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

Gippius employs two "sacred" texts in "Лазарь": the biblical story of Lazarus
and Pushkin's "Медный всадник." The poem is framed by explicit references to the
biblical story, beginning with the title "Лазарь" and ending with the words of Martha and
Jesus. When Jesus asks Martha to take the stone away from her brother Lazarus's tomb,
Martha resists, saying "Sir, by now there will be a stench; he has been there four days"
(John 11:39; cf. Gippius's lines: Кто отвалит камень от гроба?/Господи, Господи:
уже смердит). Gippius's description of Lazarus's resurrection and release (Близок Ктото,
Он позовет./И выйдет обвязанный пеленами:/«Развяжите его. Пусть идет»)
comes directly from John 11:43-44: Then [Jesus] raised his voice in a great cry:
'Lazarus, come out.' The dead man came out his hands and feet bound with linen
bandages, his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said, 'Loose him: let him go.'
Pushkin's poema is invoked in the fourth stanza of "Лазарь" with the description
of the statue of the Bronze Horseman: the cast-iron Peter sits on his horse, trampling on a
snake. Just as the inhabitants of the city come out to marvel at the furious waves in
Pushkin's "Медный всадник" (Поутру над ее брегами/Теснился кучами
народ,/Любуясь брызгами, горами/И пеной разъяренных вод [In the morning along
her shores/The people crowded around in clusters,/Admiring the splashes, mountains/And
foam of the furious waters]), Gippius commands the silent Peter to "admire" the bloody
destruction surrounding him in his devastated city: Что ж, любуйся на ямы волчьи,/на
рыжее кружево на снегу. Like the hero of Pushkin's poema, she challenges Peter, but
now, in place of Evgenii's threatening, "miracle-working builder" (Добро, строитель
чудотворный!), she encounters an "empty-eyed" Builder, (Ты, Строитель, сам
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