Alpha And Omega.
Posting #19.
“…And as a regular
book rat
My Byron stood amidst this
haze…”
A. Blok. Retribution.
Continuing
the striking parallel between the two scenes in Pontius Pilate and White
Guard (see the previous posting) the Colonel himself explains the situation
to Captain Studzinsky:
“I know what you want to ask,
and I’ll answer it myself. –It’s rotten. Worse happens, but seldom. Now, is it
clear?
Yes, sir! [replied Studzinsky].
Malyshev considerably lowered his voice: Understandably, I have no wish to remain in this stone tomb for the
duration of a suspicious night, and – God forbid! – cause the death of 200
boys, 120 of whom cannot even shoot!”
Bulgakov
writes that Studzinsky kept his silence. His further reaction shows that he
felt very uneasy. He was unsure of himself and of the situation in which he
found himself. He was overcome by doubt.
When
Colonel Malyshev started greeting the artillerists, “Studzinsky,
from behind Malyshev’s back, like a disquieted stage director, frightenedly
waved his hand, and the ranks of the artillerists responded with a thunderous
echo.”
With
words like “disquieted” and “frightenedly” Bulgakov shows the state of mind of
K. Balmont about to leave Russia. And indeed, having received the permission to
leave under the signature of Lunacharsky, he went to Paris in 1920, telling
Marina Tsvetaeva on his departure:
“And you, Marina, tell Valery
Bryusov that I am not sending him my farewell regards!”
While
Bryusov remained in Russia, where he died in 1924 at the age of 51, Balmont
lived abroad until 1942, when he died at the age of 75.
***
As
for the character of Staff-Captain Studzinsky, the sly Bulgakov had fooled me
again, like in his Theatrical Novel.
Aside from Balmont, another Russian poet of the Silver Age emerges here.
Bulgakov confuses the researcher by the word “a Pole,” and also by “incorrect accentuations” in Russian words. In
the process of rereading my chapter Alpha
and Omega, I remembered a previously unneeded poem by Blok about his
“sister” and “Warsaw.” I found it in the 1907-1914 poetry collection Iambs with some difficulty:
“When
you and I met,
I was ill, with a rusted
soul.
Sister, destined by fate.
The whole world seemed Warsaw
to me!
I remember: I was a poet
during the day,
And at night (a spirit of
free life) –
Over the black Vistula –
black delirium…
I wish I had the right to
erase from my memory
The damp hellhole of your
anguish
And ennui, oh gloomy Warsaw!..”
This
dateless and titleless poem must have been the precursor of Blok’s long poem Retribution, which has unfortunately
remained unfinished, not the way it had been conceived by the poet. It intended
to present three generations of one family. Portraying his father as a “demon”
who had bedeviled his mother’s head, Blok writes:
“…And
as a regular book rat
My Byron stood amidst this
haze;
He earned excellent praise
With his brilliant
dissertation,
And accepted a chair in
Warsaw…
He modestly offered her his
hand,
Tying her to his destiny…
Anguish! Scarce are news from
daughter,
Then suddenly she returns…
What’s with her? How thin is
the transparent figure!
Emaciated, worn-out, pale…
And a baby lying in her arms…”
Apparently,
here Blok is lamenting his father, mother, and himself, using a very probable
literary interpretation, connecting his “demon” father and his angel mother
whom Blok loved very much. His father dies in the third chapter and his son
comes to Warsaw for his funeral. (See my chapter Strangers in the Night.)
So,
this is why Bulgakov calls Staff-Captain Studzinsky “a Pole”! Pointing to the
fact that Blok’s features are contained in Studzinsky’s character are the
following words in Bulgakov’s novel White
Guard:
“...Studzinsky, from behind Malyshev’s back, like a disquieted
stage director, frightenedly waved his hand, and the ranks of the artillerists
responded with a thunderous echo.”
As
far as I know, Balmont wrote no plays, but Blok did: The Unknown; The Rose and the Cross; The Farce.
Also
pointing to the presence of A. A. Blok in A. B. Studzinsky is the fact that
Lieutenant V. V. Myshlayevsky comes to his help. In Mayakovsky’s long poem It’s Good!, the poet comes to Petrograd
where he meets a soldier on the square:
“…And
here… near the tongues of fire,
A soldier is warming up.
The fire fell upon the
soldier’s eyes,
Lying down on the tuft of his
hair.
I recognized him, was
surprised, and said:
Hello, Alexander Blok.”
As
the reader may remember, it was precisely because of these words of Mayakovsky
that I realized that master in Master and
Margarita has a prototype and that prototype is Blok. Until then I had been
at a loss.
But
as it turns out, Bulgakov introduced Blok already in his first novel White Guard. Also pointing in the same
direction is the fact that the news about the death of the two great poets,
Blok and Gumilev, was brought to Moscow in August 1921 from Petrograd by none
other than Mayakovsky, who was devastated by this double-tragedy. (See Marina
Tsvetaeva’s letter to Anna Akhmatova in my chapter A Swallow’s Nest of Luminaries: Mr. Lastochkin.)
It
can be easily explained why I first decided in favor of Balmont. Before
starting my work on the chapter Alpha and
Omega, I finished Master and
Margarita with the chapter The Garden,
where I am analyzing the subnovel Pontius
Pilate. As the researcher is aware of already, the character of Aphranius
also contains features of two Russian poets: Balmont and Gumilev [See my
chapter The Garden].
And
so, yet another Bulgakovian puzzle has been solved! Bulgakov just loves to play
games with his readers, turning his works into rebuses. In such a way he has
become an absolutely unique writer with out-of-this-world ideas to speak for
that. There was a good reason why he confused me with Studzinsky. Even at the
end of the first part of White Guard
he plays with the researcher in order to convince him that the prototype of V.
V. Myshlayevsky has to be K. D. Balmont. Just because the words of Myshlayevsky
“Gentlemen, allow me to set the school
building on fire!” can be easily mistaken for Balmont’s words. The reason
is literally in our face: One of his poetry collections is titled Burning Buildings.
And
also, Bulgakov’s comparison of Studzinsky to a restless stage director points
to the Russian poet A. Blok because of his three plays.
And
finally, Studzinsky’s name Alexander Bronislavovich, produces the initials A.
B., same as in Alexander Blok: A. B.
To
be continued…
***
No comments:
Post a Comment