The reasons for N. S. Gumilyov's appeal to the african theme

Abstract. This article will discuss the reasons for the poet – Nikolai Gumilyov's appeal to the african theme in his works.

Аннотация. В данной статье будут рассмотрены причины обращения поэта – Николая Гумилева к африканкой теме в своих произведениях.

Keywords: romance, Africa, color, creativity, travel.

Ключевые слова: романтика, Африка, колорит, творчество, путешествие.

The legacy, personality, and fate of N. S. Gumilyov (1886-1921) - a poet of rare individuality-arouse interest. His work during the life of the author attracted charming novelty and courage, sharpness of feelings, excited thought, personality-courage and strength of spirit. But for many decades, Gumilyov's poems were not reprinted. His name was only occasionally mentioned. N. S. Gumilyov's worldview is based on romance. Almost all of Gumilyov's work is permeated with romantic motifs and images. Already in the first collections ("The Way of the Conquistadors "in 1905," Romantic Flowers "in 1908," Pearls " in 1910), there is an abundance of romantic, fairy-tale images. So in the first collection, the poet sings of a strong personality, the conqueror and conqueror of mysterious worlds. The very title of the collection "Romantic Flowers" contains romanticism as a fundamental principle in creating a picture of the world. This world is filled with fairy-tale characters (the night bear, the pale knight, various animals, etc.). This world, transformed by the imagination of N. S. Gumilyov, sharply stated with the reality surrounding the poet. V. Ya. Bryusov, who for a long time supervised Gumilyov, described the collection as follows: "Gumilyov's country is an island somewhere beyond the" whirlpool "and" bubbling foams of the ocean "... There are" groves of palm trees and thickets of aloe "around, but they are full of"mandrakes, flowers of horror and evil". Free wild animals roam the country: "royal leopards", "wandering panthers", "desert elephants", "light wolves", "gray bears", "boars", "monkeys" ... N. Gumilyov's heroes are either languid knights... or old conquistadors, or queens reigning over unknown peoples... or men "marked with the sign of the highest shame", or just wanderers in the deserts… And the amazing events of these amazing heroes take place in this world... " [Bogomolov 1990, 96].

The poet was not satisfied with the gray reality, and he tried to escape from the everyday reality of everyday life and find his ideal of life. Gumilev finds this ideal in Africa. Africa occupied a special place in the life and work of the poet. The desire for the unknown, sometimes fraught with dangers, accompanied Gumilev all his life. From an early age, he was attracted to the East, Africa, travel to tropical countries, and even the desire to get a sailing ship and sail it under a black flag.

As a child, Gumilev read a lot of adventure literature: the works of Jules Verne, Mayne Reid, Fenimore Cooper. All these books drew him to distant lands, attracted him with the romance of the feat. V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, in an essay dedicated to the memory of Gumilyov, recalled that the poet always longed for the sunny south, which inspired him with "tempting distances". "If one were to believe in the reincarnation of souls," the memoirist wrote , " one would recognize in him such a brave seeker of new islands and continents in the unknown expanses of the great ocean of time as Amerigo Vespucci, Vasco de Gama, a conqueror like Cortez and Vizarro… It would have been in its place in the Middle Ages. He was four hundred years too late to be born! A true paladin who lived in the mirage of great feats. He would have tried his strength in battles with fabulous giants, on fragile caravels in thunderstorms and storms, he would have overcome unknown seas" [Ivanov 1990, 167].

The creative imagination aroused in Gumilyov an unquenchable thirst for knowledge of the world. On his first trip, Gumilev visited only the cities of Istanbul, Izmir, Port Sand, and Cairo. But the experience left an indelible mark on the soul.

His wife, Alexandra Andreyevna Gumilyova, recalled: "The poet wrote to his father about this dream (to go to Africa), but his father categorically stated that he would not receive any money or his blessing for such an "extravagant trip" until he graduated from university. Nevertheless, Kolya, in spite of everything, set off in 1907, saving the necessary funds from the monthly parental salary... "[Kreid 1993, 231].

In 1906, after graduating from high school, Gumilev went to Paris, where he attended a course in French literature at the Sorbonne. Gumilyov was greatly impressed by the exhibition of paintings by Paul Gauguin, a French artist who lived most of his life on the islands of Tahiti. Gumilev devoted the article "Two Salons" to the work of Gauguin and even more excited by the dream of visiting the land that he had long dreamed of - in Africa. Secretly from his parents, he goes on his first trip, going to visit Istanbul, Izmir, Port Said, Cairo. Since then, Africa has occupied an extremely important place in his life and work. It filled his soul with new, extremely sharp impressions, strengthened his self-confidence, gave him rare sensations and images. During the second trip (1908) Gumilev visited Egypt, in the third he reached Abyssinia (1909), where he collected local folklore, transforming it into original songs ("Five Bulls", "Zanzibar Girls"). Why did Gumilyov choose Abyssinia for his wanderings and call it a magical land? This choice was not accidental. Gumilev, of course, was visited by such feelings. But he did not go to Africa to finish his poetry, but, on the contrary, to " find new words in a new environment." The most significant was the last, fourth trip. In 1913, the poet was the leader of an expedition sent to Abyssinia by the Russian Academy of Sciences; Gumilev brought back ethnographic collections from there. There is also Gumilev's "African Diary".

Even people close to the poet sometimes made fun of his "African" passions. In addition to poems scattered in various collections (the cycle "Abyssinian Songs", "African Night", etc.), Gumilev dedicated the book "Tent" (1921) to the African theme. In the poem that opens the collection, he wrote:

... Deafened by the roar and trampling,

Clothed in flame and smoke,

About you, my Africa, in a whisper

In heaven the seraphim speak…

After visiting Africa, the collection "Tent", the article "African Art", the poem "Mik", poems that were included in the collection "Pillar of Fire", "Alien Sky"were written.

Thus, we can single out the main reasons for N. S. Gumilyov's appeal to the African theme. First, the sea filibusters, the motives and the early and lifelong passion for travel and wandering. Secondly, the correlation with the fate of Arthur Rimbaud. But the most important reason is that N. Gumilyov was an "incorrigible" romantic who carried through his life devotion to his muse - the Muse of distant wanderings. Meanwhile, none of the Russian poets sang as he did, Africa, did not convey its unique color so visibly and unusually in relief.