Meeting Vrubel (with thanks to mo_no_chrome)

For those interested in obsession, madness, demons and angels:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/strange_tears/42712.html#cutid1

Poor obsessed artist! Poor lost demon! Dry your eyes; anyone who would hurt you so is not worth crying for. The worst thing is, the day is so sunny and beautiful that I don't have a particle of sorrow in me, even for you. Still, I will keep a link to you here on my lj, and when the night draws in and this exhilaration passes, I will look back and remember and feel for you.

Lermontov, Vrubel and the demon

So, with bardic enthusiasm, I wander webwards looking for a translation of the poetry that inspired Vrubel. Do you think I can find an English translation of 'The Demon' anywhere online? No, they're all too busy talking about Lermontov's genius to actually give any examples of it. I shall have to buy the poem in ye olde booke format, or rather it will have to join the long list of books I must have and never get, alongside my long list of DVDs I must have and forgot some time ago.

I can find summaries a-plenty: Lermontov's poem is about a fallen angel who falls in love. He eventually seduces his love not out of malice but in true, if dangerous, passion. His kiss/embrace/whatever poisons her and she dies, her soul taken to heaven while the demon grieves. It is this figure of ruined celestial/outcast/anti-hypocrite that obsessed Vrubel, and though my earlier post links to two beautiful renderings, the one below is my favourite.


http://www.abcgallery.com/V/vrubel/vrubel35.html

This one I will find easy to remember.