Through this mirrory darkness he staggered
home: Mark Standfuss, a salesclerk, a demigod, fair-haired Mark, a lucky fellow
with a high starched collar. At the back of his neck, above the white line of
that collar, his hair ended in a funny, boyish little tag that had escaped the
barber's scissors. That little tag was what made Klara fall in love with him,
and she swore that it was true love, that she had quite forgotten the handsome
ruined foreigner who last year had rented a room from her mother, Frau
Heise.
(Details of a Sunset)
I pondered the name of the hero for a while and I guess I've
got it: Mark is a bird, namely a heron (tsaplya,
Reiher). Herons can often be seen standing on one foot (hence
Standfuss, "Mr Standfoot") in the middle of a bog or a rice field. The
egrets (white herons) have aigrettes (back plumes) as a head
ornament.
All other characters in the story seem to be birds too.
Frau Heise (no relation of Charlotte Haze, or is she?) is probably a
goose. Mark's friend Adolf who stands, "propping himself on his cane as if
it were a tail," makes one think of a woodpecker.
Note the man at the corner, in apron and peaked
cap, selling frankfurters, crying out in a tender and sad birdlike whistle:
"Würstchen, würstchen..."
Btw., Sirin (rara avis indeed!) is also a bird
and a demigod. Frau Heise's former lodger for whom Klara leaves Mark (who never
learns of it) is a handsome ruined foreigner...
Alexey Sklyarenko