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