{"id":277,"date":"2016-10-27T20:34:59","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T00:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/?p=277"},"modified":"2020-03-30T17:32:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T21:32:31","slug":"back-towards-the-future-prophetic-rumblings-and-temporal-tumblings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/russian-culture\/back-towards-the-future-prophetic-rumblings-and-temporal-tumblings\/","title":{"rendered":"Back Towards the Future: Prophetic Rumblings and Temporal Tumblings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of Alexander Blok\u2019s lyric poems are heavy-laden with prophecy: Russia (both as <\/span>Rus\u2019 <\/span><\/i>and<\/span> Rossiya)<\/span><\/i>, feminized and untouchable, is threatened with seduction and collapse, a lone voice rises from the chorus, warning of the \u2018cold and gloom\u2019 of the days to come (<\/span>O, esli b znali, deti, vy, holod i mrak gradushchikh dnei!<\/span><\/i>). Despite a constant \u2018dark\u2019 tone in the prophetic language of the various works (no matter which volume of Blok\u2019s complete works you lock someone in a room with, they\u2019d still come out babbling about the end of days or an unobtainable \u2018Fair Lady\u2019), I hope to show that, by comparing two \u2018prophetic\u2019 poems, one written in 1900 and the other in 1916, differences between both imagery used and notions of \u2018prophecy\u2019 from poem to poem will become clear.<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u2018A Red Glow in the Sky,\u2019 the prophesied future [a \u2018city\u2019] is \u2018distant and unknowable\u2019 (<\/span>dalyokii, nevedomiy)<\/span><\/i>. That there is something to be prophesied about is clear: the future is made both \u2018rumor\u2019 and clear \u2018talk\u2019 (<\/span>molva) <\/span><\/i>in one semantic movement, and the heavy row of houses is distinguished by a \u2018you\u2019 (<\/span>ty)<\/span><\/i>, whether the reader or a prophecy-receiving reader-as-blank-spot (<\/span>Ty razlichish domov tizhyolyi ryad<\/span><\/i>). The future, however, while \u2018visible\u2019 in its entirety, cannot be penetrated by the gaze: its essence is hidden behind barriers and boundaries, darkened and stern in their impenetrability. While the inquisitive mind can make ready for the revival of the roar of slain cities (p<\/em><\/span>ytlivyi um gotovit k vozrozhdeniyu\/zabityi gul pogibshikh gorodov)<\/span><\/i>, the cities remain <\/span>closed <\/span><\/i>in their content: as \u2018being\u2019 makes a return-movement (<\/span>vozvratnoye dvizheniye)<\/span><\/i>, the future clouds what this \u2018being\u2019 will be. <\/span><\/p>\n

The \u2018Kite\u2019, written sixteen years later, presents a prophecy which, while more explicitly bleak in content, is \u2018safe\u2019 and predictable, a tragedy erased and reborn in a never-ending cycle. Above an empty meadow the kite inscribes circle after circle (<\/span>chertya za krugom plavnyi krug)<\/span><\/i>, and in the hut the mother\u2019s voice inscribes another circle, of predictable life-patterns, of nurture, grown, and socialization (<\/span>na xleba, na, na grud\u2019, sosi\/rasti, pokorstvuyi, krest nesti). <\/span><\/i>Centuries go on, war makes its noise, villages burn and social disorder arises, yet all of this is foretold, in that it is endless: the country remains the same, in ancient and tear-stained beauty (<\/span>v krasye zaplakannoi i drevnei). <\/span><\/i>How long must the mother wail? How long must the kite wheel? The question is left unanswered, yet the content of the \u2018prophecy\u2019 is made known: the mother <\/span>does <\/span><\/i>wail, and the kite <\/span>does <\/span><\/i>circle. The future, bloody and full of grief, does not loom out of the darkness: it rolls along, spinning ever-back into clarity. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of Alexander Blok\u2019s lyric poems are heavy-laden with prophecy: Russia (both as Rus\u2019 and Rossiya), feminized and untouchable, is threatened with seduction and collapse, a lone voice rises from the chorus, warning of the \u2018cold and gloom\u2019 of the days to come (O, esli b znali, deti, vy, holod i mrak gradushchikh dnei!). Despite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,111,110],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russian-culture","tag-blok","tag-prophecy","tag-symbolism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-fall-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}