From Adamites to Adamists—Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam and Bosch
Tatyana
Buzina
This paper will be devoted to the analysis of
Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam's poem Ja po lesenke pristavnoj
&ellipsis; in comparison with Bosch's triptych The
Hay Wain. This poem has been studied by such eminent
scholars as Taranovskij, Faryno and Ronen, who briefly mentioned the
parallel with Bosch, yet left it unexplored. My paper will continue
this line of investigation. We will argue that Bosch's painting is the
pictorial key to Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam's poem. Only when we place
this arcane poem in the broad artistic context we can discern its
principal theme—the theme of the poet as Adam and also as adam
kadmon and his life journey.
A careful analysis of the poem in itself discloses a departure from
the creative principles Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam held dear before. If
the canons of acmeism presupposed the taming of the universe achieved
through the poetic appropriation of the cultural treasures accumulated
during the centuries, now the poet begins with a seemingly idyllic
picture of a hay barn. However, this image acquires cosmic dimensions
and loses its tame qualities. The universe returns to its wild state,
and even poetry is powerless to shape it and bring it back into the
state of cosmos. Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam is no longer certain of the
nature and strength of his art. The poet's vision of the world
changes, and with it changes the artistic model he chooses to base his
vision on. Before he adhered to the classical models, and his vision
was harmonious, measured, proportionate. Now, he turns from classical
models to the fantastic art of Bosch whose paintings show the same
doubts in art Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam's poem betrays.
Many images in Ja po lesenke prestavnoj &ellipsis;
(scales, etc.) are borrowed from Bosch's triptych. However, the
influence goes deeper than that. We might conjecture that having
departed from the acmeistic principles, Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam might
have recalled another name the acmeists occasionally used:
Adamists.
Bosch, Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam's new
artistic model, supposedly was a member of the ancient sect of
Adamites who believed that after the Coming of Christ man's sins were
expiated and humankind was reborn as a new Adam. However, those
remaining in the old Adam suffer from the trials of earthly life and
head straight for hell.
The theme of Adam appears in Ja po lesenke pristavnoj
&ellipsis; through one of its subtexts, Fet's poem On a
Haystack at a Southern Night. We would like to suggest that
Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam combines Bosch's vision of two Adams with the
cabbalistic legend of adam kadmon, a being of light in whose image the
earthly Adam was made. Adam kadmon is a creative principle,
transcendent manifestation of God Himself. Some of the lights forming
adam kadmon broke their vessels leaving sparks of light trapped in the
broken pieces. Although the creative process was partially rectified
by God, it is up to man, the earthly Adam, to complete the
rectification by raising the remaining sparks back to their divine
source. We suggest that the tension in Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam's poem
is created by the conflation of both earthly Adam and adam kadmon in
the poet's notion of Adam the Poet. As adam kadmon, the poet is the
cause of the alienation within the sphere of the holy. The light that
makes up adam kadmon could be seen as the symbol or synonym of
poetry. This would explain then the ambiguity in image of the
poetry. As adam kadmon, the poet is responsible for the current state
of affairs, and yet as the Adam, as an earthly poet, he is the one who
can finally rectify the process of creation, return the rogue lights
into their heavenly abode and thus restore the ideal state of the
world. Mandel&soft;&shachek;tam includes all these elements into his
poem and gives them yet new treatment through the system of allusions
outlined above. Bosch with his grotesque vision guides the
interpretation. The lyrical persona travels through several stages,
from being an unwitting lover of art on top of the hay to the depths
of chaos and death and then to the new understanding of his place and
task in the universe.