by Kazimieras J. Norkeliunas
An attempt is made here to explain the meaning underlying their usage, relating them to Baltrusaitis' poetic themes of inner solitude and resignation before God and the universe. The "silence-muteness" terms function as archsymbols for poetic transcendence into God.
In an introduction to Baltrusaitis' selected poetry in Portrety russkich poetov, the Soviet Russian literary critic and author Il'ja Erenburg accused Baltrusaitis of having fallen in love with "silence". The observation was aptly made. Through the use of "silence-muteness" words and their symbolic associations, Baltrusaitis' verse attempts to express the inexpressible. The present paper is concerned with elucidating the notion of the inexpressible found in Baltrusaitis' verse as a way of transcending the limitations of words to elicit poetic vision. This examination of "silence" terms confines itself to Baltrusaitis' Russian poetry only.
"Silence-muteness" terms are juxtopposed to those of "sound". Synthesis of the two results in the revelation of the theme of "universal harmony". The spiritual kinship of "silence-sound" unites man and nature, man and the universe, and man and the cosomos into the ultimate order of all things. The polarization between the absolutes of silence and sound constitute that "harmony of existence" which so frequently recurs in Baltrusaitis' verse. In the metaphysical sense, the force of harmony, i.e. "silence-sound", is the Universal Soul or the Spirit of God. "Silence" and "sound" take on supra-symbolic and supra-mythical proportions in the artistic world of Baltrusaitis.