The Miracle of the Good Overcoming Evil

By Aida G. Razoumovskaya, Masters in Literature

Pskov Institute for Teacher Training, Pskov, Russia

Joseph Brodsky was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Russia. In 1964 he was arrested for his beliefs and exiled. After his release in 1965 he returned to St. Petersburg where he continued to write and translate. In 1972 he was forced to leave the former Soviet Union. Eventually he went to the United States and taught at the universities there. His poetry was originally published outside of the former Soviet Union. Currently his writings enjoy great popularity.

In the course of many centuries, biblical subjects have inspired painters, writers and poets. One such poet is Joseph Brodsky (1940 – 1996), one of the greatest poets of modern Russia. Here is a list of some of his poems that include the theme of Christmas: "Christmas Romance" (1962); "Christmas of 1963" (1963-64); "Christmas 1963" (1964); "New Year at Kanatchik Dacha" (1964); "The First of January of 1965" (1965); "Speech About Spilt Milk" (1967); "Anno Domini" (1968); "The Second Christmas on the Bank" (1971); "24^th of December 1971" (1972); "Frozen Kissel Bank" (1985); "Christmas Star" (1987); "Escape to Egypt" (1988); "Doesn’t Matter what was around . . ." (1990); "Presepio" (1991).

Brodsky saw the world in tragic colors. He viewed existence as tragic and not only in his time, but during all moments of history. Life was seen as a struggle to deal with bloody situations and contradictions. The only feast that seemed to overcome this melancholy in his poetry was "Christmas."

In the conversations with critic P. Vail, Brodsky observed that ". . . this feast (Christmas) chronologically connects the defined concrete reality with the movement of time." And he added: "What is Christmas? The birthday of the Godhuman. And for mankind, it is the moment to celebrate its own very birth (of time and civilization)." At the same time, in Christmas, "we deal with the computation of, the basis and beginning, with the appreciation of the existence of the individual person as a definite individual being." ¹ For this reason, Christmas represents for this poet the connection between the real, organic and concrete individual person, and the eternal vision which is more abstract to visualize and grasp.

The theme of Christmas repeatedly appears with great permanence in Brodsky’s poems throughout his creative life. Brodsky starts his three collections of poems with the works around the theme of Christmas: "Stop in the Dessert," "The End of the Beautiful Age," and "Part of Tense." In the opinion of an American Scholar, these "uncover a relation of the lyric hero to initium a guo." ² The poems are written during the feast or immediately following that event.

The texts of these poems can be divided into two types. First, texts recounting the sacred event of the birth of Jesus Christ without any connection to realities of daily life. Second, where the event of Christmas is placed within the context of and related to modern daily life’s situations. ³

Examining the different ways which Brodsky interprets and applies Christmas in his poems is very interesting too. In the poem "Christmas of 1963," there are two essential statements. First, the condition of the world in which Christ was born: "fiery cold" and "snowstorm that rages with fury and suspends the soul." This contradiction accents and likely symbolizes both the cruelty of the world as well as the sufferings that awaited Christ. The second theme is the fortitude of overcoming these difficulties as the Magi did on their way to finding Christ. He describes them as ‘rays.’

In another poem, "Christmas 1963," written almost at the same time as the one mentioned above, the theme varies slightly. Here, the vision of the poem is directed towards the cave where the infant is lying. Here, instead of contradictions, he uses more concrete symbols of a star, wind, snow, fire, gifts and all with a tone of calmness. It is amazingly full of details about the surroundings: "the smoke went up from a candle" and "whirled the white steam." These help the poet connect the reader to the event. The solemn silence that surrounds the infant underlines the importance of the moment from which the counting of time begins: "Nobody around there knew that the count of life would begin from this night."

In 1987 Brodsky wrote the poem "Christmas Star." It is based on the story from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. But the poem uses apocryphic details, by naming the three Magi. The surrounding world is seen with the eyes of the infant Christ: In this world, "to him everything looked huge." Yet, simultaneously with the eyes of God: God watched over His Son with the look of a Father, "attentively, not blinking . . . over the baby lying in the manger." This way the author underlines simultaneously both the human and the divine in this infant, "who was born in the cave to save the world."

The sensitive subject of redemption that is so central to the New Testament is only mentioned briefly in his poem "Escape to Egypt." Here, redemption is contrasted with the cruel act of Herod (and the infants he massacred.) However, the subject is only mentioned in passing. This poem is written in the form of a narrative fragment, as though continuing from another piece. It presumes the development of a known subject who gets a new appearance here: The divine in the infant (Jesus) becomes more apparent when the "golden halo of the hair" appears. For the first time Christ is compared with a star that lights the earth.

In the poem "24^th of December 1971" the concrete detailed experience of the Nativity is combined with the infinite meaningful layers of the event. Initially, the meaning of Christmas is lost in the noisy pre-holiday preparations. Eventually though, the exact meaning of the holiday begins to emerge: The miracle of the good always winning over the evil! The poet sees in people "if not the appearance of the star," then the "will" to grow towards the light and the good.

The inquiry by L. Losev showed that Brodskey's search in the joyous metaphysical realm led him to the star "where the Savior was born," which signifies for him "if not a physical stoppage then in the momentary cessation of time." In this way Christmas comes forth for the poet as a metaphor for "freedom from the captivity of time." ⁴

In a world of hollowness, with values turned upside down, Christmas for the poet is a miracle, the hope for a better life and reality. Even during the moment of utmost loneliness and hopelessness, only the thought of Christmas drives the human to discover for himself or herself the paradoxical reality of this life as a gift through the unbreakable connection with Christ.

1. J. Brodsky Christmas Poems 1992, p 50-51.

2. D.M. Betea "Mandelstam, Paternak, Brodsky: Judaism, Christianity and Creation of Modern Poetry" in Russian Literature: Research of American Scholars 1993, p. 391.

3. G. Guseva. "Motive of Worship in the Christmas Poems by J. Brodsky." in the collection Russian Philology, Vol. 8, The Collection of Science Works by Young Philologists, Tartu, 1997, p 202.

4. L. Losev "Revealed Reality: Venice by Brodsky" in Foreign Literature, Vol. 5, 1996, p 230.

* * * * *

Home