The Bard.
Barbarian at
the Gate.
Professor
Kuzmin.
Posting #11.
“...But
as soon as the eternal Aurora
First
gleams with her morning purple mantle,
I swear
that under the sword of death
The
lucky men’s head [sic!] shall roll.”
A. S. Pushkin. Egyptian Nights.
Continuing the theme of Pushkin’s Egyptian Nights…
And so, the soiree was set at 10 rubles per ticket. “The Italian asked the ladies and gentlemen of the audience
to appoint a number of subjects, writing them down on special pieces of paper.
[Having collected] the folded pieces of paper into an urn, the improvisator
approached a young stately beauty who pulled one of the folded papers out of
the urn.” The inscription on it said: “Cleopatra And Her Lovers.” This
theme was ordered by a “plain young woman on the
instruction of her mother,” and she “was so discomfited that tears were
hanging from her eyelashes.” Taking pity on the girl, Charsky told the
improvisator that what he had
in mind was the testimony of “Aurelius Victor, who
alleges that Cleopatra used to appoint death as the price of her love, and that
there happened to be some admirers of hers who had not been discouraged and
turned off by this fateful condition.”
If Desdemona represents pure poetry in A. S. Pushkin,
then Cleopatra represents profanity. How about the following lines, whatever
they are worth? –
“There
is bliss for you in my love.
You
can buy that bliss
So,
listen to me: I can restore
Equality
among you.
Who
will be entering the auction on passion?
I
am selling my love!
Tell
me, who among you will buy
My
night [sic!] at the price of your life?
She
spoke, and all are filled with horror,
And
hearts are trembling with passion –
She
hears the discomfited murmur
With
a cold audacity on her face,
And
her disdainful glance
Goes
around the circle of her admirers…”
Her disdain notwithstanding, or perhaps due to it –
“...Suddenly
one comes out of the crowd,
Two
others come out after him.
Their
step is daring, their eyes are clear;
She
stands up toward them;
It
happened: three nights have been bought,
And
the bed of death is calling them...”
Pushkin says who the three are:
“...The
first one Flavius, a daring warrior,
Criton
comes after him, a youthful sage…”
The third one is given the most attention, and there
is a good reason for that:
“...The
last one had not passed his name to the ages.
His
cheeks were gently shaded by the first down;
Exultation
was gleaming in his eyes;
An
inexperienced force of passions
Was
boiling in the young heart –
And
sorrowfully did the proud queen
Rest
her gaze on him…”
The next lines are already indicative of pornography
in literature:
“...I
swear, o mother of pleasures,
Unheard
of is my service to you
Upon
the bed of passionate temptations
I
ascend as a common mercenary...
I
swear – until the morning dawn
I
shall lasciviously exhaust
My
possessors’ every wish
And
with all secrets of the kiss
And
with wild languor shall I quench…”
This passage points to Cleopatra’s dissipation and
cruelty. Showing in this description is the firm hand of the poet who
only points to the existence of a pornographic trend in literature, but himself
does not stoop to it.
A. S. Pushkin wrote Egyptian Nights in 1835 at the age of 36. It was a finished work of
his, pointing to which are the words: “The last one had not passed his name to the ages.”
As soon as I read these lines, I immediately understood that in this character
of a youth Pushkin portrays himself.
And so, Bulgakov’s three Abrau-Dyurso labels point to
A. S. Pushkin’s Egyptian Nights,
which counts precisely three chapters, untitled, but with three epigraphs.
Considering that Abrau-Dyurso stands for AD [Hell], it is only proper that the
three labels (meaning Pushkin’s whole story Egyptian
Nights) are picked up by the demon-assassin Azazello. Bulgakov must have
fully realized that Pushkin’s story was complete, and it did not require
“completion” by somebody else.
In Professor Kuzmin’s case, Bulgakov shows that his
head has been cut off, through the use of leeches on his head:
“...Leeches [were] hanging from his
temples, behind his ears and on his neck...”
Thus the first part of the novel Master and Margarita starts with V. Ya. Bryusov and ends with
him. The fact that Berlioz dies in the 3rd chapter also points
to the 3 chapters of A. S. Pushkin’s Egyptian
Nights. The 3rd chapter closes with the words: “It was the severed head of Berlioz.”
And now the last lines of the Cleopatra poem in A. S. Pushkin’s Egyptian Nights, which end the last third chapter:
“...But
as soon as the eternal Aurora
First
gleams with her morning purple mantle,
I swear
that under the sword of death
The
lucky men’s head [sic!] shall roll.”
Terrific!
To be continued…
***
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