Pruebas de Configuración

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However, i f B lok appealed to Pushkin fo r s p iritu a l help in the dark period o f the f ir s t years o f the Soviet régime, Tsvetaeva claim ed Pushkin to be the leader o f some s o rt o f anarchistic com m unity.

Such an image o f Pushkin comes across in the s ix th poem o f the cycle ’S tik h i k P ushkinu”. I t is m odelled on the poem o f Charles W o lfe ’’The B urial o f S ir John Moore a fte r Corunna ” (w hich was translated in to Russian in 1825 by Ivan Kozlov). Once again (as in the poem ’Vstrecha s Pushkinym”) Tsvetaeva uses a rom antic a llusio n to Napoleon, although in d ire c tly : the B ritis h commander S ir John Moore was k ille d a t Corunna a t 1808 ib the beginning o f the Peninsular W ar w ith Napoleon. The solemn and heroic atmosphere o f the o rig in a l is preserved by Tsvetaeva b u t the whole s itu a tio n is depicted in a more dram atic tone as some s o rt o f ritu a l. I t is w orth com paring the tw o poems in order to establish the s trik in g differences:

’’Tsvetaeva's le tte rs to Salomeia G al/pern” , Vestnik russkogo khristianskogo dvizheniia, 129, Paris, 1979, p.l82.

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N ot a dram was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the ram part we hurried; N ot a sold ie r discharged his farew ell shot

O’er the grave where ou r hero we buried. [...] Slow ly and sadly we la id him down,

From the fie ld o f his fame fresh and gory; We carved no t a line, and we raised not a stone,

B ut we le ft him alone w ith his glory. (Charles W olfe) H er, 6hji Ôapaban nepe^ CMyrnuM nojiKOM,

K or^a MU bojka^ xopoHMJin:

To s y6u n a p ë B U n a ji M e p T B b iM n e B n o M Ilo u e T H y io 4p o6b buboamjih.

[...]

K oro X 9TO Tax — tohho Bopu Bopà

npncTpejieHHoro — b u h o c h jiii?

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Bopa —

YtiueMiuero Mysca Pocchh. (S88, 1, pp.280-81)

Facts taken by Tsvetaeva fro m Veresaev’s book merge in the cycle w ith several poetic tra d itio n s . Thus, on one hand, the image o f the chattering teeth o f the Tsar has the d e fin ite im p rin t o f Baroque poetics w ith its taste fo r anatom ically re vo ltin g details and shock ta c tic s . On the other hand, i t has a trace o f the Rom antic tra d itio n o f a ghost who threatens the liv in g : the Tsar in Tsvetaeva’s poem is frig hten ed o f the dead poet. Taking in to account the m ilita ry atmosphere o f poem 6, one can feel — lik e a shadow on the background — the suggestive presence o f the s itu a tio n depicted in Z h ukovskii’s poem ’Nochnoi sm otr

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BcracT c a^pRxaHCKXx creneA, C roproqxx necKoe IlaaecTHHu.

I t is also w o rth m entioning th a t Tsvetaeva fo llo w e d Pushkin’s steps in b rin g in g o u t an im p o rta n t sociological issue raised by Pushkin in "Tsygany": poverty provides a favourable co n d itio n fo r ind ivid u al freedom. Tsvetaeva he rself emphasised her poverty and expressed her condemnation fo r people obsessed w ith th e ir goods in her poem "Khvala bogatym " (1922):

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Mt o c e ô ü n p R U H C J im o k p e a H M , Mto qecTHÔ Moe wecro b MHpe: IIo ji koaecakm Bcex MSJimuecTB: C to s ypoAOB, KajicK, ro p b a xu x...

14 sacHM, c KoaoKosbHoA Kpuum 06i>iiBamo: juoÔjikj ÔoraTux!

[...]

3a NX TaAHbi — Bcerjia c napouHUM!

3a MX c r p a c T H — Bcerjia c p a c c u a u i u M ! 3a H a M s a H H u e m m h o m m,

(H neayioT m n b iO T HacMSbHo!) [...I (Tsvetaeva 1990, pp.308-09)

Tsvetaeva had a visio n o f a free com m unity based on the ra ppo rt and accord o f w ill powers, as expressed in her gypsy poems and in the story "K h lysto vki" (the re lig io u s aspect is p a rtic u la rly h ig hligh ted in the la tte r: the fla g e lla n t sect lives, in Tsvetaeva’s po rtrayal, as a n a tu ra lly free society accepting God's w ill as its own). Taking th is in to account, one can be dismayed by the manner in w hich Peter the Great and Pushkin appear to be the closest o f a llie s in poem 2 o f the cycle.

Poem 2 has the t itle "P etr i Pushkin" and i t emphasises the s p iritu a l lin k between Peter the Great's reform s and Pushkin's w ork. Such kinship

Russkie poety, A n to lo g iia v chetyrekh tomakh. Tom pervyi, Moscow, 1965, pp.283-84.

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between these tw o figures looks odd from the p o in t o f view o f Tsvetaeva’s p o litic a l declarations as expressed In her early poetry. Thus In 1920 Tsvetaeva w rote a poem "P etru", In w hich she condemned Peter the Great as fa th e r o f the O ctober R evolution In Russia. (See the discussion o f th is p o in t in chapter 6.) Y et In the cycle "S tik h i k Pushkinu", Peter the Great Is portrayed as a remarkable patron o f culture:

[...]

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