GALINA SEDOVA. A CHAPTER ON BULGAKOV. CCCCXXIII

Gumilev. Li Bo. China.

The Porcelain Pavilion.

Posting #3.

“…And I wanted to die,

And I bent toward water…”

Du Fu/Gumilev. The House.

Returning to Li Bo’s Porcelain Pavilion –

“Amid an artificial lake

There rose a porcelain pavilion,

Convex like a tiger’s back,

A bridge of jasper leads to it.

And in this pavilion,

Several friends dressed in light-colored clothes

From cups painted with dragons

Drink warmed-up wine…”

Li Bo’s friends are –

“…Now conversing merrily,

Now writing down their poetry,

Cocking their yellow hats

And rolling up their sleeves...”

The last stanza reveals that this small-sized poem contains a riddle:

“…And clearly seen in the pure lake

Is the concave bridge, like the jasper crescent,

And a few friends over cups,

Turned upside down.”

A totally unexpected ending. The bridge is transformed from “convex” (“like a tiger’s back”) to “concave” (“like the jasper crescent”). Also changing is the comparison of the bridge from convex like a tiger’s back in the first stanza to concave like the jasper crescent in the last stanza.

Now the question arises: where is the author himself? Where is Li Bo describing friends drinking “warmed-up wine”?

If these friends-poets are sitting with Li Bo in some restaurant, how come that at the end they are “turned upside down”?

Most likely, Li Bo is sitting in a restaurant by himself. He is by the window, enjoying the moon and the wine. In front of him is a bowl of yellow wine and he pours the wine from the larger bowl into his cup with a ladle, little by little.

The cup and the ladle are painted. When Li Bo tilts the ladle, pouring himself another measure of wine, his friends-poets sitting on the handle of the ladle tilt with it, and the effect is that they find themselves turned upside down.

The bridge is the ladle’s handle. It is decorated with figures of poets in yellow hats, same as the big bowl and the cup from which Li Bo drinks his wine. The big bowl with wine does not turn over, but the little cup in Li Bo’s hand may tilt. It is the bridge-like ladle that must definitely be tilted in order to scoop up and pour the wine.

Another riddle solved!

To be continued…