Аннотация: The view of the "Black trouble-maker" trilogy by Henry Lion Oldie, called up by the Second World Hindu Summit, held in Bali.
Once a Russian bast shoe happened to be close to the wooden Indian padauks. He could hardly stand on feet, a poor bastard, since it was reduced to the state of maudlin helplessness, it looked all over the padauks closely in amazement and said:
- You"ve been done in a wrong way! What sort of footwear with a sole hic... of a single peg is this? Hic... Do you see, what am I like? I am woven myself from the lime bast, and the sole to make it strong is interlaced with a twig. Your feet are bare, and mine, hic... - are always in the warm... it is wrong, brothers, and quite wrong...
- Don"t interlace me, - the padauks answered frightenedly, - I am hot as it is!
- But don"t argue with me, - the bast shoe couldn"t settle down, - I do see indeed the cold make your feet black!
And close to the bast shoe a little boy, in the little oldman"s avatar - with a pince-nez and a hat, covering his bald spot, squalled and ran down: "One, two, thlee..." It was hopscotch he played...
What do I speak about? It seems I must tell this story from the very beginning.
Well ...
The five days on Bali island of gods and island of the arts were a dramatized show, the participants and spectators of which became the thousands of people, arriving to Denpasar for the Second World Hindu Summit. It is no mere chance that it was held just here - there is not another place on the Earth, where ninety four percent of population would have professed the Hinduism, or, as they name their religion themselves, the Sanatana-dharmu.
I had a good fortune to watch, nevertheless, though from the side, from far away, the truly fantastic performance - with the ceremonies of participants in the colourful costumes and the masks of monsters to frighten off the evil spirits, with exciting dances to the wonderful and not becoming old gamelan orchestra, and certainly - with the play of actors upon the improvised theatrical boards on the subject of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. I wonder, and if to look also, from far away, at the attempts of the Russian-language writers to assume these texts sacred for the Hindu, as a basis of their works" plot?
Such attempts were several, which resulted in appearance of the "Nal and Damayanti" by Vasily Zhukovsky, "The twice born" by Dmitry Morozov and "The black trouble-maker" by Henry Lion Oldie. (Henry Lion Oldie is a pen name of the Ukrainian fantasy writers Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky). I fixed my eyes on the latter one.
You must admit that there are few writers who are able to reshape, to put the Mahabharata, the largest pearl of folk epic, in their own way. Even an adherent of "eternal religion" would not get it through quickly, since it is composed of eighteen books, that is eventually much longer, than "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", put together. The narrative of this holy text is interwoven with the poems, the myths about the deities, the legends about the beginning of life on the Earth, with the parables and fables. And this epic cocktail has a common title - "The tale about the great battle of Bharata descendants", in other words, the Mahabharata. It tells about the discord between the Pandava and Kaurava cousins (the Danava demons are personified in the latter ones), with a final of this conflict - the battle at the holy field of Kurukshetra. It is just this battle that ends the era of Dvapara-Yuga and it also marks the beginning of Kali Yuga, the fourth and the hardest age of the mankind history, that in which we live now.
"And where is the Black trouble-maker? - a reader asks. - If sir Oldie brought himself to artistic transformation of the ancient Indian epic, there might be too for sure a prototype of protagonist, might not be it?" Certainly! This is Krishna Janardana as he is, whose name is translated literally from Sanskrit as a "black trouble-maker". Well, the feats of Krishna are known to many, if not to everyone: he supported the Pandavas in such way, that five brothers defeated a hundred of their enemies. May such a thing happen? Certainly, if you fight rather by the mind than by mere force, but also, if you outsmart, and maybe deceive. Or even commit an unjust action, for example, kill grandfather Bhishma, and his mentor Drona, and also some other friends and relatives... Though, the conscience of Krishna himself is quite all right - it is just from his mouth the famous Bhagavad Gita preaching sounds.
Krishna is an earthly image of one of the supreme triad gods - Vishnu, playing the role of the World supporter, or the Guardian. Together with Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer (it is clear that the destructive principle goes hand in hand with transformation and the creation of the Universe) it is he, who forms this "trinity", and also is a part of swastika - the pantheon of eight main gods of the Hinduism.
Such was initially the deal of "cards", the author faced before creation of the novel, more exactly - the epic novel "The black trouble-maker". (And it is composed of three books: "The thunderstorm in the anarchy", "The net for the lords of the world" and "Go where you like"). Though, almost nothing remained from this "deal" at once: a three-tier ship, unwilling to submit to traditions of navigation, went far away from the shore - the epic original.
The differences are amazing. The great text of the Bhagavad-Gita, that was put in the Mahabharata into the mouth of Krishna as an example of love and virtue, takes the features of terrifying Song of the Lord in the novel to create the hordes of the warriors, ready to fight in the life-and-death struggle on the battlefield. And the Guardian of the Love becomes a subject of the everybody"s love, and consequently the love of opposing parties. And here how he is wise to use it: he brings together the kshatriyas (warriors) on the battlefield. Not to the best advantage were shown the positive characters of the Mahabharata either - the Pandava brothers, and certainly - the disciples of Rama-with-Axe. Why do I say "certainly"? Even the image of the teacher himself, you know, provokes the senses far from being the best: he began with killing his mom with an axe, and then he raised it even against his father. Already thereafter the axe was put in his hands by Shiva himself.
It is no mere chance that the story in "The black trouble-maker" is told on behalf of Indra the Thunderer, the Genuine Lord of the World, and then on behalf of three disciples of Rama-with-Axe - Gangei-Bhishma, mentor Drona and warrior Karna - all of them in the Mahabharata proper play the antagonistic roles, which means that they may keep that "ship" afloat, about which I said before.
The ways to search and find the original ideas, and choke up with these the foundation of works are in great multitude. The mostly common one is to shoot an arrow into the whiteness of the sky (or as it is said in Oldie"s - "three batons to the left") - and wait a while where it will get. It happens that it hits "the bull's-eye", as it was, for example, in a fairy tale about princess-frog. But this is a rare chance. Another way is to open a trunk with the pearls of ancient mythology and hook up all that gets in the way. Here nobody already will make a mistake -one of philosophic concepts will be hidden in any pearl: space and time, comprehension of society, or - the ethics of justice. So the discussion of the centuries-old issues - the primacy of consciousness or substance, the possibility of knowing the world or what is the truth - is ensured.
One may hit the Mahabharata from any weapon, catapult included, and at any distance - from Moscow, Kharkov and even from Obolduevo village. There (not in the village, but in the Mahabharata) the pearls will be enough for the hundreds and even the thousands of pieces of writing. And there was someone to get down to this great epic. Doesn"t he renounce his desire to put the holy texts in his own way and set forth quite in a new fashion the old ideas, for example, that a human may not change predestination, avoid the death or defeat in the battle? Somebody will be able to abandon an obsessive thought to create the images of heroes, who undergo the life trials and that is why they have to make their choice: to renounce the selfish ends and stand at the service of common duty, eternal dharma, or... Or - or. And the question of the moral responsibility of a human? Surely, it is a fount, from which one may draw the bucketfuls!
And Oldie thought the same. And they decided to change radically both the plot, and the images of the heroes. The first thing they did - they filled the text of artistic narrative of the Mahabharata with the gibberish like "me, to say in short", "that's just the point", "sure - not sure", "idiotic comparison", "give him the brush", "he knew, and I knew, and everyone knew - oh, come off it", "it couldn't be better", "it is wrong to act like this, brothers, and too wrong", "good, and very good". They saturated the language of the Indian mythology heroes with the Russian words and the Russian proverbs, story-teller's introductions or endings and sayings turned inside out: "he hasn't the right kind of a mug for it", "just a bit later", "it stands to reason", "the strong smell of discord... and blood is in the air", "the meat pancake happened to be lumpy", "in the gold egg, with a thought on face".
It's amazing, but the "gibberish", among other things, turned out to be also infectious. Read the reviews of the "Black Trouble-maker", and you will receive the evidence that the works both by Mikhail Zislis, and by some Helix, and even by professor V.I. Solunsky were sprinkled with it in abundance. Though the latter admits himself "...and the fact that the style (how shall I put it?) is slightly that of the pretended Simple Simons, well... who keeps company with the wolf, will learn to howl".
The black trouble-maker bears also other liberties: one of the rakshasas (demons) got the name of Voshkamanda, other heroes cry out the phrases "Brother! People, this bitch butchered the brother! Get it!", The assertions sound that "the glorification of Krishna is all over" and that "the grace of Shiva is not the dog"s lingam!", and other "bhutas-bharatas"... And there are the rhymes: "If a heap of droppings lies, it means that Garuda here flies". I would remind that Garuda is a divine creature with a head, beak, wings and claws of an eagle, but with a human body, and it is a riding bird (vahana) of god Vishnu. Garuda is depicted on the emblems of Thailand and Indonesia, and in the latter one its name was given also to the national airlines. And here is another rhyme: "there is ashram on a mountain, and lingam protrudes from it".
Perhaps, I should leave the poetry "for dessert". And while I"ll continue to speak about the prose.
There is expression "lit vodu (to pour water, if you translate it word for word)" in the Russian language. I should explain, first of all, for the foreigners, that it is also an expressive means of the Russian language, and therefore it has rather figurative than a direct sense. "To pour water" is just the same as "to waste breath babbling". Do you still fail to understand? If so, "to pour water" means "to have an idle talk", or "to talk to no purposes". And the desire came to me to compare with water the gibberish, which is too much in the novel, that the most valuable thing - the grains - was buried under it. But that's tough -clear, cool and fresh water, creating the association of cleansing not only from dust and dirt, but from filthiness, from any unfavourable information, was found to be almost missing in the novel. And then I understood why are so much all the "dusty and rough" items in the "Trouble-maker": here are a "bast bundle" (a long plait of ascetic), and silk clothing with the stains of fat and dirt, and a raunchy cart... And water became only just a component, one of components of such fluids, as soma - a holy low-alcoholic beverage of mountain ephedra, sura - strong alcoholic beverage, gauda - intoxicating beverage of molasses, and vaitarani - the infernal river of blood and sewage. Though, the gods were drinking duly several times amrita - a divine beverage, produced after churning the ocean, but it was so little as compared with the above-listed fluids...
Nevertheless, a river also came across several times, there was a need, you know, to send somewhere the baskets with the babies, wasn"t it? But it is not that kind of river, which one could name the fundamental principle of the All, a symbol of renovation and cleansing. In the river, flowing through the "Trouble-makers", not only the "infants", but also... the swollen corpses swim! By the way, about the corpses. They are not only "swollen", but also "dead", and even - "revived". So, not only the inner world of the heroes is slagged by the dirty fratricidal ideas, far from the noble ones. The harmony of the outer and inner worlds is not frustrated: the outer world is described as dirty and disgraceful to the very same extent. The sensation is such, as if the heroes quaffed a cocktail of gauda, vaitarani and sura, and in such volume that they set out in direction quite opposite to the Mahabharata. Sir Oldie did say actually to them, though: "Go where you like.
And here I remembered a very old film, where the grandmothers and grandfathers played hopscotch. It is called "The tale of the lost time". Do you remember, there four evil magicians decided to return their youth, and to this end they had to find children, who wasted their time? There both children and magicians - everybody played hopscotch. Those writing, like Oldie, in Russian, and those reading in it, may differ these two words: "classica" (classics) and "classiki" (hopscotch). Well, I"ll explain to the foreigners, nevertheless. The classics is a "fount", in other words, what never grows old. There are notions of "classical literature" and "classical art". As for the hopscotch, it is a children's game, though at first only the boys played it, when the squares are drawn by chalk on asphalt (or on the earth) and the bats are thrown there, and then they jump. But there is a small area, which may be touched neither by foot, nor by bat. And it is called "fire" or "water". In other words, in each game, and even such simple one, there is a zone, similar to the personal space of a human - even the close members of family do not enter it.
I tried to find such a zone in the "Trouble-makers", and at the same time the children in avatars of the old men and women continued to jump, playing hopscotch. The strange feelings appear, when the people are seen not in their own "body". Among them there were writers, editors and just the punditry, infected by the disease of the "pretended Simple Simons". "Come to us! - they cried to the passersby. - We have here free translation of the ancient legends...". And they invited persistently the folk with some portion of daredevilry (and we here made a bold push for the gods, want to make a revision, and you may well demote somebody!), with some portion of disdain for the legends (they talked a lot of tall stories here, and we have to arrange systematically!), with some portion of making advances to the readers (hey, the guys, we belong here, do you hear how we express ourselves?)
And the gibes began to beat to the right and to the left, and in the manner that a Russian bast shoe appeared near the Indian wooden padauks.
For whom the Black trouble-maker is intended? If really for the "bast-shoe makers" and the country bumpkins, they don"t care about the Mahabharata. This word means for them nothing, unless maybe it has something in common with a much rather frequently used expression. Well, there is sitting on a bench one of whales on such manner to express herself and spits out the sunflower husks to the ground. She would have spat also on the gods with such names as Krishna and Vishnu, if she had knew about them, on Indra the Thunderer and Rama-with-Axe (it seems that there is such one at home!) and on another "bhavata". And maybe, the "Trouble-maker" is intended for the subtle intellectuals? Alas, I don"t think so, they won"t be able to "stomach" these gibes! From the very first lines of the novel-epopee the contents of their stomach will start gush forth, like after a good drinking bout.
Professor Solunsky is right, having put a question on tomorrow: "Oldie achieved the liveliness of the text for today's reader. And what will be tomorrow?"
Does anybody remember a musical disk "On the wave of my memory"? A conceptual album of David Tukhmanov, issued by the "Melodia" firm in 1976. It comprised the music to the verses of the poets of the different epochs and countries. And then another disk was issued, and it was called "30 years of on the wave of my memory". Do you understand what I am about? These songs were supposed to be listened to by the top-flight public, but happened to be loved by all people, and for a long time. If we compare the approach to "stylization", that is so much discussed by the reviewers of Oldie"s novel, I would call it "high" in the case of disk, and "low" in the case of the "Black trouble-maker" trilogy. Like two "C" notes, that are on the first and last step of octave. However...on both occasions the listeners and the readers "swallowed" the bait without a murmur and even remained satisfied. The range of the Russian person"s sensory perception is broad indeed!
A great pearl, called the Mahabharata, belongs not only to the Indian nation, but to the representatives of other countries, professing the Hinduism: Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji, Tobago, Great Britain, Canada, USA. In these countries the heroes of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are not barely worshiped, but the stories of ancient epos are used in the theatrical performances, in the pictures of artists, in the pieces of music. And a genuine adherent of the Hinduism would be hardly likely delighted with the "poetical" extravagances of sir Oldie, resembling the improvised humorous rhymes of a crazy drunk bast shoe.
Well, and the promised dessert now. The Oldie are right, rhyming the words "ashram" and "lingam". The first is a dwelling place of the wise men and hermits, a place, where one may come for meditation and praying. The second is a primary, important form (image) of Shiva. So it is natural for him to be just in ashram. Well, if you go further - to the joint of lingam and yoni - it is already the image of Linga-Yoni-Murti, symbolizing the indivisible unity of machismo (Shiva, the passive) and feminine (Devi, the active). The joint, from which the life originates.
Trying to conceive the attractive force of the "Black trouble-maker" trilogy, I considered them in different ways. You must admit that no matter how many shortcomings we might find there, but the trilogy has its readers indeed. Though, there are those among them, who get foolishly enthusiastic about this work, and those who failed to realize what's the long and the short of it, and that"s why he spits on all and sundry: both kshatriyas and "bhargavas". Some author may write ten novels, but will remain unread, and here...
And then it dawned upon me! Imagine that all of genius are simple! The trilogy of "Black trouble-maker" is like three lingams of Shiva in the Bali temple of Goa Gajah! This temple is world famous as the most ancient ashram, that became a sanctuary for the Hindu hermits in the 11th century, it is also called the Cave of Elephant (it is translated from Indonesian Goa Gajah just in this way). For a genuine adherent of the Hinduism these lingams are not a separate part of body, but an image, symbol of deity, which is worshiped. A Hindu will come there and pay them every attention, leaving their presents, and also will communicate with Shiva in the thoughts and change the energy with other people. Let it be even not that ardour-topas, that is accumulated as a result of sufferings or deliberate ascesis, and about which the "Trouble-maker" tells (it"s time of the 21st century!), and a light splash of the positive emotions. Another one, very far from belief in the Hindu gods, will come to the lingams just for interest, curiosity, as a tourist. But he will leave his basket - chanang, his flower - too.
As the Jakarta Post edition informs, the tourists in 2015 are expected to number 500 thousand more, than the last year and will make 4 million thanks to the visa abolition for the guests from Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. Undoubtedly, that if not all, but many of them will visit the popular temple of Goa Gajah.
Closer to the end the "Black trouble-maker" settled down a bit, the gibes became much less, though, the pathos and pomposity still remained. Even "the rivers were flowing with milk between the banks of fruit jelly under the sky jewelled with the stars". Though, only in the words of the heroes, not in the world itself... The world still remains unwashed.
...And the "Black Trouble-maker" trilogy - like three lingams of Shiva - stands firm in the same position, as it was sixteen years ago, deviating not the least bit from the central axis. And the main point - it gathers the readers - both the fans and non-fans.