Bunin Epiphany. Bunin's poem Epiphany night

“Epiphany Night” Ivan Bunin

Dark spruce forest with snow like fur,
Gray frosts have descended,
In sparkles of frost, as if in diamonds,
The birches dozed off, bending over.

Their branches froze motionless,
And between them on the snowy bosom,
As if through lace silver,
The full month looks down from the sky.
He rose high above the forest,
In its bright light, numb,
And the shadows creep strangely,
In the snow under the branches turning black.
The thicket of the forest was covered with a blizzard, -
Only tracks and paths flow.
Running between the pines and fir trees,
Between the birch trees to the dilapidated gatehouse.
The gray blizzard lulled me to sleep
The forest is deserted by a wild song,
And he fell asleep, covered in a blizzard,
All through, motionless and white.
Mysteriously slender thickets sleep,
They sleep, dressed in deep snow,
And glades, and meadows, and ravines,
Where streams once roared.
Silence - not even a branch will crunch!
And maybe beyond this ravine
A wolf makes his way through the snowdrifts
With a cautious and insinuating step.
Silence - maybe he’s close...
And I stand, filled with anxiety,
And I look intensely at the thicket,
On the tracks and bushes along the road,
In the distant thickets, where the branches and shadows
In the moonlight patterns are woven,
Everything seems to me like something alive,
It's like animals are running by.
Light from the forest guardhouse
It flickers cautiously and timidly,
It's like he's lurking under the forest
And waits for something in the silence.
A diamond radiant and bright,
Playing green and blue,
In the east, at the throne of God,
The star shines quietly, as if alive.
And above the forest higher and higher
The month rises, and in wondrous peace
Frosty midnight freezes
I am the crystal forest kingdom!

Analysis of Bunin's poem "Epiphany Night"

Working as a proofreader for an Oryol newspaper, Ivan Bunin travels a lot. His routes run mainly through the nearest forests, since the aspiring writer loves hunting and everything free time prefers to spend time in the lap of nature. He falls so in love with the Oryol thickets, is so reverent and enthusiastic about the flooded meadows and fields that, without noticing it, he begins to recreate their image in his works. It is worth noting that initially Ivan Bunin wrote only poetry, believing that prose was boring to read. However, even after emigrating to Paris, the author remembers to the smallest detail what his favorite meadows and copses in the Oryol region look like, recreating their images in his novels and short stories.

In 1896, on the eve of one of the most significant Orthodox holidays, Ivan Bunin began work on the poem “Epiphany Night.” From the outside one might get the impression that the author really spent it in a snowy forest, watching how the gloomy spruce forest of waters was transformed by the effects of severe frosts. However, the poet’s diaries indicate the opposite: Bunin met Epiphany in Ukraine, regretting that he could only dream about snow and frost. However, under the influence of surging memories, the author wrote several lines of the future poem “Epiphany Night”, which mentally transported him to the Oryol forests, where “the dark spruce forest was deafened by the gray frosts with snow, like fur.” The writer’s imagination did not last long, and soon he put the manuscript aside, completing the image of a winter forest with birches decorated with frost, like diamonds.

The poet returned to this poem 5 years later, when, shortly before Epiphany, he happened to visit the forest. After an unsuccessful second marriage and a break in relations with Anna Tsakni, Bunin returned from Odessa to Moscow, and on the eve of the new year, 1901, he decided to visit his elderly parents. His path ran through the familiar and beloved Oryol forests, and the poet could not deny himself the pleasure of wandering at night through a thicket covered with snow. It was after this trip that the poem “Epiphany Night” was completed, which became a real hymn to the winter forest. It is noteworthy that there is not a word about the approaching Epiphany in this work. But every line of this work breathes a feeling of celebration: the winter forest, decorated with snow and frost, like jewelry, froze in anticipation of a miracle, and for the author is the real embodiment of a forgotten fairy tale.

Indeed, lulled by a gray blizzard, the forest appears mysterious and delightfully beautiful to Bunin. It is generously bathed in soft moonlight, deserted and motionless, “silence reigns all around - not even a branch will crunch!” However, the author knows that it is deceptive, and the forest thicket still poses a threat to the lonely traveler who sees the shadows of wild animals. At the same time, even the prospect of meeting a wolf cannot force Bunin to leave this kingdom of snow, mysterious and alluring, which is illuminated by a lonely star, lit “in the east, at the throne of God.” Contemplation of nature captivates the author so much that he is simply unable to continue his journey. Bunin not only enjoys the midnight silence, inhaling the prickly frosty air, but also associates himself with part of this world, claiming: “I am the crystal kingdom of the forest!” With this phrase, the poet emphasizes that he considers himself a part of nature, its son, who, due to a misunderstanding, was forced to leave his homeland. However, wandering in a foreign land allowed him to understand what exactly is most valuable and will burn out in his life, which is unlikely to be happy without this snow-covered forest, scorching frost and clear starry sky.

Dark spruce forest with snow like fur,
Gray frosts have descended,
In sparkles of frost, as if in diamonds,
The birches dozed off, bending over.

Their branches froze motionless,
And between them on the snowy bosom,
As if through lace silver,
The full month looks down from the sky.

He rose high above the forest,
In its bright light, numb,
And the shadows creep strangely,
In the snow under the branches turning black.

The thicket of the forest was covered with a blizzard, -
Only tracks and paths flow.
Running between the pines and fir trees,
Between the birch trees to the dilapidated gatehouse.

The gray blizzard lulled me to sleep
The forest is deserted by a wild song,
And he fell asleep, covered in a blizzard,
All through, motionless and white.

Mysteriously slender thickets sleep,
They sleep, dressed in deep snow,
And glades, and meadows, and ravines,
Where streams once roared.

Silence - not even a branch will crunch!
And maybe beyond this ravine
A wolf makes his way through the snowdrifts
With a cautious and insinuating step.

Silence - maybe he’s close...
And I stand, filled with anxiety,
And I look intensely at the thicket,
On the tracks and bushes along the road,

In the distant thickets, where the branches and shadows
In the moonlight patterns are woven,
Everything seems to me like something alive,
It's like animals are running by.

Light from the forest guardhouse
It flickers cautiously and timidly,
It's like he's lurking under the forest
And waits for something in the silence.

A diamond radiant and bright,
Playing green and blue,
In the east, at the throne of God,
The star shines quietly, as if alive.

And above the forest higher and higher
The month rises, and in wondrous peace
Frosty midnight freezes
I am the crystal forest kingdom!

Analysis of the poem “Epiphany Night” by Bunin

The work “Epiphany Night” by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was first published in the magazine “Children’s Reading”.

The poem was begun in 1886 (the author was 16 years old) and completed in 1901. At this time he turned 31 years old. He spent this winter in Yalta, in the house of M.P. Chekhova. The genre is landscape lyricism, the size is apparently a whimsical anapest with a complex rhyme, in which there are unrhymed lines, 12 stanzas. The lyrical hero is the author himself. Perhaps the poem was based on memories of the winter forest in Yelets of his childhood or on the Ozerki estate. In the spirit of realism, the poet reproduces the landscape in detail. The spruce forest, the birch trees froze, even the moon in the sky became numb. Then the image of a “dilapidated gatehouse” appears, where a forgotten light burns. "The forest fell asleep." Only the wolf wanders “through the snowdrifts,” and the timid light in the house seems to be waiting for something or someone. In complete silence, the hero imagines rustling sounds, sighs, glances from all sides: animals run by.

“The star shines quietly”: in the old days they strictly observed the fast on the eve of Epiphany, it was, like the Christmas fast, until the star. “In the East”: in churches, the altar is located on the eastern side, where the Sun of Truth, Christ, appears. Hence the expression: at the throne of the Lord. The title itself suggests that the poet attaches special significance to the fact that he found himself in the forest at an unusual time. Meanwhile, the month continues to rise, and midnight comes in the “crystal kingdom.” The intonation is thoughtful, the hero seems to be looking around in the forest, like a guest, the only one awake that night. After all, even a wolf is just a hypothesis of a person’s sensitive ear. “I stand, filled with anxiety”: the hero feels that silence is deceptive. Comparisons: like fur, as if through silver, as if hidden, like a diamond, as if alive, as if in diamonds. Inversion: midnight freezes, the birches doze off. Epithets: motionless, bizarre, marvelous. Anaphora: silence. Metaphors: snowy bosom, crystal kingdom. Personifications: the moon is watching, the paths are running away, the blizzard is lulled, the thickets are sleeping. Diminutive suffixes: birches, gatehouses. Repetitions: higher and higher. The word “frost” is also repeated in different variations. Enumerative gradation: clearings, meadows, and ravines, covered with blizzards, through, motionless and white. The poet animates the picture he sees and is its enchanted observer.

Having begun as a typical landscape lyric, “Epiphany Night” by I. Bunin in the penultimate stanza is enriched with a religious motif.

Bunin's poem "Epiphany Night" refers to early period creativity of the poet. The poem was finally completed in 1901. Its name is associated with the Orthodox holiday of the Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 19 according to the new style. But many folk legends and signs were also associated with this holiday. For example, it was believed that if there was severe frost on Epiphany night, then the year would be fertile. These signs were undoubtedly familiar to the poet, who spent his childhood on his estate. But Bunin begins the description of Epiphany night without connecting it with a religious holiday. It seems like it's just a night in a winter forest, full of poetry and charm:

Dark spruce forest with snow like fur,

Gray frosts have descended,

In sparkles of frost, as if in diamonds,

The birches dozed off, bending over.

Before us is a quiet and solemn picture, a cosmos of frozen space:

Their branches froze motionless,

And between them on the snowy bosom,

As if through lace silver

The full month looks down from the sky.

In the way the poet describes the snowdrifts (“snow bosom”), one can feel the echoes of Epiphany beliefs, in which so much space is given to snow. So, in some villages on Epiphany night they collected snow from stacks, believing that only snow could properly whiten the canvases. Some believed that if on Epiphany evening you collect snow from a field and pour it into a well, then there will be water in the well all year. This snow was believed to have healing properties.

The thicket of the forest was covered with a blizzard, -

Only traces and paths wind,

Running between the pines and fir trees,

Between the birch trees to the dilapidated gatehouse.

Here, for the first time in the poem, we feel the presence of a person - a lonely person who whiles away the pre-holiday night in a deep forest and watches from afar the lights of someone else's home. It is through his eyes that we see the snowy forest:

The dark thickets sleep mysteriously,

They sleep, dressed in deep snow,

And glades, and meadows, and ravines,

Where streams once roared.

Behind the elation of poetic intonation, man’s long-standing fear of the secrets of wild nature seems to be hidden. The endless loneliness of a person fills his soul with a completely earthly fear of forest animals:

Silence - not even a branch will crunch!

Or maybe beyond this ravine

A wolf makes his way through the snowdrifts

With a cautious and insinuating step.

Silence - maybe he’s close...

And I stand, filled with anxiety,

And I look intensely at the thicket,

On tracks and bushes along the road.

In this expectation of a person there is not only fear of the forest animal, but also some kind of ancient kinship with it. Both of them are forced to hide in the forest from prying eyes. However, what distinguishes man from the beast is not only fear of nature, of the secrets of the forest, but also a timid expectation of some miracle on Epiphany night:

Light from the forest guardhouse

It flickers cautiously and timidly,

It's like he's lurking under the forest

And waits for something in the silence.

This light is definitely lost human soul who longs for salvation and hopes for the mercy of God. The desire for God sounds in the high and solemn description of the star:

A diamond radiant and bright,

Playing green and blue,

In the east, at the throne of God,

The star shines quietly, as if alive.

Although this happens on Epiphany night, we involuntarily remember the Christmas star that lit up when the Savior was born. Another sign is associated with Epiphany: if the stars shine and burn especially brightly on Epiphany night, then many lambs will be born (the lamb is a symbol of Jesus Christ). The Star of the Lord, shining over the world, equalizes the living and the inanimate, the sinful and the righteous, sending peace and consolation to the world:

And above the forest higher and higher

The month rises, and in wondrous peace

Frosty midnight freezes

And the crystal forest kingdom!

Here Bunin talks about the famous Epiphany frost, when the cold makes everything ringing and fragile, when midnight seems like some mysterious turning point - to warmth, summer, streams babbling in the ravines. The poem “Epiphany Night” was written almost simultaneously with the stories “Meliton” and “Pines”. Therefore, there is a lot in common between them. Both in the poem and in the stories, the harsh and beautiful forest space seems to absorb a person. In "Meliton" and in "Epiphany Night" a "decrepit gatehouse" lost in a mighty forest is described - a symbol of a lonely human life. And in “Pines” and in the poem the image of a star is through and through. In the story, “the star in the northeast seems to be the star at the throne of God.” These expressive visual images serve common goal to reveal the unearthly grandeur of the sky over the corruptible world of people. Therefore, the poem describes that below, under the star, “the light from the forest guardhouse flickers cautiously and timidly.” Moreover, unlike the story “Meliton”, in “Epiphany Night” it is an impersonal light, a hint of human smallness and loneliness in the face of nature and God.

The poem “Epiphany Night” combines the Christian vision of the world and the peasant, folk perception of nature. Bunin shows us the beauty and grandeur of nature, inspired by man and God's plan.

"Epiphany Night"

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