Guests at
Satan’s Great Ball.
Posting #13.
“…You
told me we shall be like gods,
Standing
over the world. No, we shall not die…
You
were calculating in the world’s bliss.
Into
your window flowed a stream of gold,
Lying
down on the floor like a golden patch…”
Andrei Bely. Separation.
Having written her poem Marina in 1921, Marina Tsvetaeva must have been well familiar with
A. Blok’s poetry cycle Frightful World (1907-1916).
To Blok’s “That’s
bones clanging upon bones,” she counters with: “A brief shake-up of bones on the slabs.”
At the same time, while Blok writes: “In her ears, an
otherworldly strange ringing,” Bulgakov responds with this: “Then Natasha threw herself on Margarita’s neck, sonorously
kissed her multiple times, and with a victorious cry flew out the window.”
As for the corpse and his girlfriend, in Bulgakov they
happen to be the “black-haired handsome in a tuxedo
and lacquered shoes” and a “nude fidgety woman
in black shoes and with black feathers on her head.” Apparently,
Monsieur Jacques picked up Natasha after that, offering her a handful of “gold”
coins.
In Sergei Yesenin’s poem Land of Scoundrels, the author takes upon himself the role of Robin
Hood. Already on the 4th page of his Dramatic Poem, Yesenin writes that his hero Nomakh is a robber. –
“I
lost my balance, and I know it myself:
One
day I will surely be hanging from the heavens…”
Once again the theme of the hanged man. This is how
Monsieur Jacques arrives at the ball: hanging from a gibbet.
Already in the opening lines of the poem, Nomakh’s
former classmate Red Army volunteer Zamarashkin warns Nomakh to be careful:
“Listen,
Nomakh! Stop this business.
They
have taken your case for earnest.
Watch
it lest your body gets hanged from a pole!”
The theme of the gibbet again. But no matter what,
Nomakh makes Zamarashkin privy to his plans:
“Tonight
an express train passes here at 2 am.
46
seats, Red Army soldiers and workers
At
2 am. Gold bullion being transported.”
Zamarashkin does not buy his plan of lighting a red
lantern to make the train stop. Nomakh explains the importance of it:
“…If I
want it, it means it must be done,
For
I don’t value my head that much,
And
I do not demand a reward for the robbery:
All
that I take I am giving to others…”
Apparently, Bulgakov borrowed part of that gold for
Natasha’s benefit. However, in this scene, Bulgakov also leaves room for
another interpretation, which I have laid out in my chapter The Spy Novel of Master and Margarita.
The researcher already knows that Bulgakov is using
different hard currencies in his chapter The
Troublesome Day, [See my chapter A
Swallow’s Nest of Luminaries: Mr. Lastochkin.]
In my chapter The
Bard I have already written that gold belongs to A. S. Pushkin. This is
because Andrei Fokich’s money (and his prototype is the poet Osip Mandelstam)
has turned into shredded paper, but after that, as a result of the magic done
by Koroviev (Pushkin), it first turns back into chervontsy, and next, in the
medical office of Professor Kuzmin, into gold coins.
Bulgakov takes this idea from the poetry of Andrei
Bely, in whose 1903 poem Separation,
which opens the poetry cycle Crimson
Mantle in Thorns, the poet writes:
“…You
told me we shall be like gods,
Standing
over the world. No, we shall not die…
We
were returning, you sat behind your desk,
You
were calculating in the world’s bliss.
Into
your window flowed a stream of gold,
Lying
down on the floor like a golden patch.
And
I was fantasizing: You, it’s you I need…
Oh
please do pray! Do not forget me!
Eternal
is my waiting… Today I had you in my dream!
Oh
life, fly by like a foggy and sad dream.
I waited long, the stream of gold was
flowing
Into your window like a glowing patch.”
An interesting variation on Homer’s first poem from
the Iliad. In Andrei Bely this is not
exactly Greek mythology, that is, in this poem Bely is writing about a friend
who died. But still a curious interpretation can be imagined here touching upon
the triangle in Master and Margarita.
If Zeus himself appeared to the naked Danae because of her great beauty in the
form of golden rain, then a naked Natasha was called the goddess Venus by
Nikolai Ivanovich (whose prototype is likewise the poet Osip Mandelstam), whom
she subsequently turned into a hog.
I am still convinced that the prototype of Monsieur
Jacques happens to be the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin. As for Andrei Bely,
Bulgakov uses his characters and his poems freely and in other personages as
well. Andrei Bely’s biography is written only too well in Marina Tsvetaeva’s
memoirs titled The Captive Spirit.
And also we must not forget or ignore the fact that
Bulgakov sets himself the task of confounding the researcher in the latter’s
ability to solve Bulgakov’s puzzles. More often than not, he offers the
researcher patently false clues, like, for instance, the English Store Jacques,
where Andrei Bely used to buy himself hats, and quite possibly dress suits as
well.
In order to figure out who is who and what is what in
Bulgakov, we must have a pretty good knowledge of Russian poetry and consider
both general and unexpected clues, which can turn around the whole case under
our investigation.
To be continued…
***
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