Alpha And Omega.
Posting #45.
“…Apostle Peter, if
you turn me down
And I shall have to leave,
what shall I do in Hell?
My love will melt the ice of
Hell,
And my tear will flood Hell’s
fire…”
N. S. Gumilev. Paradise.
Considering
that Yeshua’s prototype is the Russian poet Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev, he
enters the Paradise. Already in Bulgakov’s White
Guard, Alexei Turbin has a dream in which Colonel Nai-Turs, whose prototype
is also N. S. Gumilev, as well as the Sergeant who died in 1916 during the
First World War appear to him in Paradise. They are met, as they are supposed
to be met, by the Apostle Peter.
What strikes Alexei the most
is that dead Bolsheviks from Perekop are also admitted to Paradise. The dead
Sergeant Zhilin explains that God Himself has told this to Zhilin:
“You are all equal in my
sight, Zhilin. Slain on a battlefield.”
Bulgakov
puts two roses in what seems like a pool of blood, meaning that he considered
both poets: Gumilev and Blok – slain innocents.
Which
brings me to yet another astonishing poem by Gumilev from the poetry collection
Quiver, titled Paradise:
“Apostle
Peter, get your keys:
One worthy of Paradise is
knocking on your door.
Saint Thomas with the Fathers
of the Church
Will show that I was straight
in the Dogmata,
And let Saint George relate
to them the story
How at the time of war I was
fighting the enemy…”
Taking
the Saints as his Intercessors, Gumilev stands on fairly firm ground in his
desire to be accepted into Paradise:
“…Saint
Anthony can then corroborate
That I could never subdue my
flesh,
But then Saint Cecilia’s
mouth
Will whisper that my soul is
pure…”
Already
in despair, Gumilev appeals to Apostle Peter:
“…Apostle
Peter, if you turn me down
And I shall have to leave,
what shall I do in Hell?
My love will melt the ice of
Hell,
And my tear will flood Hell’s
fire.
In front of you dark Seraphim
Will appear as my
intercessor.”
But
being a soldier, Gumilev cannot even imagine a possibility of being turned
down, and he ends the poem on an assertive note:
“Delay
no more, and get your keys:
One worthy of Paradise is
knocking on your door!”
Breathtaking!
There
is ambiguity in where Bulgakov’s Gumilev gets himself to. In parting, Woland
calls master a “triply romantic master.” This is indicative of all three
prototypes of master, namely, Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, and Nikolai Gumilev.
Considering that it was Gumilev who wrote the poetry collection Romantic Flowers (1903-1907), it is
impossible to dispute the fact that Gumilev also goes to “Rest” in Bulgakov. Master’s suddenly appearing white “braided
plait” points to the same thing. Bulgakov also gets it from Gumilev’s poem The Tram That Lost Its Way.
In
fact, it can be said that all of Master
and Margarita is resting on a single “elephant leg,” which is the above-mentioned
poem by Gumilev.
The
theme of the keys turns out to be very interesting in Bulgakov and deserves
special attention, as it immediately transports the reader into the political
thriller of Master and Margarita.
Already on the first page of Chapter 13: The
Appearance of the Hero, Bulgakov comes up with the following passage:
“The new arrival winked at Ivan, hid a bundle of keys in his
pocket, inquired in a whisper: May I sit
down? – and having received a nod in the affirmative, placed himself in the
armchair.”
Introducing
his “hero” to the reader, Bulgakov generously showers him with epithets,
calling him “the unknown,” “the mysterious visitor,” as though inviting
the reader to figure out who the “mysterious
stealer of the keys” really is.
There
are many verses about “keys” in
Blok’s poetry, but, same as in Gumilev, they are linked to religion, like in
Blok’s 1902 poem Religio in the 6th
cycle of Verses About a Fair Lady:
“I am
guarding Her keys
And unseen, I am present with
Her
When swords are crossed
For the beauty of the
Unreachable.”
Calling
“Her” Unreachable, and also having
written:
“…I
knew You, my eternal friend,
You, the Keeper-Virgin…” –
–
Blok clearly writes here about the Mother of God.
To
be continued...
***
No comments:
Post a Comment