That
in my cruel age I glorified freedom…”
Marina Tsvetaeva was four
years old when their home was visited by –
“…The
honorary guardian of the museum,
Pushkin’s own son, already in
advanced years,
The beard all white, and with
a star upon his chest…”
What
is also striking is that Bulgakov introduces a certain “Backenbarter” on the river, in his chapter The Flight. Marina Tsvetaeva writes: “Pushkin had side whiskers,” in
her childhood memoirs My Pushkin.
Marina
Tsvetaeva’s poetry provides another interpretation to the significance of blood
in the novel Master and Margarita.
There is a reason why the question of blood is raised by Woland on several
occasions:
“Yes, Koroviev is right… Blood!”
And
again: “Blood is
a great thing!, said Woland cheerfully…”
So,
here is why Woland so much likes to quote Koroviev about blood, who, like
Marina Tsvetaeva, recognizes the meaning of it.
In
her poem In Memoriam H. Heine, Marina
Tsvetaeva exhibits her strong willfulness, writing:
“Our
dispute is not finished, but only beginning!
In the next life – it’s a
pleasure to behold! –
You will be crying, and I
will be singing!
A tambourine in hand, the
devil in blood!
A red skirt covered by black
hearts!”
Why
did Woland quote Koroviev, then?
It
was also because of the “red skirt.” A. S. Pushkin has a poem The Monk, where the devil tempts an old
monk with a “white skirt.”
To
be continued…
No comments:
Post a Comment