Speaking of Demon Veen (Dark Walter) and his cousin
Daniel (Durak Walter or Red Veen), I mentioned in my previous posts
Gorky's Vas'ka krasnyi (Red Vaska) and Vasiliy Tyomnyi (Dark
Vasily), the Grand Prince of Moscow (1415-62) who was blinded by his cousin
Dimitry Shemyaka. Shemyaka had a younger brother, Dimitry Krasnyi (who
probably wasn't red-haired but had good looks, krasnyi meaning in
the old days both "red" and "beautiful"). Daniel Veen dies an odd Boschean death
(2.10). The death of Dimitry Krasnyi (as described by Karamzin) was
also odd enough. He lost sense of smell, hearing and his nose was bleeding so
heavily that his nostrils had to be plugged. Having received the last
Communion, he fell asleep but everybody thought he was dead. The boyars
covered his body with silk and had a funeral feast, drinking a
lot of mead until they all fell asleep in the same room. But in the night
they were shocked to hear the dead man sing church hymns and talk
about religious subjects. He kept singing and talking three days and
then died.
Passing to the next, 16th, century: according to a
legend, Ivan the Terrible had the architect/architects of St. Basil's
Cathedral (Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennogo) in the Red/Beautiful Square
blinded not to let him/them build anything as beautiful.
Barma = ambar = rabam
Barma - the architect (or, maybe,
one of the architects) of St. Basil's Cathedral; barma, sing. of barmy (small shoulder mantles
worn by Moscow Grand Princes)
ambar - Russ., barn; cf.
Night of the Burning Barn in Ada (1.19); in the closing poem of
Tristia Mandelshtam compares Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and
St. Peter's Basilica in Rome to barns full of air and light
(Sobory vechnye Sofii i Petra, / Ambary vozdukha i sveta)
rabam - to the slaves
(Dat. pl. of rab, "slave")
Alexey Sklyarenko