Il peut s' agir d'une ondine, créature élémentaire de l' eau; d' une nymphe ou fée aquatique; d' une sirène à queue de poisson... que l' on retrouve dans les folklores du monde entier.
Mais il peut aussi s' agir d' une créature plus propre au folklore slave et qui est en fait fort proche des vampire en ce sens qu' elle est comme eux d' origine humaine et comme eux, une "Undead", une "Non-morte".
Les rusalki sont des jeunes filles qui se sont noyées par désespoir amoureux avant leur mariage, qu' elles aient été abandonnées ou que leur bien-aimé soit mort à la guerre. En ce sens, l' Ophélie d' Hamlet a dû en devenir une car elle remplit toutes les conditions (et c'est ce que nous suggère le poème d' Arthur Rimbaud...)!
Bref, en rendant leur dernier souffle dans le cours d' eau dans lequel elles se sont jetées, elles ne rendent pas l' âme. Il s' opère une étrange symbiose entre leur tristesse, l' eau et leur âme et elles deviennent des sortes de créatures élémentales, belles mais fatales car leur baiser donne la mort.
L' eau a remplit leur âme et leurs veines et les a refroidies en une espèce d' engourdissement étrange. Elles deviennent alors soit inhumaines et insouciantes comme des animaux; soit somnolent au fond de l' onde...
Mais si un jeune homme vient à passer près de leur repère, la chaleur de leur vie et de leur jeunesse les attire comme un aimant ou un papillon vers la flamme.
Elles se mettent à l' affut perchées sur un arbre, puis séduisent alors le malheureux par leur beauté, leurs chants et leurs danses et au moment du fatidique baiser, la chaleur de l' âme humaine leur réchauffe le coeur et leur propre âme refroidie par l' onde et leur font se souvenir de leur amour perdu ainsi que de la vie et ses joies...
...mais leur font aussi réaliser qu' elles sont la cause de la mort d' un innocent et que cet amour auquel elles aspirent leur est interdit car leur étreinte est fatale.
Désespérées, elles retournent alors à l' eau qui peu à peu les apaise et refroidit leur coeur, peu à peu elles oublient à nouveau tout sentiment et reprennent alors leur étrange demi-existence parmi les vagues...
...jusqu' à leur prochaine victime!
Elles peuvent se tenir en bandes, entre elles ou avec d' autres créatures semblables comme les ondines et les sirènes, d' où la confusion.
Mais souvent, ce sont des solitaires...
Voici l' une de ces tragiques mais fatales créatures.
In russian, "rusalka" (don't forget to suavely roll the r! ) actually refers to several different (although very similar) creatures.
A rusalka can be an undine, an elemental of water; a nymph or an aquatic fairy; a fish-tailed mermaid, a figure that can be found all over the world.
But a rusalka is also a creature more specific and particular to slavic folklore, quite close to the vampires in the sense that she has, like them, a human origin and was turned into an undead creature.
Those Rusalki are young maidens who drowned themselves before their wedding out of amorous despair; wether they had been abandonned by their beloved ones or that those died at war. In that light, Hamlet 's Ophelia must have become one for she certainly satisfies all requirements (and that's what Arthur Rimbaud's poem certainly suggests us.)!
In short, by expiring their last breath into the river or pool into which they had throwned themselves, they don't quite "give up the ghost"... a weird symbiosis occurs between their sadness, the water and their souls; and thus they become a fashion of elemental creatures, beautiful but lethal for their kiss brings only death.
The water fills their souls and their veins, cooling them in a strange drowsiness. Then they either become utterly inhuman and carefree like animals; or they slumber underwater, waiting...
But if some young man comes near their lair, the heat of his life and youth draws them like a magnet or like a moth to a flame.
They lie in wait on top of a near-by tree, then climb down to seduce the infortunate lad with their beauty, their songs and dances... and at the very moment of the fatal kiss, the heat of the young human soul warms up their own heart and soul numbed by the coolness of the waters and makes them remember their lost love, and life and all its forgotten joys...
...but also brings back a glimpse of humanity and conscience that makes them realize they just caused the death of an innocent one, and that the love which they crave so much is forbidden to them by their lethal embrace.
Desperate, they sink back into the waters of their pool, which gradually soothe them and cool their heart, making them forget everything again and thus they resume their eerie underwater half-life...
...until their next victim!
They can either gather in bands, between themselves or with other similar creatures like mermaids and undines, hence the confusion.
But they're mostly loners...
Here is one of those tragic but also fatal creatures.
Intérieur/Indoors
A rusalka can be an undine, an elemental of water; a nymph or an aquatic fairy; a fish-tailed mermaid, a figure that can be found all over the world.
But a rusalka is also a creature more specific and particular to slavic folklore, quite close to the vampires in the sense that she has, like them, a human origin and was turned into an undead creature.
Those Rusalki are young maidens who drowned themselves before their wedding out of amorous despair; wether they had been abandonned by their beloved ones or that those died at war. In that light, Hamlet 's Ophelia must have become one for she certainly satisfies all requirements (and that's what Arthur Rimbaud's poem certainly suggests us.)!
In short, by expiring their last breath into the river or pool into which they had throwned themselves, they don't quite "give up the ghost"... a weird symbiosis occurs between their sadness, the water and their souls; and thus they become a fashion of elemental creatures, beautiful but lethal for their kiss brings only death.
The water fills their souls and their veins, cooling them in a strange drowsiness. Then they either become utterly inhuman and carefree like animals; or they slumber underwater, waiting...
But if some young man comes near their lair, the heat of his life and youth draws them like a magnet or like a moth to a flame.
They lie in wait on top of a near-by tree, then climb down to seduce the infortunate lad with their beauty, their songs and dances... and at the very moment of the fatal kiss, the heat of the young human soul warms up their own heart and soul numbed by the coolness of the waters and makes them remember their lost love, and life and all its forgotten joys...
...but also brings back a glimpse of humanity and conscience that makes them realize they just caused the death of an innocent one, and that the love which they crave so much is forbidden to them by their lethal embrace.
Desperate, they sink back into the waters of their pool, which gradually soothe them and cool their heart, making them forget everything again and thus they resume their eerie underwater half-life...
...until their next victim!
They can either gather in bands, between themselves or with other similar creatures like mermaids and undines, hence the confusion.
But they're mostly loners...
Here is one of those tragic but also fatal creatures.
Sauvage/Wild
à la Gustave Moreau...
Vierge au Rocher/the Maid on the Rock
Intérieur/Indoors
Kokoshnik & Sarafan
Changement d' éclairage/Change of lighting
Chevelure Ondoyante/Waving Hair
L' Eau qui Dort/Still Waters
