Andrei v3

[busker]

Tarkovsky's Rublev
painted frescoes at the Andronikov
Monastery, his home,
but few of them survived
the Revolution. ... the difference between writing this out in prose and having it in a poem is the pauses at each line ending. I like the pause at the end of 'survived', before the the qualification of 'the revolution' in the next line.

He observed that the history
of the Slavs is all suffering, ... this is a great line. Is it original, of from the film?
that the Christ was cruel
to leave so many people
behind, so his mentor
Theophan the Greek
warned him to be wary
of his watching. ... the entire poem is told in a very matter of fact style. I don't know whether that derives from the film, but it works.

He implored the naked pagans
who caught him as he stumbled
through their revels at Kupala
Night to hang him
head down, he was not worthy
of the same cross as the Christ,
and a woman moved by wonder 
kissed him, let him go. ... a gripping story

He refused to paint
the Last Judgement on the walls
of the church in Vladimir
when his friends, fellow artists,
returned early from their journey
to the prince's more generous
brother with their eyes
gouged out, instead adorning
its walls with a feast. ... so he painted a feast, or the last supper? why were the fellow artists' eyes gouged out? not having seen the film, I don't follow this strophe nor understand its significance.

He mourned snow falling
in a church while conversing
with the ghost of Theophan ... a beautiful 3 lines
and vowed never to speak
again after he'd driven
an axe through the skull
of a Slav who tried to rape
a fellow Slav, a Fool-for-Christ.

He watched the prince's men
ride down the naked pagans
come morning and could do nothing
but cover the eyes
of his young apprentice, ... I like the change from 'student' to 'apprentice'
until he broke his silence
when a bell on its first striking
rang out clearly, did not crack,
and the boy the prince had hired
to lead its casting broke down crying
on the mud by his side.
"You'll cast bells, I'll paint icons."

Tarkovsky's Rublev
painted icons for the Trinity
Lavra outside Moscow,
whose bells did not survive
the Revolution. ... so neither the icons nor the bells survived...it hints at some bigger questions about art and life, etc but the ending is still vague enough to allow for multiple interpretations

Nice one