THE BOOK OF POEMS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ... - TopReferat

The "но" which begins this stanza, marks an apparent paradox within Gippius's notion of
the unity of love. Love, like a rainbow, is simultaneously both uniform and manyfaceted.
She resolves this by claiming ignorance: humans did not devise this sevencoloredness;
it has been ordained by something higher, greater. Her acceptance is
complete, finalized by a resolution of the rainbow metaphor in the final stanza: Она
всецветна—и одна./Ее хранит, ее венчает/Святым единством—белизна. (It [love] is
all colorful, and one./It is preserved, it is crowned/By whiteness, in its sacred unity.) 154
In "Eternité Frémissante" 155 Gippius revisits the paradox of the unity of love, but
this time, instead of returning at the end of the poem to the original theme, either by
repetition or metaphor, she pushes forward to a discussion of the nature of time and
existence:
Моя любовь одна, одна,
Но всё же плачу, негодуя:
Одна,—и тем разделена,
Что разделенное люблю я.
О Время! Я люблю твой ход,
Порывистость и равномерность.
Люблю игры твоей полет,
Твою изменчивую верность.
Но как не полюбить я мог
Другое радостное чудо:
Безвременья живой поток,
Огонь, дыхание «оттуда»?
Увы, разделены они—
154 Earlier in the poem, these seven colors are described as seven radiances (семь сияний). This recalls the
plurality of radiances in the book's title and title poem. While ultimately Gippius strives toward the
singular radiance of unified love, on earth she is limited to the multiple radiances/colors which that single
truth encompasses—in the case of the book Сияния, the multiple poems with which Gippius futilely
attempts to approach the singular Word of God.
155 This poem may be considered another of Gippius's Christmas poems. It was originally dated December
23, 1933, just one day before Gippius wrote the epigraph to Сияния and the poem "Ты." It was first
published together with "Ты" in Современные записки, no. 54 (1934).
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