Article

Name: The surrealist space of Nikolay Gumilev’s ballad “At the Gypsies”

Authors: E. Yu. Kulikova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The paper analyzes the surreal space of N. Gumilev’s ballad “At the Gypsies.” The author distinguishes such features of Gumilev’s ballads as the fragmentation of narration, a combination of unreal worlds, with one seen through the other, dual characters (in some cases, human beasts), dramatic final. The duality of Gumilev’s lyrics – the combination of “classical clarity” and surreal “madness” – comes from his love of French poetry with all its overtones: the poets of harmony Ch. Leconte de Lisle and Th. Gautier, and “dark,” confusing, and complex A. Rimbaud, the poet of “mad,” sometimes dissonant images. The poet combined “mad” metaphors and “bold turns of thought” from the French Symbolists. And his last poems are evidence that the avant-garde was comprehended and transformed not only at the level of motifs and imagery but also at the rhythmic level.

Gumilev’s late poems, somewhat close to futuristic poetics, are, at the same time, as lyrical as possible, perhaps precisely in the generic aspect of this concept. The lyrical beginning penetrates the entire narratological canvas of the Gumilev’s ballad of late years, taking bizarre blurred forms close to a surreal image. The well-defined plots of the poet’s former ballads become only the background of his works of the 20s, and the leading role is played by a metaphorical and complex mosaic of images and motifs superimposing on each other – unevenly, incorrectly, filling the text with hesitating shades of meaning. “At the Gypsies” can be seen as a surreal ballad, since the plot of the text includes typical Gumilev’s ballad motifs, but the poet undermines the traditional ballad canvas, blurring the clarity of the plotline, the certainty of images and motifs, focusing on obscure and hesitating details.

Keywords: genre, ballad, surrealism, lyrical plot, N. Gumilev

Bibliography:

Borovskaya A. A. Transformatsiya balladnykh form v poezii I. Severyanina [Transformation of ballad forms in the poetry of I. Severyanin]. Tambov University Review. Series Humanities. 2009, no. 7, pp. 316–323.

Chumakov Yu. N. V storonu liricheskogo syuzheta [About a lyrical plot]. Moscow, LRC Pub-lishing House, 2010, 88 p.

Garin I. I. “Proklyatye poety” [“Damned poets”]. URL: https://www.pro-za.ru/2013/10/ 13/794 (accessed: 23.01.2020).

Grigor’ev A. Stikhotvoreniya. Poemy. Dramy. [Verses. Poems. Dramas]. St. Petersburg, Akadem. proekt, 2001, 760 p.

Gumilev N. S. Pis’ma o russkoy poezii [Letters on Russian poetry]. R. D. Timenchik (Prep. of the text an comm.). Moscow, Sovremennik, 1990, 384 p.

Gumilev N. S. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy: V 10 t. [Complete works: In 10 vols]. Moscow, Voskresen’e, 1999, vol. 3. Stikhotvoreniya. Poemy (1914–1918) [Verses. Poems (1914–1918)], 464 p.; 2001, vol. 4: Stikhotvoreniya. Poemy (1918–1921) [Verses. Poems (1918–1921)], 394 p.

Gumilev N. S. Stikhotvoreniya i poemy [Verses and poems]. Leningrad, Sov. pisatel, 1988, 632 p.

Krol’ Yu. L. Ob odnom neobychnom tramvaynom marshrute (“Zabludivshiysya tramvay” N. S. Gumileva) [About one unusual tram route (“Lost Tram” by N. S. Gumilyov)]. Russkaya literatura. 1990, no. 1, pp. 208–218.

Malykh V. S. Tvorchestvo Nikolaya Gumileva: vuzovskiy i shkol’nyy aspekty izucheniya [Creativity of Nikolai Gumilyov: university and school aspects of study]. Izhevsk, UdSU Publ., 2012, 100 p.

N. Gumilev, A. Akhmatova: Po materialam istoriko-literaturnoy kollektsii P. Luknitskogo [N. Gumilev, A. Akhmatova: Based on materials from the historical and literary collection of P. Luknitsky]. St. Petersburg, Nauka, 2005, 342 p.

Otsup N. A. Nikolay Gumilev. Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo [Nikolay Gumilev. Life and work]. L. Allen, S. Nosov (Transl. from French). St. Petersburg, Logos, 1995, 200 p.

Pazdnikov P. V. Mifopoeticheskie aspekty stikhotvoreniya N. Gumileva “U tsygan” [Mythopoietic aspects of N. Gumilyov’s poem “At gypsies’ ”]. In: Gumilevskie chteniya: Materialy Mezhdunar. nauch. konf. (Sankt-Peterburg, 14–16 aprelya 2006 g.) [Gumilev Read-ings: Materials of International Scientific Conf. (St. Petersburg, 14–16 April 2006)]. St. Petersburg, SPbUHSS Publ., 2006, pp. 104–109.

Slobodnyuk S. L. “Idushchie putyami zla…”. D’yavoly Serebryanogo veka (drevniy gnosti- tsizm i russkaya literatura 1890–1930 gg.) [“Walking in the ways of evil... “. Silver Age devils (Ancient gnosticism and Russian literature 1890–1930)]. St. Petersburg, Aleteyya, 1998, 427 p.

Verkhovskiy Yu. N. Put’ poeta [The path of the poet]. Sovremennaya literatura. Leningrad, 1925, pp. 93–143.

Zolotukhina N. A. Poetika novell N. S. Gumileva 1907–1909 godov [Poetics of short stories of N. S. Gumilev of 1907–1909]. Khar’kov, KSADA, 2009.

Zyryanov O. V. Balladnye stikhotvoreniya A. Bloka (k probleme zhanrovoy arkhitekstual’nosti) [Ballad poems by A. Blok (to the problem of genre arch-textuality)]. Filologos. 2010, vol. 1–2, no. 7, pp. 46–59.