Subject
Pushkin, Hodasevich & Byron in LATH
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I recall regaling the company with one of the howlers I had noticed in the "translation" of Tamara. The sentence vidnelos' neskol'ko barok ("several barges could be seen") had become la vue etait assez baroque. The eminent critic Basilevski, a stocky, fair-haired old fellow in a rumpled brown suit, shook with abdominal mirth--but then his expression changed to one of suspicion and displeasure. (1.11)
Ivan Shipogradov, eminent novelist and recent Nobel Prize winner, would also be present, radiating talent and charm... (2.1)
The epithet eminent seems to hint at Emin, the author whose works Parasha reads in Pushkin's Small House in Kolomna:
В ней вкус был образованный. Она
Читала сочиненья Эмина
She had a sophisticated taste. She
read the works of Emin (XIII: 7-8)
A minor poet and prose writer, N. F. Emin (1760-1814) is also mentioned by Hodasevich in his book on Derzhavin. Hodasevich is the author of several essays on Pushkin, including Peterburgskie povesti Pushkina ("Pushkin's St. Petersburg Tales", 1914). These tales are The Small House in Kolomna, The Bronze Horseman, The Queen of Spades and The Secluded Small House in the Vasilievski Island (the latter tale was published by "Tit Kosmokratov" - one V. Titov who at the Karamzins' heard Pushkin tell this Gothic story with devils). Basilevski in LATH reminds one of Vasiliev in The Gift, and Vasiliev brings to mind the Vasilievski Island in St. Petersburg. According to Hodasevich, The Small House in Kolomna is a kind of parody of The Secluded Small House in the Vasilievski Island. On the other hand, the jocular tone in The Small House in Kolomna makes one think of Byron's Beppo.
The patronymic of Nadia Starov (Nadezhda Gordonovna Starov, the wife of a leytenant Starov who is to murder Iris Black, Vadim's first wife) seems to allude to George Gordon Byron. Lord Byron was lame, and so is Dora, a lady whom Vadim, during his trip to Leningrad, meets near the monument of Pushkin. Dora tells Vadim that as a girl she dreamt of becoming a female clown, 'Madam Byron,' or 'Trek Trek.' (5.2)
As to barok (Gen. pl. of barka, "barge," the word mistranslated as "baroque" in the French version of Vadim's Tamara), at the end of The Bronze Horseman the small house of Parasha and her mother (both of whom perished in the flood) is conveyed back to the shore na barke (on a barge):
Его прошедшею весною
Свезли на барке.
Last spring it [the empty house]
was conveyed [back to the shore] on a barge.
In LATH Vadim compares himself to Hermann, the hero of The Queen of Spades: The three lovers (a figure I wrested from her with the fierceness of Pushkin's mad gambler and with even less luck) whom she had had in her teens remained nameless, and therefore spectral; devoid of any individual traits, and therefore identical. (1.10)
When in the church Hermann takes a false step and falls to the ground near the coffin of the old Countess, one of her relatives whispers in the ear of an Englishman that Hermann is pobochnyi syn (a natural son) of the Old Countess:
Among the congregation arose a deep murmur, and a tall thin chamberlain, a near relative of the deceased, whispered in the ear of an Englishman who was standing near him, that the young officer was a natural son of the Countess, to which the Englishman coldly replied: "Oh!" (The Queen of Spades, V)
Old Count Starov (who can be the father of Vadim, lieutenant Starov, Iris Black, Annette Blagovo and Louise Adamson) brings to mind staraya grafinya (the Old Countess) in The Queen of Spades. In Pushkin's story Lizaveta Ivanovna (the poor companion of the old Countess), after Hermann goes mad, marries the former steward of the Countess; but in Chaykovski's opera she drowns in the Winter Canalet. The Winter Canalet is mentioned by Vadim as he describes his visit to Leningrad:
That sunset, with a triumph of bronze clouds and flamingo-pink meltings in the far-end archway of the Winter Canalet, might have been first seen in Venice. (5.2)
Venice is the setting of Byron's Beppo.
On the other hand, Venice is mentioned by VN in a Russian poem written soon after LATH's publication:
Ах, угонят их в степь, Арлекинов моих,
В буераки, к чужим атаманам!
Геометрию их, Венецию их
Назовут шутовством и обманом.
Только ты, только ты всё дивилась вослед
Чёрным, синим, оранжевым ромбам...
"N" писатель недюжинный, сноб и атлет,
Наделённый огромным апломбом..."
(Ah, they will be despatched to the steppe, my Harlequins,
into gullies, to alien atamans!
Their geometry, their Venice
will be called buffoonery and deceit...)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Ivan Shipogradov, eminent novelist and recent Nobel Prize winner, would also be present, radiating talent and charm... (2.1)
The epithet eminent seems to hint at Emin, the author whose works Parasha reads in Pushkin's Small House in Kolomna:
В ней вкус был образованный. Она
Читала сочиненья Эмина
She had a sophisticated taste. She
read the works of Emin (XIII: 7-8)
A minor poet and prose writer, N. F. Emin (1760-1814) is also mentioned by Hodasevich in his book on Derzhavin. Hodasevich is the author of several essays on Pushkin, including Peterburgskie povesti Pushkina ("Pushkin's St. Petersburg Tales", 1914). These tales are The Small House in Kolomna, The Bronze Horseman, The Queen of Spades and The Secluded Small House in the Vasilievski Island (the latter tale was published by "Tit Kosmokratov" - one V. Titov who at the Karamzins' heard Pushkin tell this Gothic story with devils). Basilevski in LATH reminds one of Vasiliev in The Gift, and Vasiliev brings to mind the Vasilievski Island in St. Petersburg. According to Hodasevich, The Small House in Kolomna is a kind of parody of The Secluded Small House in the Vasilievski Island. On the other hand, the jocular tone in The Small House in Kolomna makes one think of Byron's Beppo.
The patronymic of Nadia Starov (Nadezhda Gordonovna Starov, the wife of a leytenant Starov who is to murder Iris Black, Vadim's first wife) seems to allude to George Gordon Byron. Lord Byron was lame, and so is Dora, a lady whom Vadim, during his trip to Leningrad, meets near the monument of Pushkin. Dora tells Vadim that as a girl she dreamt of becoming a female clown, 'Madam Byron,' or 'Trek Trek.' (5.2)
As to barok (Gen. pl. of barka, "barge," the word mistranslated as "baroque" in the French version of Vadim's Tamara), at the end of The Bronze Horseman the small house of Parasha and her mother (both of whom perished in the flood) is conveyed back to the shore na barke (on a barge):
Его прошедшею весною
Свезли на барке.
Last spring it [the empty house]
was conveyed [back to the shore] on a barge.
In LATH Vadim compares himself to Hermann, the hero of The Queen of Spades: The three lovers (a figure I wrested from her with the fierceness of Pushkin's mad gambler and with even less luck) whom she had had in her teens remained nameless, and therefore spectral; devoid of any individual traits, and therefore identical. (1.10)
When in the church Hermann takes a false step and falls to the ground near the coffin of the old Countess, one of her relatives whispers in the ear of an Englishman that Hermann is pobochnyi syn (a natural son) of the Old Countess:
Among the congregation arose a deep murmur, and a tall thin chamberlain, a near relative of the deceased, whispered in the ear of an Englishman who was standing near him, that the young officer was a natural son of the Countess, to which the Englishman coldly replied: "Oh!" (The Queen of Spades, V)
Old Count Starov (who can be the father of Vadim, lieutenant Starov, Iris Black, Annette Blagovo and Louise Adamson) brings to mind staraya grafinya (the Old Countess) in The Queen of Spades. In Pushkin's story Lizaveta Ivanovna (the poor companion of the old Countess), after Hermann goes mad, marries the former steward of the Countess; but in Chaykovski's opera she drowns in the Winter Canalet. The Winter Canalet is mentioned by Vadim as he describes his visit to Leningrad:
That sunset, with a triumph of bronze clouds and flamingo-pink meltings in the far-end archway of the Winter Canalet, might have been first seen in Venice. (5.2)
Venice is the setting of Byron's Beppo.
On the other hand, Venice is mentioned by VN in a Russian poem written soon after LATH's publication:
Ах, угонят их в степь, Арлекинов моих,
В буераки, к чужим атаманам!
Геометрию их, Венецию их
Назовут шутовством и обманом.
Только ты, только ты всё дивилась вослед
Чёрным, синим, оранжевым ромбам...
"N" писатель недюжинный, сноб и атлет,
Наделённый огромным апломбом..."
(Ah, they will be despatched to the steppe, my Harlequins,
into gullies, to alien atamans!
Their geometry, their Venice
will be called buffoonery and deceit...)
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/