The Bard:
Window Into Russian Literature.
Posting #6.
“Do what you want, quarter
me, if you like...
Only listen! Take away
from me that accursed one
Whom you have made my
lover!”
V. V. Mayakovsky. Flute-Spine.
Having
made an excursion into the theme of the Green Lady, I am presently returning to
the theme of the window.
Having
entered the anteroom of Apartment 50, Andrei Fokich is struck by its manner of
lighting. Bulgakov writes:
“Through the multi-colored glass of the large windows (a
fantasy of the irretrievably missing jeweler’s widow) an extraordinary light,
reminding of a church, was pouring in…”
The
fact that Bulgakov parenthesizes his own text: “(a
fantasy of the irretrievably missing jeweler’s widow)” – poses yet
another puzzle to the researcher. The chambermaid, whom Bulgakov for some
reason is calling “maiden,” invites Andrei Fokich into the drawing room:
“Go inside the drawing room, said
[Gella] as ordinarily as if she were attired in a proper human fashion. She
slightly pushed the door leading into the drawing room, while she herself left
the anteroom.”
This
immediately raises the question: where could she go, a “maiden
who had nothing on except a coquettish lace apron and a white headpiece”?
Although
the description of the “maiden’s” dress is taken from a poem by Alexander Blok,
the “maiden” herself is linked not to Blok but to V. V. Mayakovsky.
In
the 1908-1916 poetry cycle Harps and
Violins, Blok writes:
“In
bottled-shaped high boots,
Pomaded with kvas,
With a new harmonica
He is standing under the
porch.
On the porch stands the
wiggly one,
Apron with lace,
Heels tapping,
Her face rosy.
My angel damsel!
Why are you laughing?
My angel damsel,
Let me kiss you!
– Look at you, why should I,
Unwashed muzhik,
Why should I, clean and white,
Be kissing you?”
Because
of the behavior of the “wiggly one”
in Blok’s poem, Bulgakov turns the “apron
with lace” into a “coquettish lace
apron” for Gella, and the word “white,”
as the “wiggly one” calls herself,
changes into a “white headpiece” in
Bulgakov.
As
for V. V. Mayakovsky, in his long poem Flute-Spine,
we find the following lines:
“...And
I instead, till early morning,
Horrified that you were taken
away for love,
Was flouncing about,
Faceting screams into lines,
Already a half-crazed
jeweler…”
This
poem was written by Mayakovsky about Lila Brik and their relationship. If he
calls himself an “already half-crazed jeweler,” Lila Brik was in his opinion not
only “cursed” and “thought-up by a celestial Hoffmann,” but
also a “jeweleress” as she was linked
to the “jeweler” Mayakovsky.
Which
is why Bulgakov, with his unique sense of humor, writes:
“[The maiden] slightly opened the door into the drawing room, while
she herself left the anteroom.”
And two lines later, in
parentheses:
“…(a fantasy of the irretrievably missing jeweler’s widow)…”
Apparently,
the “shameless chambermaid” was invited by someone “for love.” I wonder if Gella
left with a tap of her shoes, like the damsel from Blok’s poem. Bulgakov writes
only that she had “golden slippers” on her feet.
While
her “jeweler” was sitting “on some kind of enormous
sofa, low and with cushions scattered on it,” his “jeweleress” – in the
words of a Vysotsky song – left him for someone else:
“…I
must have feasted her poorly.
An enormous cake stuck with
candles
Withered with grief, and I
myself dried up,
So with my neighbors and
friends I finished up
The brandy intended for the
Muse…
Years had passed, like people
on a black list.
All’s in the past, I am
yawning in wistfulness,
She left without a word, English-style,
But leaving two lines behind…”
Unlike
Vysotsky’s experience with the Muse, Mayakovsky sees his own experience
differently:
“I do
not need you! I don’t want you!”
And
he pleads with God:
“Do what you want, quarter
me, if you like,
I will be the one to wash
your hands, Righteous,
Only listen! Take away
from me that accursed one
Whom you have made my
lover!”
Bulgakov
listens to Mayakovsky and removes Gella in chapter 27: The End of Apartment #50:
“…Flying out with the smoke from the fifth floor window were three
dark silhouettes, apparently male, and one silhouette of a naked woman.”
Nobody
had seen Gella after that. But there can be another explanation to it, can’t
there? When Gella had slightly opened the door to the drawing room for Andrei
Fokich, while leaving the anteroom altogether, she could just as well have
entered another room, of which there were five.
So,
where did Gella go?
To
be continued…
***
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