UDC

821.161.1.9

Authors

Pushkareva Svetlana Viktorovna
Postgraduate Student, International Institute for Humanities and Linguistics (Moscow, Russia)

Abstract

N. Gumilev’s poetic collection “The Pillar of Fire” interweaves the images and plots from various religious and philosophical traditions and mythological systems based on syncretism, tendency to synthesize different principles of culture and on theurgical aesthetics of the Silver Age. This paper studied the religious and mythological context of the symbolic image of the “pillar of fire”. The author establishes linkage between this context and the image of the “pillar of poetry” in Arabic and Persian literature. In particular, the Arabic concept of the “pillar of poetry” is connected with the spiritual basis of literary creativity. The name of Gumilev’s last poetic collection embodies the idea of eternal dynamic fire. This eternal fire is a symbol of the constantly changing cosmos. Thus, one can say that the symbolic image of a pillar of fire goes back to ancient Greek philosophy, in particular to Heraclitus. Moreover, we find biblical motifs in this image, specifically those from the Old Testament (God went before Moses and the people of Israel in a pillar of fire). Thus, in his collection “The Pillar of Fire”, Gumilev synthesized the symbols of ancient Arabic and Persian poetry, Old Testament and ancient Greek philosophical and religious images. The paper studied in detail the Sufi religious and philosophical motifs which were of particular importance for this poetic collection. In spite of the fact that Gumilev was keen on the poetry and philosophy of Persian Sufis, this context of his works has not been studied adequately. In addition, this article analyzed the influence of such authors as Hāfez, Omar Khayyám and Rumi on the last poetic collection by Gumilev published during his lifetime.

Keywords

Gumilev, symbolic image, pillar of fire, catharsis, mystical love, mystical poetry, spiritual path

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