Assunto: [NABOKV-L] EO's illustration, epigraph and a bottom
line
In "Alexandr Pushkin: Eugene Onegin, A Novel in
Verse. Translated by Vladimir Nabokov," vol. II, Princeton,
Bollingen, pages 176-178, we find in an entry about granite a detailed
commentary that begins with: "In the stanza Onegin and
Pushkin are on the south bank of the Neva, on the stretch called the Palace
Quay, and stand facing the Petropavloskaya Krepost', the SS. Peter and Paul
Citadel, a fortress used as a prison for political offenders..."
Nabokov located Pushkin's sketch in a Leningrad 1937 edition (ed.A.
Slonimski and E.Gollerbach) and explains the entire setting, Pushkin's
intentions when he suggested this illustration to his publisher and the
resulting unfortunate sketches by Aleksandr Notbek.
In mid-March, 1829, an indignant Pushkin "reacted to
this little monstrosity with an amusing epigram:
Here, after crossing Bridge Kokushkin,
With
bottom on the granite propped,
Stands Aleksandr Sergeich Pushkin;
Near
M'sieur Onegin he has stopped.
Ignoring with a look superior
The
fateful Power's citadel,
On it he turns a proud posterior:
My dear chap,
poison not the well!”
Nabokov's translation appears at least twice in Wikipedia. In the first
one, under the heading of Kokushkin bridge* .) The second time
is under Palace Enbankment or Palace Quay **
Brian Boyd, in Vladimir Nabokov The American Years describes this
episode from a different perspective: "..the 'miserably bad' engraver
Alexander Notbek (Nabokov does not exaggerate) whose 1829 illustrations of
Eugene Onegin inspired Pushkin to two acid epigrams. Asked by Bollingen
Press to delete references to a more recent artist's 'hideous and absurd
illustrations' Nabokov responded that his criticism was 'so dear to me that I
would prefer giving up the publication of my entire work rather than
surrendering that passage.' An overstatement, no doubt, but the decay of
the unique contribution of genius as it becomes corrupted by 'average reality'
was too central a theme of his whole enterprise for him to withdraw and attack."
(p349/350.).
What originally prompted my search was related to "editorial
censorship" but, inspite of all the findings reproduced above, I couldn't
find out from what edition the word "bottom" was deleted or substituted by
a dash. Boris Schnaiderman ("Tradução, Ato Desmesurado", Ed. Perspectiva,
2011) mentions a prudish editorial censorship to this
particular epigraph with a mention of Pushkin's bottom (the
"offensive" word!) leaning against a granite ledge.
In Boris Schnaiderman's bibliography I saw that his edition of
Nabokov's EO's commentaries is a Russian one (Moscou, NPK,
Interval, 1999, p.193).
...............................................................................................................................................................................
*"In 1829, Alexander Pushkin mentioned Kokushkin bridge in a famous
epigram. For the first edition of Eugene Onegin, the poet commissioned an
illustration depicting himself and Onegin walking together along the quay. Upon
receiving the illustration, which represented him leaning on a parapet with his
back turned towards the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was exceedingly displeased
with the result (which had little in common with his own preliminary sketch,
illustrated to the right) and scribbled [this] epigram Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime
and Punishment starts with a mention of the bridge: “On an exceptionally hot
evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in
S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge"
(wikipedia)
** In his novel Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin depicted himself walking
along Palace Quay with his hero, Eugene Onegin:
Filled with his heart's
regrets, and leaning
Against the rampart's granite shelf,
Eugene stood
lost in pensive dreaming
(As once some poet drew himself).
The night grew
still... with silence falling;
Only the sound of sentries calling,
Or
suddenly from Million Street
Some distant droshky's rumbling beat;
Or
floating on a drowsy river,
A lonely boat would sail along,
While far away
some rousing song
Or plaintive horn would make us shiver.
But sweeter
still, amid such nights,
Are Tasso's octaves' soaring flights.
For
the first edition of this chapter, the poet commissioned an illustration
depicting him and Onegin walking together along the quay. Upon receiving the
illustration, which represented him leaning on a parapet with his back turned
towards the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was exceedingly displeased with the
result (which had little in common with his own preliminary sketch, illustrated
to the right) and scribbled the ...epigram underneath:
(it was also from this wikipedia page that I got the sketch by Pushkin)