A. Sklyarenko: "...the famous writer Pyotr
Nikolaevich...says that he is an antidulcinist, a person who doesn't
like sweets ("The Event," Act Two). According to A. Babikov..."antidulcinist"
hints at Dolce stil novo (the literary movement of the 13th
century in Italy) and at Eugene Onegin ('Here was, to epigrams addicted
/ a gentleman cross with everything: / with the too-sweet tea of the
hostess')..."
JM: In Nabokov's EO, ch.6,XLIV,
lines 5-6, we read: "Dreams, dreams! Where is your dulcitude?/ Where is
(its stock rhyme) juventude?" and he dwells on his choice of the word
"dulcitude" to translate "sweetness" (Pushkin's sládost'), to add an
archaic touch to his translation, before he'll pair it with
"juventude" (mládost').
Nabokov recognizes that "the
analogy is strained"*. Perhaps he is partially critical of his
indulgence in verbal sweets! Would this make of him a
stylistic "antidulcinist," too?
..................................................................................................................
*"The noun mólodost' ('youth,' as a state
or a period) has an archaic form, mládost', no longer in use even in
poetry[...] there are passages where mladost' should be rendered by
'youthhood' or by an even more obsolete word. Thus, when ...Pushkin
laments the passing of youth and mentions a twinning rof rhyme words that in our
times would not come about, one twin being dead - Mecht,mecht! gde vásha
sládost'?/ Gde, véchnaya h ney rífma, "mládost' "? - this translator has
not been able to resit the temptation of Dreams, dreams! Where is your
dulcitude?/ Where is (its stock rhyme)
juventude?" It
may be argued that in no age has dulcitude-juventude cropped up commonly in
English poetry as sládost' - mládost' did in Pushknin's day and that
therefore the analogy is strained. It might have been wiser to render the
terminals as 'sweetness' and'youth' and explain the situation in a
note."