"Imitation of the Quran", Pushkin: analysis. Poem "Imitation of the Quran"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The poem "Imitation of the Koran" is considered by many to be one of the most controversial works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The poet's reasoning touches on the most painful topic - religious. He tried to convey to the reader that blind adherence to dogmas, misunderstanding of the essence of faith leads to a belittling of the individual, that someone can manipulate the consciousness of impersonal people.

History of writing the poem "Imitation of the Koran" (Pushkin)

Analysis of a work must begin with the history of its writing in order to understand the motives of the poet. Upon his return from the southern exile, the active Pushkin had to spend another 2 years in voluntary exile in the Mikhailovskoye family estate. Voluntary, because his father volunteered to look after the obstinate poet.

Alexander Sergeevich was a man of an inquisitive mind and simply could not get bored in captivity. He developed a stormy activity, visiting neighbors and pestering them with conversations. These were honest people, with many the poet behaved uninhibitedly and deigned to talk about politically incorrect topics. Including religious ones.

Conversations with Praskovya Osipova

Perhaps the most interesting interlocutor for Pushkin was Praskovya Aleksandrovna Osipova, a neighboring landowner. She liked Pushkin's lyrics, poems about nature, thoughtful poems. The woman had a subtle mind, was inquisitive and, to the joy of the poet, deeply religious. The interlocutors could argue hotly for hours on the topic of faith. Ultimately, Pushkin decided to express his arguments in poetic form, writing in 1825 the 9-chapter poem "Imitation of the Koran".

Pushkin's analysis of religion was based on the interpretation of texts from the Koran, the holy book of Muslims. Each chapter is based on a specific story from the life and deeds of the prophet Mohammed. It is not known whether the brilliant writer Praskovya Alexandrovna was convinced that he was right, but he definitely achieved a heated debate among his colleagues.

Short summary

Although the author wisely chose a foreign faith as critical reasoning, the work caused a resonant response. There was a rare case when there was no unambiguous agreement with the conclusions of the poet. Did Pushkin envision such a turn? "Imitation of the Qur'an" touches on too intimate feelings that are important for believers.

At first glance, this creation is about the deeds of the prophet. But it is enough to think about the text, and it becomes clear that the story is about ordinary people who are forced to blindly obey the once accepted dogmas and laws of the Muslim faith. Why should a warrior of Islam draw his sword and go to his death, even without knowing the reasons for the war, inhope that “blessed are those who fall in battle”? Why are young Muslim women, having become "the wives of the pure prophet", doomed to celibacy?

After reading, the leitmotif of the work "Imitation of the Quran" becomes clear. The verse warns that while true believers tirelessly follow the commandments, there are people who use their feelings to achieve their own selfish goals.

Pushkin is an atheist?

"Arise, fearful one," calls the poet. "Everyone has a personal answer to this" - such an argument is made by those who disagree with Pushkin's peremptory appeal. For this, believers have a suitable saying: “Caesar’s is Caesar’s, but God’s is God’s.”

Having written "Imitation of the Koran", Pushkin's analysis of the contradictions in the religious milieu was put on display. Everyone understood the allegorical meaning of the text. Although we are talking about Islam, any faith is implied (including Orthodox). The thought involuntarily arises that Alexander Sergeevich is an atheist (which in tsarist times was considered sedition). However, this is not so. It is known that Pushkin respected pious people and was tolerant of all religions. He firmly believed that blind worship was not conducive to spiritual enlightenment. Only realizing yourself as a person, you can reach God.

The correspondence of the poem to the text from the Koran

So how do you analyze? "Imitation of the Quran" among writers is considered a difficult work, because the text is based on the Quran. It is not enough to know passages from the holy book that Pushkin used when writing a poem; understanding is requiredintricacies of Islam. Numerous studies show that part of the quatrains quite accurately follows the logic of the Koran and is based on an accurate interpretation of the text from this book. However, Pushkin would not be himself if he did not bring liberties to the interpretation of the text sacred to Muslims, especially since the essence of the poem itself implies certain changes, rebirth, rejection of dogmas.

To understand the incredible complexity of interpreting the work, consider not the entire Pushkin verse "Imitation of the Koran", but at least a few quatrains. The cycle, written in 1824, consists of nine chapters. It opens with the first chapter, "By Odd and Odd…", consisting of four quatrains:

By Odd and Odd, By the sword and the right fight, By the morning star, I swear by evening prayer:

No, I didn't leave you.

Who is in the shade of calm

I entered, loving his head, And hid from vigilant persecution?

Didn't I get drunk on the day of thirst

Desert waters?

Didn't I gift your tongue

Mighty mind control?

Be of good cheer, despise deceit, Cheerfully follow the path of truth, Love orphans and my Koran

Preach to the trembling creature.

General analysis of the first chapter

The essence of the work of researchers of the work of a brilliant poet is to find a correspondence between the lines written by Pushkin and the lines from the Koran. That is, in the search for what information base the poet relied on when composingworks "Imitation of the Quran". The verse is difficult to study, so it is extremely interesting for specialists.

First of all, it turned out that the central images of the first chapter: "sharp persecution" and "mighty power" of the tongue "over the minds" - are absent in the Koran. Meanwhile, the textual dependence of the first and last stanzas of the poem on the Koran is beyond doubt. As if anticipating the interest of critics in this work, Pushkin left several remarks, which helped experts to make a more accurate analysis. “Imitation of the Qur'an”, for example, contains the poet's note to the first stanza: “In other places of the Qur'an, Allah swears by the hooves of mares, by the fruits of the fig tree, by the freedom of Mecca. This strange rhetorical turn occurs every minute in the Qur'an.”

The closest to the first stanza is chapter 89. The commandments that Allah gives in a poem to his prophet are scattered throughout the text of the Koran. All researchers of the work note a particularly close connection between the last stanza and the first line of the second quatrain with the 93rd chapter of the Koran: “Your Lord has not left you … Do not offend orphans, do not take away the last crumbs from the poor, proclaim God's mercy to you.” In stanzas 2 and 3, the direct dependence on the Qur'an is no longer so obvious.

Analysis of the second quatrain of the poem "Imitation of the Koran" (Pushkin)

The analysis of this part is difficult. It speaks of a miraculous salvation from persecution, but Pushkin scholars do not quite understand which story from the Koran this refers to. Researcher Tomashensky, for example, argued that a similar text in the Koranno. However, his colleagues point out that there are references to the chase in the Qur'an, for example:

• 8 chapter: “God and his prophet brought the faithful to a safe place and sent down armies to punish the infidels.”
• 9 chapter: “As soon as they both took refuge in the cave, Mohammed consoled his slanderer: “Do not complain, God is with us.”

However, the persecution of Mohammed by the infidels is mentioned in the Koran extremely briefly. Fomichev suggested that Pushkin might have used Mohammed's life story from a text of the Koran, translated into French, found in Dushkin's library. This edition tells in some detail how Mohammed and his partner took refuge in a cave during the flight from Mecca, and Allah miraculously grew a tree at the entrance to the cave. Looking into the cave and seeing that the entrance to it was covered with cobwebs and that the dove had laid eggs there, the pursuers decided that no one had entered there for a long time and passed by.

Unification of religions?

Perhaps, Pushkin's verse "Imitation of the Koran" is difficult to interpret for the reason that the poet introduced into the work of tradition not only from the Koran, but also from the Old Testament. After all, Pushkin respected all religions. The words about "vigorous persecution" make us remember another pursuit - the Egyptian pharaoh's persecution of Moses and his tribesmen during the Exodus from Egypt.

It is possible that when creating his poem, Pushkin had in mind the biblical story about crossing the Red Sea, identifying the prophet Mohammed with the prophet Moses. The grounds for such an identification are already laid in the Koran, where Moses is deduced asMohammed's forerunner: Allah constantly reminds Mohammed of his great predecessor, his first prophet, Moses. It is no coincidence that the book "Exodus", which describes the deeds of Moses, goes back to most of the stories borrowed from the Bible in the Koran.

Analysis of the third quatrain

The researchers correlated the first lines of this quatrain with the 11th verse of the 8th chapter of the Koran: "Do not forget … how he sent down water from heaven to wash you, so that he would be cleansed and delivered from the malice of the devil." However, Pushkin is talking about quenching thirst, and not about cleansing, about “desert waters”, and not about water sent down from heaven.

Perhaps Pushkin hinted at another legend: how once, on the road between Medina and Damascus, Mohammed could hardly scoop up a ladle of water from a drying up stream, but, pouring it back, turned it into a plentiful spring that watered the whole army. But this episode is absent in the Qur'an. Therefore, a number of researchers have compared the first lines of the third stanza with the well-known biblical story about how Moses gave water to people who were exhausted from thirst in the desert, striking with a rod on a stone from which a source of water was clogged, because God commanded him so. The Qur'an mentions this episode twice (chapters 2 and 7).

And yet the Bible?

Let's get back to the background. What did Pushkin want? "Imitation of the Koran" was born in disputes with the landowner Osipova about the influence of religion on the minds of people. The poet expresses his point of view in poetry. Perhaps Pushkin took into account that Osipova was closer to biblical stories, or it seemed interesting to himcombine several religions or show that all religions are inherently similar.

It is known that it was while working on the cycle "Imitation of the Koran" that Pushkin had a need to turn to the Bible. “I am working for the glory of the Koran,” Pushkin writes to his brother in a letter dated early November 1824. A little later, at the beginning of the 20th of November, he asks his brother to send him a book: “The Bible, the Bible! And French, of course. Apparently, while working on the cycle, Pushkin became interested in both Muslim and biblical motifs.

Conclusion

Poetry admirers are inspired by Pushkin's lyrics, poems about quivering love and colorful nature. But Pushkin is, first of all, a citizen, a philosopher, a thinker. A fighter against injustice, tyranny, oppression. The work "Imitation of the Koran" is imbued with the spirit of freedom, the call "Arise, fearful one!"