In translation VN gave his early Russian story
Katastrofa (1924) a new title, "one that has the triple
advantage of corresponding to the thematic background of the story, of
being sure to puzzle such readers as "skip descriptions" and of infuriating
reviewers." Details of a Sunset (1976) became the title story
of VN's last collection of stories to appear in his lifetime.
A sentence in Katastrofa, Полнеба
обхватил закат ("The colors of the sunset had invaded half of the sky" in
Details of a Sunset), is almost a quotation of a line in Tyutchev's
poem Poslednyaya lyubov' (Last Love, 1852-54):
Полнеба обхватила тень
Shade encompassed half of the sky.
Another line in Poslednyaya lyubov', Продлись, продлись, очарованье (Stay longer, stay longer,
enchantment), seems not unrelevant in the context of VN's story whose hero dies
in an accident and never learns that his bride left him for her old
lover (fate has spared Mark after all!). On the other hand, with years
Tyutchev's poem (particularly, the closing stanza) has
probably acquired a new significance for VN. Here
it is followed by VN's rhymed translation:
О, как на склоне наших лет
Нежней мы
любим и суеверней...
Сияй, сияй, прощальный свет
Любви последней, зари
вечерней!
Полнеба обхватила
тень,
Лишь там, на западе, бродит сиянье, –
Помедли, помедли,
вечерний день,
Продлись, продлись, очарованье.
Пускай скудеет в жилах кровь,
Но в сердце
не скудеет нежность...
О ты, последняя любовь!
Ты и блаженство, и
безнадежность.
Love at the closing of our days
is apprehensive and very tender.
Glow
brighter, brighter, farewell rays
of one last love in its evening
splendor.
Blue shade takes half the world away:
through western clouds
alone some light is slanted.
O tarry, O tarry, declining
day,
enchantment, let me stay enchanted.
The blood runs thinner, yet
the heart
remains as ever deep and tender.
O last belated love, thou
art
a blend of joy and of hopeless surrender.
Alexey Sklyarenko