"Floral" symbolism in the lyrics of Arseny Tarkovsky

Popova Mariya ORCID: 0009-0002-8407-4690 Lecturer; Department of Russian and Foreign Literature; Moscow University of Finance and Industry 'Synergy' 80th Leningradsky Ave., Moscow, 125190, Russia mashapopovafoto@gmail.com

Skvortsova Anna ORCID: 0000-0001-6711-1301 PhD in Philosophy Associate Professor; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences; MIREA - Russian Technological University 78 Vernadsky Ave., Moscow, 119454, Russia ierusalimgate@mail.ru

Despite the fact that many researchers quite rightly classify the poet Arseny Tarkovsky (1907-1989) as a representative of the Silver Age, more precisely, to the "secondary current" of this period (the so-called phenomenon that goes beyond the generally recognized time frame of a certain literary trend), it is absolutely unusual for this poet to turn to "floral" symbolism for the Silver Age. and to the image of a flower in general.

Let's do a little statistical research. In the book by Arseny Tarkovsky "Poems and poems" (the first book in the series "Tarkovsky. From the Heritage", published by the Literary Museum publishing house), contains 1 (one) mention of hawthorn, 4 (four) mentions of jasmine, 9 (nine) mentions of roses, 1 (one) centifolia, 8 (eight) mentions of lilac, 1 (one) mention of rosehip, 1 (one) mention of apple blossom, 3 mentions of flowers in general.

In the edition of his own authorship, "Poems from different years. Articles, notes, interviews", which is the second book in the same series, contains only 3 (three) references to carnations and 3 (three) roses, 1 (one) mention of lilac and 1 (one) mention of a flower in general in poetic texts on 25-301 pages.

So, the total number of "floral" mentions of Arseny Tarkovsky in the publication that most fully reflects his legacy today: 1 (one) mention of hawthorn, 4 (four) mentions of jasmine, 12 (twelve) – roses, 9 (nine) mentions of lilac, 1 (one) – centifolia, 1 (one) mention of rosehip, 1 (one) mention of apple blossom, and only 4 (four) times this poet mentions abstract "flowers".

Let's compare, for example, with the lyrics of A. Akhmatova. From the appendix (table) published in the article by researcher E. V. Pugacheva "Frequency characteristics of plants in the works of A. A. Akhmatova" ^[7], it follows that in Akhmatova's poetic world roses are mentioned 33 times (three times more often than in A. Tarkovsky's), and lilacs – 11.

We also managed to trace that only in Teffi's collection "Rosehip" in the cycle "White Lilac" lilac is mentioned in various contexts 9 (nine) times throughout 4 (four) poems.

Let's observe the "floral" symbolism of the poetry of another poet of the Silver Age, who enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and was even chosen by the public at the Polytechnic Museum on February 27, 1918, by the king of poets, Igor Severyanin. According to E. N. Matveeva's observations, "... the most important for I. Severyanin's aesthetic system are lilac (89 uses), rose (58), lily (37), violet (31), lily of the valley (30), verbena (20), jasmine (19), apple tree (19), forget-me-not (12), mimosa (11), bird cherry (10), citrus plants (10).Poppies, cornflowers (9), iris, daisies (8), chrysanthemums, lefkoi, dandelions, flax (7), buttercups, sweet peas, apricots, acacia (6), plums, snowdrops, hyacinths (5), cacti, crocuses (4), carnations, anemones, chamomile are less common, clover (3), tulip, cyclamen, narcissus, victoria, aster, thistle, chicory, bluebell, cherry, dogwood, pomegranate, magnolia, almond (2). Isolated uses are rosehip, pansies, periwinkle, heather, datura, azalea, dahlia, phlox, edelweiss, camellia, orchid, hydrangea" ^{[5, 27]}.

So, as we can see, the infrequent images of flowers that appear in A. Tarkovsky's lyrics show how original the means of artistic expression used by the author are. Already in his early poems, he repeatedly refers to the image of a rose. But, as is typical of a true poet, he interprets this image in a non-trivial way. An example is the poem "June 25, 1935":

Is my holiday good, crimson or gray,

But it still seems to me that the roses are on the window.,

And not gratitude, but a sense of full measure.

It always happens to me on this day ^{[13, p. 34]}.

The associative series is obvious: roses here are an attribute of fullness of life, they are synonymous with it, consonant with the holiday. This hypothesis is confirmed by the following statement of Nicholas Roerich in his article "Fragrance": "When I was once asked what the difference is between East and West, I said, 'The best roses of the East and West are equally fragrant'" ^{[9, p. 286]}.

As a traditional symbol of fullness of life, as an integral element of the "Garden of Eden", roses are also shown in the poem "White Day" ^{[13, p. 246]}.

It is very interesting that in the last stanza of the poem "Ignatievsky Forest", filled with a rather heavy emotional state of the lyrical hero, an unexpected and non-trivial comparison appears with a maple rose, which "the sky ... holds ... almost to the eyes":

Our whole past feels like a threat. —

Look, I'll be right back, look, I'll kill you now!

And the sky is shrinking and holding a maple tree like a rose., —

Let it burn even harder! —

almost at the eyes ^{[13, p. 36]}.

This is an example of Arseny Tarkovsky's skillful avoidance of placing a rose in the reader's focus. The author we are investigating uses this image very carefully, very covertly uses the symbolism of this flower, perfectly remembering the frequency of mentioning the rose in various contexts by various poets throughout the history of mankind. In the poem "Translator" he openly talks about this fact.:

Saccharine roses,

Nightingale baklava,

Ah, Oriental translations,

How your head hurts ^{[13, p. 74]}.

Another example of careful mention of the rose is the poem "Cactus":

What does he care about the Vaucluse lavra

And Persian tormentors-roses,

If he's under the thumb of a Brontosaurus

Overgrown with gusset-like foliage? ^{[13, p. 62]}.

In this poem, the unexpected juxtaposition of the cactus to the roses is surprising, which, moreover, are characterized as "tormentors", which perfectly fits the general cultural symbolism of the rose as a perfect beauty, which is not easy to approach. The further lines of the poem emphasize the intrinsic value and power of such a seemingly unattractive plant as a cactus, and its involvement in the supernatural force that "gave us / And in the graves sounding speech."

In an unexpected context, as companions of sadness, roses appear before us in the poem "My life is for a funeral ...". At the same time, they are accompanied by a completely unexpected, but very appropriate in this situation, the epithet "worthless": "A few worthless roses."/ I brought it to the funeral service..." ^{[13, p. 115]}. Roses, traditionally a symbol of fullness of life, femininity, and prosperity, are here involuntarily companions of sorrow and, as the lyrical hero himself admits, "false memories" of happy moments of being together, when happy people in love ride a tram. In contrast to these roses, which set off a "false memory",

... And, responsible for this death,

Conscience cries and trembles,

Trying in vain to get even a little bit

Move the wax mask

And the fatal publicity

To overwhelm with burning salt ^{[13, p. 115]}.

It is interesting that the poet refers to the image of lilacs in his poem "Lilacs, lilacs ...". Russian Russians have been cultivating lilacs since the 18th century, but according to researcher E. A. Denisova, they do not appear in Russian poetry, "... because, according to Belousov, the symbolic meaning of flowers in Russian poetry of the 18th and early 19th centuries was determined by the European cultural tradition, where lilacs did not have a poetic image. The image of lilacs appears in the Russian literature of this time, but is not fixed. In the 1950s, a turning point occurred: lilac gained popularity thanks to V. Krestovsky's poem "Under the fragrant branch of lilac", which was known primarily as a popular urban romance" ^{[3, p. 156]}. But let's take a closer look at Tarkovsky's poem, returning to it. There is a non-linear perception of time characteristic of this poet, conveyed through "detachment" (according to Shklovsky). Seeing lilacs, the lyrical hero simultaneously resides in the space of "here and now" and in the chronotope of his youth.:

Impatience remains

From my youth

In your hot foam

And in the depths of the shadows ^{[13, p. 114]}.

In the following lines, the lyrical hero anticipates the coming of rain, which "will roll like mercury through the blue clusters" and, as a result, the poem "loops", but not in the literal sense, line by line, but at the semantic level, at the level of memory.:

In the evening — the bucket again,

And, right, that's the point.,

To at least force a bow

To return the purple hood ^{[13, p. 114]}.

Lilac here is both an absolutely tangible, sensual acmeistic image and a symbol of first love. In addition, it appears as a complex color-acoustic image. This shows the complex diffusion of feelings characteristic of Tarkovsky's poetic perception of the world. The lilac in this poem is here – and a kind of guide in time.

The same flower appears in a similar context in the famous poem "First Dates".:

Every moment of our meetings,

We celebrated like the Epiphany,

Alone in the whole world. You were

Bolder and lighter than a bird's wing,

Down the stairs, like vertigo,

She ran down the stairs and led

Through the wet lilac into his domain

On the other side of the mirrored glass... ^{[13, p. 175]}.

Lilac is present in the garden of the beloved, who in this poem by Tarkovsky is the embodiment of the most Eternal femininity.

In Arseny Tarkovsky's lyrical novel The Miracle of the Goldfinch, this flower accompanies poetry itself, which is shown in the image of a carefree girl, as well as a feeling of perfect harmony and happiness.:

There is no need to look for poetry

Neither from others, nor in dictionaries,

She'll come from the garden by herself.

With wet flowers in my hands…

<...> For the iota iota

It chirps like a single note.,

And every day –

One concern:

Lilac – jasmine,

Jasmine – lilac ^{[13, p. 309]}.

The image of lilac is also used by other, earlier poets belonging to the Silver Age. Taffy, for example, has a separate cycle "White Lilac" dedicated to her, however, it is not independent, but is woven into a larger cycle "Alexandrite", whose poetics are close to the aesthetics of symbolism. Especially noteworthy is the poem "I", the lyrical heroine of which identifies herself with a white lilac. According to the observations of E. A. Denisova, "... in Taffy, lilac acts as a world tree, since it is she who sets the parameters and rules" ^{[3, p. 156]}. The motif of light in the description of lilac as a metaphor for the human soul, the soul of the lyrical heroine, is interesting here.:

My white color is a fusion of all colors,

And the poisons of all the birds are my fragrance!

Between heaven and earth, through chiaroscuro,

Like a white flame, I burn recklessly... ^{[14, p. 31]}.

Arseny Tarkovsky's blooming lilac is also capable of illuminating the world, even filling it with warmth: "There were so many lilacs in June,/ That the radiance of the world was turning blue" ^{[13, p. 278]}. Both light and heat are of this property, as the lyrical hero declares in the poem "The soul that flared up on the fly ...": "... That my fate is warmed up beyond the grave/ Day of Creation" ^{[13, p. 278]}. Paradoxically, the worlds of the spiritual and the tangible, the sensual-acmeistic and the two-worldly-symbolic are united in the space of this poem.

Lilac as a symbol of first love and an attribute of bright memories also appears in Arseny Tarkovsky's poem "I will dream on a rainy day...":

I'll have a rainy day dream

A high star,

Deep crease,

Cold water

And the lilac crosses

In the dew right next to the eyes.

But there is no more step —

And the shadows will hide us ^{[13, p. 117]}.

In these lines, it is the "lilac crosses" that are noteworthy, in which one can see a reminiscence to Igor Severyanin's poem "With a Lilac Cross" (1913).:

The flowers are purple-blue,

Only four petals,

Whose crosses are my old ones in?

Love, courage and longing! ^{[10, p. 222]}.

Both Severyanin and Tarkovsky have lilac crosses – a symbol of deep love that has gone into the past, flaring up again when mentally reproducing this vivid visual image.

In this poem, Tarkovsky's lilac is also a saving image.:

Whatever happens to us,

On my darkest day,

I'll have a rainy day dream

Krinitsa and lilac,

And a thin ring,

And your simple outfit,

And on the bridge across the river

The wheels will rattle ^{[13, p. 117]}.

It is noteworthy that this poem is addressed to the poet's first love, Maria Falts, who died at a young age. Another poem is addressed to her, in which fragmentary, in the form of a symbol-metaphor, not lilacs appear, but roses again – "You all walk in a black dress...":

How many dreams will you unleash on me?,

Just give me a name.

If you think about me, you'll show me

I'm awake with my own eyes.

If angels fly

In the domes of night churches,

If the roses are blooming

In your dark room ^{[13, p. 381]}.

Here, roses are both material-concrete, acmeistically sensual, and perceived as a symbol of eternal love, Eternal Femininity. It is also interesting here to address the topic of memories of former love, about the peculiar attempt of the poet Orpheus to enter into a dialogue with his Eurydice. Regarding the mention of flowers in A. Tarkovsky's poetry, the observation of researcher S. A. Manskov is absolutely true: "The construction of the artistic world is carried out by a lyrical subject from the present time. From the present time, there is an exit into the past and the future" ^{[4, p. 63]}. Thus, Tarkovsky's poetic consciousness is comprehensive, it travels not only in the world, but also in time.

Summing up, we can conclude that Arseny Tarkovsky's poetry is particularly frequent, despite the poet's very careful and rare use of "floral" symbols, mentions of roses and lilacs. They often appear in the focus of our attention in connection with the phenomenon of remembering, remembering, sometimes even "false", while usually not being in the focus of attention, but accompanying certain events, most often witnessing experiences of a loving nature. Roses in Tarkovsky's poetry are most often quite a traditional symbol of earthly and heavenly love and fullness of life for Russian culture, and they also sometimes accompany the lyrical hero's farewell to his beloved (sometimes the latter). They are almost always mentioned in an unusual context and have a dual nature: tangible and sensual, acmeistic and symbolic. Lilac is also a guide to the chronotope of the past for the lyrical hero of Arseny Tarkovsky's poems, while also being a very specific sensual image that is revealed in all its splendor, in all its tangibility, as well as a symbol of first love. An intertextual analysis of the texts shows a similar interpretation of the symbolism of lilac in the poetry of I. Severyanin and Taffy.