Subject
Blok and Sun Horse
From
Date
Body
Speaking of Blok, the epigraph to his long poem Vozmezdie
("Retribution," 1910-21) is from Ibsen's play Bygmester Solness ("The
Master Builder," 1892): Yunost' - eto vozmezdie ("Youth is retribution,"
the words of Solness). The name Solness comes from sol, Norwegian (and
Latin) for "sun." There is also sol in Solveig, a character in Ibsen's
play in verse Peer Gynt (1867). Blok admired Peer Gynt and in 1906 wrote
several poems about Solveig.
As I pointed out before, one of the main characters in "Retribution" is
Demon (the father of the poem's hero). Vrubel (the artist who, according
to Van, made a portrait of his father, Demon Veen) is mentioned in
Blok's Foreword to "Retribution." There are other affinities between
Blok's poem and Ada.
It is worth noting that Solness (who falls to his death from the tower
he built) is a colleague of David van Veen, the architect who built
ninety nine memorial floramors (and died from a stroke while helping to
prop up a propylon of his hundredth house). Cf. arkhitektor vinovat
("the architect is to blame"), the phrase that became proverbial in
Tolstoy's family.
Speaking of horses, one is also reminded of kumir na bronzovom kone
("the idol riding his bronze horse") in Pushkin's long poem Mednyi
vsadnik ("The Bronze Horseman," 1833) known on Antiterra as "Headless
Horseman" (1.28). Decapitation is also mentioned in the Prologue to
"Retribution" (ll. 41-46):
Но песня - песнью всё пребудет,
В толпе всё кто-нибудь поёт.
Вот - голову его на блюде
Царю плясунья подаёт;
Там - он на эшафоте чёрном
Слагает голову свою
Incidentally, mednyi ("of copper") rhymes with bednyi ("poor"). Demian
Bednyi (Demon Veen's namesake!) was the Soviet poet who lived in Kremlin
and published in Pravda his parody (Bilet na tot svet, "A Ticket to the
Otherworld") of Sirin's poem Bilet ("The Ticket," 1927). It was the
first mention of Sirin in the Soviet press.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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("Retribution," 1910-21) is from Ibsen's play Bygmester Solness ("The
Master Builder," 1892): Yunost' - eto vozmezdie ("Youth is retribution,"
the words of Solness). The name Solness comes from sol, Norwegian (and
Latin) for "sun." There is also sol in Solveig, a character in Ibsen's
play in verse Peer Gynt (1867). Blok admired Peer Gynt and in 1906 wrote
several poems about Solveig.
As I pointed out before, one of the main characters in "Retribution" is
Demon (the father of the poem's hero). Vrubel (the artist who, according
to Van, made a portrait of his father, Demon Veen) is mentioned in
Blok's Foreword to "Retribution." There are other affinities between
Blok's poem and Ada.
It is worth noting that Solness (who falls to his death from the tower
he built) is a colleague of David van Veen, the architect who built
ninety nine memorial floramors (and died from a stroke while helping to
prop up a propylon of his hundredth house). Cf. arkhitektor vinovat
("the architect is to blame"), the phrase that became proverbial in
Tolstoy's family.
Speaking of horses, one is also reminded of kumir na bronzovom kone
("the idol riding his bronze horse") in Pushkin's long poem Mednyi
vsadnik ("The Bronze Horseman," 1833) known on Antiterra as "Headless
Horseman" (1.28). Decapitation is also mentioned in the Prologue to
"Retribution" (ll. 41-46):
Но песня - песнью всё пребудет,
В толпе всё кто-нибудь поёт.
Вот - голову его на блюде
Царю плясунья подаёт;
Там - он на эшафоте чёрном
Слагает голову свою
Incidentally, mednyi ("of copper") rhymes with bednyi ("poor"). Demian
Bednyi (Demon Veen's namesake!) was the Soviet poet who lived in Kremlin
and published in Pravda his parody (Bilet na tot svet, "A Ticket to the
Otherworld") of Sirin's poem Bilet ("The Ticket," 1927). It was the
first mention of Sirin in the Soviet press.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/