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Pasternak's Verlaine: The translations as transcripts of influence
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Pasternak's Verlaine: The translations as transcripts of influence
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PASTERNAK’S VERLAINE THE TRANSLATIONS AS TRANSCRIPTS OF INFLUENCE by Kathleen Elizabeth Dillon A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Comparative Literature) May 1992 Copyright 1992 Kathleen Elizabeth Dillon UM I Number: DP22558 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publish*ng UMI DP22558 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, M l 48106-1346 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90007 This dissertation, written by Kathleen E. Dillon under the direction of hsx. Dissertation Committee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of re quirements for the degree of P K .T X Co . 9 2. D 5 7 0 3 (o^) £ DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dean of G raduate Studies M arch , lv 7 , 1 9 92 DISSERTATION COMMITTEE Chairperson 1 1 Table of Contents Page Introduction 1 Chapter One Translation: An Anxiety in Principle 6 Chapter Two Pasternak and Verlaine: The Foundation of Influence 41 Chapter Three Verlaine’s Other Russian Voices 75 Chapter Four Pasternak’s Verlaine Translations 135 Chapter Five Pasternak’s Evolution: Intertexts and Auto-intertexts 208 Works Consulted 267 Appendix The Poems 283 1 Introduction In the history of Russian and Soviet letters translation has always been considered an art and thus accorded public acclaim and critical response. Russian theorists, such as Kornei Chukovsky, number among the world's most renowned specialists in translation theory. The task of translation has frequently been assumed by writers renowned in their own right. In many instances, Russian writers are known equally for their translations as for their original work. For example, Boris Pasternak's Shakespeare translations were universally known and admired in Russia, and it was only in the West that his fame was due to Doctor Zhivago. During liberal political periods, translation often was a manifestation of a writer's admiration for another author and served an altruistic purpose to enrich Russian literary tradition and to educate the reading public. Often too, a writer turned to translation as a source of ready income. In repressive times, translation served a purpose even more urgent than pressing financial need. During the long decades of Stalin's censorship, a writer like Pasternak, whose own voice was silenced, turned to the anodyne of translation not solely as the only available vehicle for exercising the writer s craft, but as a means of self expression. Consequently, translation involves the incursion of the translator's interpretation and style upon the original text. 2 However, it is a vehicle for more than just the later author’s reflections upon the earlier work. It also records a stage in his or her own literary and philosophical history and can allow the expression of otherwise or hitherto unspoken or even acknowledged thoughts and emotions. Translation criticism traditionally focuses on how successfully a writer manages to reproduce a work. Translated texts are compared with the originals to determine how accurately they reflect the original author. Although it is a common assumption that because of the exigencies of a different language, absolute fidelity is impossible, it is the typical public assumption that absolute fidelity should be the goal. While this dissertation considers the manner in which Pasternak accomplished his translations and is concerned with how he altered the originals, it seeks above all to identify the compelling personal demands that motivated the selection of the works and their adaptation. Their integration with his other works is of primary concern. To establish the parameters of this exploration, the first step is to examine the body of contemporary translation theory, both in Russia and in the West. I shall examine the canonical viewpoints on translation, with respect to purpose, the question of fidelity, and judgment of artistic merit. I shall argue that ultimately, however, it is outside translation studies per se, in the writings of Harold Bloom and Julia Kristeva, that a 3 fruitful approach is found to both the brilliant replications and the strongly personalized deviations that his translations comprise. According to Evgenii Pasternak, Pasternak did not make random choices as to the writers he would translate; they were all lifelong objects of his love and admiration. Thus, they would have influenced and informed his writing in any case. However, translation necessitates the most concentrated and intimate convergence possible between writers. And in Pasternak s case, given the fact that his own voice was effectively silenced in lengthy periods of Stalinist censorship, the translations provide important traces of his poetic development. Although quantitatively a relatively minor figure in the Pasternak opus, Verlaine is an important intertextual influence. The Verlaine poems Pasternak elected to translate are a microcosmic sampling that allow close examination of two dominant aspects of any translation. That is to say, they exhibit the fidelities as well as the aberrations. But more provocative in these selected poems is the phenomenon of their simultaneous coherence and dissonance within the Pasternak oeuvre. The ways in which Pasternak s renderings of the poems are faithful, the ways that they diverge, the common facets of their poetics and their differences reveal as much of Pasternak as they do of Verlaine. 4 Before Pasternak, the most noteworthy poet-translators of Verlaine, Innokenty Annensky, Fedor Sologub and Valery Bryusov, were contemporaries who shared, to one degree or another, the same psychic dispositions. Pasternak, by contrast, appears to be an unlikely kindred spirit for Verlaine. Pasternak, known and loved for his exuberant worldview, is neither mystic nor symbolist. These facts alone account for his translations being at a considerable remove from the others. It is true, of course, that Pasternak s evolution included a determined drive for greater simplicity and transparency and that Verlaine is an obvious choice as mentor in this process. But Pasternak did not turn to Verlaine solely for his stylistic innovations. The melancholic and religious Verlaine was a thematic inspiration as well. The poems Pasternak translated reveal the same undercurrents of despair and hint at the ultimate triumph of faith that eventually characterized his own writing. The history of this influence is inscribed in the translations and in Pasternak s essay on Verlaine. Together they offer revelations about both writers and are a necessary preface to the Christian Pasternak who emerges in Doctor Zhivago. The novel is the subject of the final chapter in which Bloomian analysis of the anxiety of influence is assisted by the most recent theory of the psycholinguist Julia Kristeva. Her analysis of the psychodynamics at work in a writer s 5 production of a text provides a model for exploring the Zhivago text as the product of a post-Verlaine Pasternak. By juxtaposing the complementary Pasternak texts. Mv Sister Life and Doctor Zhivago, it is possible to understand the Verlaine translations as a transcript of some key elements in Pasternak's transition from the earlier to the later work. 9 6 Chapter One Translation: An Anxiety in Principle The question of literature in translation inspires heady and perennial debate among theorists and critics who dispute questions of accuracy, fidelity, and, in the end, aritistic achievement as compared to the original work. Perhaps the poetic genre is the most polemicized of all, foregrounding language as it does. Judgements of divagations from the original text range along the axis of tolerance, but most analysts concur that fidelity, despite its ultimate unattainability, should be the highest priority. While exceptions are made to accomodate the bold, unapologetically deviant translations of writers such as Ezra Pound or Boris Pasternak, in the main accolades are awarded to the most proximate versions. In any case, it is safe to say that all meta-translation literature emphasizes the impact of the translator on the text and assumes as given an unavoidable yet unintentional alteration. Harold Bloom s intertextual theories of literary history yield heretofore unexamined possibilities for another approach to the subject. The translated text can be mined as part of the entire opus of influence in the developmental history of a writer. Considered as part of the later as well as the original writer's work, it must be considered as other than imitative 7 and certainly as other than duplicative. Most importantly, the independence of the translated text must be considered deliberate. A review of some representative translation studies provides the backdrop against which I will introduce the application of Bloom s concept of anxiety of influence" to the field. Kornei Chukovsky's expose of his theories and approaches to the art of translation centers upon what he believes is a requisite symbiosis between the original author and the translator. A translation, according to the title of one chapter in A High Art. is decidedly a self-portrait of the translator," and as the dedication to Vasily Trediakovsky insists, "the translator differs from the author only in name." Chukovsky is firmly convinced that the absolute subjugation of a translator s personality and literary style is necessary for the successful, accurate translation of any literary work. He asserts: . . . the overcoming of one s own personal aesthetics is the duty of all translators, particularly those who translate great poets. In this case it is necessary to love the original author more than oneself and to serve the realization of his ideas and images selflessly, manifesting one s own ego only in this service and never foisting one’s own taste and sympathies on the original." 1 The contemporary American poet and translator Robert Bly shares Chukovsky's viewpoint. He is adamant that a translator be an empathetic, poetical twin of the author he wants to 8 translate, and that if that store of feelings is beyond one, he or she should let the poem be.' The translator must ask himself "whether the feelings as well as the concepts are within his world. If they are not, he should stop." 2 Chukovsky finds that an undesirable overlay of the translator's personality occurs often and insists that such infiltrations or impositions sully the work of the original writer in a manifestation of the hubris of the translator. In studying translations, Chukovsky urges criticism to emphasize the departures from the model text by which the translator "foists his own literary I' on the translator. A fatal role played by translators is that the poets they translate often become their twins." 3 Chukovsky proposes an equivalency model for translation which includes the sum total of personal and literary attributes of the original writer. He favors, for example, the translations by Nikolai Zabolotsky, and observes that, "art like this is accessible only to great masters of translations - the kind of translators who possess the priceless ability to overcome their own ego and transform themselves into the author they translate."4 Categorically decrying any twinship between original writer and translator based on the latter's identity, Chukovsky requires the translator to eradicate from his pool of resources any features but those identical with the master, and to include not only the general idea or image of a work, but every nuance of the persona, every feature of the 9 mask the writer dons when he creates. "When all is said and done, we must demand that an artistic translation reproduce not only the original author's ideas and images, not only his plot schemes, but also his literary manner, his creative personality, his style." 5 This creative personality of which Chukovsky writes is, of course, unique to each separate literary work since in each instance a writer assumes a new persona. The writer broaching the task of translation, therefore, must also do so, becoming the other or alter ego, a process thus involving a double identity change as the translator assumes the identity of the original writer assuming the identity of a persona. According to Chukovsky, any other identity or "mask ' must be rejected summarily. Chukovsky abjures what occurs when "the translator puts a mask of his own making on the author, so to speak, and he represents this mask as [the author's] real face."6 It becomes apparent that the question of empathy between original author and translator is of paramount importance. Either the translator must have an extraordinary capacity to suppress his own identity and any antipathy that might preclude his total absorption by the author, or he must be of one nature with him. Two examples serve to highlight the pitfalls in either case. Baudelaire's translations of Poe seem to meet all of Chukovsky's requirements. The symbiosis that Baudelaire felt 10 with Poe resulted in translations that evidence the total shunting of the alter poet’s ego proscribed by Chukovsky. As a result, however, Baudelaire met with fierce criticism in his own later work. His responding protest underscores the convergence between him and Poe that enabled translation and that later produced what critics of his own poetry derided as imitation: Eh bien! on m accuse, moi, dimiter Edgar Poe! Savez-vous pourquoi j ai si patiemment traduit Poe? Parce qu’il me ressemblait. La premiere fois que j'ai ouvert un livre de lui, j’ai vu, avec epouvante et ravissement, non seulement des sujets reves par moi, mais des PHRASES pensees par moi, et ecrites par lui vingt ans auparavant.7 The Baudelaire case identifies an important aspect of the translation issue, that of effect or trace in the later work of the translator. Baudelaire recognized that in a symbiotic relationship between writers, overflow is unavoidable in either direction. There can exist an extraordinary affinity between two writers of different times and cultures, in which they are twin egos, each the alter ego of the other. Translation is not just a unidirectional act in which a later writer alters the predecessor’s work. It is a bi-directional osmotic process. One of the most audacious of translators, Ezra Pound, described it as a magnetic force unifying two minds, the act of one "limpid, 11 active intelligence" reaching across language and cultural barriers and magnetizing another. 8 Balmont's translations of Whitman, on the other hand, exemplify what can occur when there are irreconcilable differences between authors. According to Chukovsky, "even without knowing these translations, anyone can predict that Whitman s literary personality has been distorted in a most perfidious manner, because in the entire world there is no poet more remote from him than Balmont. 9 The statement is unambiguous. Compatibility between the poetic worlds of the translator and his predecessor is for Chukovsky the quintessential quality of this troublesome relationship, and he gave no quarter to any imposition of the T by an unrestrained translator: "Translators make far too much of their own T in their translations, and the more expressive the translator s personality, the more the original author is shunted aside." 10 Chukovsky's viewpoint has been challenged however, for there is ample convincing testimony to the genius of translations that run far afield of Chukovsky's standards. There are translators, such as Boris Pasternak, who definitively reject Chukovsky's insistence upon total submission of the self and absolute fidelity to the original work. Pasternak, although he translated writers whom he greatly esteemed and who strongly influenced him, never had any intention of subjugating his own poetic voice in the act of translation. In fact, he viewed 12 translation as a collaborative enterprise, a dialogic creation of two equal talents. An anecdote records Pasternak's attitude: "Pasternak was once rebuked by a pedant who came to his door bearing a long list of the poet's mistakes in translating Hamlet. The complaint was greeted with laughter and a shrug. What difference does it make? Shakespeare and I, we are both geniuses, aren't we?' "n Another critic, b y contrast, praised the freedom of Pasternak's Shakespeare as enlightened: TlacTepHaKa-nepeBO^^HKa He cymecTByeT h nepeBoaoB y Hero HeT, cym ecTByeT nooT FlacTepHaK paBHO npeKpacHHH h TBOpqeCKH BOJIbHUH B KHHre CeCTpa MOfl - 3 KH3Hh H B AhTOHHH h K^eonaToe.''1 2 The artistry of the Pasternak translations compelled the dogmatist Chukovsky to suspend his rubrics of evaluation and effectively to contradict himself. "In the Hamlet translated by Boris Pasternak we can hear Pasternak's voice . . . and there's simply no help for it. It is a fait accompli. Artistic translations are artistic because they reflect, like any other work of art, the master who created them, whether or not he wishes it. Belatedly providing support to the much maligned Baudelaire, Chukovsky further acknowledged the cross-fertilization that occurs in translation when it is two literary figures who are involved: Pasternak s translations cannot ultimately be separated from the rest of his creative work. They reflect many of his own predilections and tendencies as an artist; but they also reveal his capacity for self-effacement and for change. Undoubtedly they affected Pasternak himself and his own writing. Some of the characteristics of Pasternak's own work are evident in them, of course. His very ability to approximate the effect of the original in his handling of prosodic elements - meter, verse, structure, patterns in sound - demonstrates his own linguistic inventiveness and ingenuity, his feeling for sound and rhythm in verse, his mastery as a poetic craftsman. 14 The purpose of translating poetry is assuredly to create poetry, and in poet and translator Pablo Neruda's view, only poets should translate poetry. Something other than theoretical knowledge is at stake in the production, or reproduction, of poetry. To the same extent that Chukovsky admired Pasternak s translation, he found Anna Radlova s Hamlet wanting. He criticized her severely for having lost the intonation and sacrificed the charm in her zealous determination to render a line in Russian for every line of English. He explains: Radlova's chief problem is thus not that she upholds scientific' principle for the artistic translation of poetry, but that she upholds these principles at the cost of stifling taste and artistic instinct, temperament and the delight of poetic form and taste for poetry and beauty. Formal requirements became for her an end in themselves, and in art this is an unforgivable sin." * 5 14 The conflicting issues of exactitude vs. artistry and symbiosis vs. individuality are disputed by other theorists and critics as well. Zhovtis, for example, supports Chukovsky in his plea for harmony between the poetic spirits joined in translation. nojtJiHHHoe, a He byTa$opcKoe qyBCTBo BCei\n,a OTpaSKeHO B pHTMHMeCKOM flBHJKeHHH CTHXOB. M eC^H nepeBOA^HK He B3BOJIHOBaH BMecTe c aBTopoM, ec^H cep.nqe ero He bbeTca b a a a c cep^u,eM noaTa, eMy He noM oxeT CMticaoBaa TOTHOCTb, - npona.neT t o jmpnaecKoe Bo;meHHe, 6e3 KOToporo Bcaxaa no33Ha MepTBa. 16 Included in Zhovtis' thinking, however, are two key concepts that allow the translator to be active and not to subordinate his creativity completely to the original writer. The poeticality of a work, he says, depends on the force of original and not sham emotion. The translator must identify with and be in harmony with the feelings he attempts to translate. Zhovtis suggests that exactitude of understanding the poet’s ideas is not enough, because to recreate poetry in translation the lyrical feeling must also be present. A felicitous translation is the product of the symbiosis between the two poets. Poetry in translation, if it is to have life, must measure up to the same rigorous requirements as original poetry. Thus, the translator cocreates rather than recreates, and subsequently his own work is in 15 turn influenced by the original work as well as by the process of cocreation. 1 7 In addition to the obvious problems of language, another important factor that obviates any possibility of complete fidelity to an original text is the historical and cultural context of the translator. Lev Ginzburg is representative of canonical thinking in stipulating that this entire complex of realities must be taken into account by the translator. Kax nepeBecTH? Hejieno h Tpy^Ho COBeTOBaTb, ilCH O T O JIb X O O flH O , e# H H C T B eH H b m c n o c o b b n e p e B O A e B o c c o 3 ,n a T b CTHXOTBOpeHHe - 3T0 Iiep eB eC T H He CTOJIbXO e r o T e x c T , c k o ^ bk o c n oM om ,b io T e x c T a ( ^ a , fla , c n oM oiu,b io T e x c T a , a He H r H o p u p y a T e x c T ! ) B occo3ja,aT b m h p n p o H 3 B e,n eH H fl, s e c b e r o n c H x o j io r H q e c x H H , h c t o p h m c c x h h , j i e x c n q e c x H H x o M n ^ e x c , x o t o p h h o b p a 3 y e T TBO peH H fl ^ H T e p a T y p u . 18 A text is alive with invisible threads leading to the whole mind of its author, and the translator needs to access not only the words but all that is embedded in the layers of connotation, intertextuality, and individual experience. Regardless of whatever degree of compatibility there exists between original author and translator, the drive for exactitude in translation enters into conflict with artistry. Science, though creative and intuitive, demands precision, perfect mathematical equivalence. Artistry defies formulaic representation and definition. The poet-translator will not 16 sacrifice art for precision. Somehow two presumedly different disciplines must be harmoniously alloyed to produce a translation that is both faithful and a work of art. Zhovtis finds that the structural attributes of literature contain the key to finding and understanding the mysteries, the underlying artistic forces. Nonetheless, he acknowledges an unscientific "poetic rumble" as the centrifugal force holding a poem together. "A Be,n,b c/ior y KHTca h ;ih JierKne oTKJioHeHHa y aMepHKaHCKoro noaTa ecTh npn3HaKH Toro noaTHqecKoro ry;ia, k o t o p u h , no cnoBaM MaaicoBCKoro, npoxo^HT nepe3 bcio Bentb h 6e3 KOToporo HeT iio,i u ih h h o h no33HH." 19 Efim Etkind also applies a scientific rubric when he evaluates translations by Pushkin. TlymKHH, nepeBo^n, CTpeMHJicn ocBobo^HTb cTHxoTBopeHue o t t o t o , * i t o eiwy npe^cTaBnn^ocb cjiynaHHMM. Oh xoTen ^aTb acaHp opHrHHana b h h c t o m , decnpHMecHOM BH ,n,e h noTOMy HHor^a pe^aKTHpoBan opHrHHa^.'20 Etkind thinks that two ostensibly conflicting activities are resolved. Pushkin s goals, eliminating chance, striving for the pure perspective, are perceived as scientific. Yet, to accomplish these aims, the artistic Pushkinian spirit intervened, adapting or corrupting the original text. Etkind insists that because a literary work is art first and foremost, to translate the artistic whole was Pushkin s primary aim. The sum of the scientifically observable parts is still art. TlymKHH bh^ht b HeM npeac^e Bcero 17 x y a o j i c e c T B e H H o e i j e a o e , K O T op oe h m c h h o lcax xy^oacecTBeHHoe e^HHCTBO ^ o ^ j k h o bbiTb nepe.naHO Ha apyroH A 3biK . 21 The successful translation represents the delicate balance that depends on the translator s knowledge of the multitudinous influences which informed the original writer and text, and on his own literary talent and artistic intuition. Etkind recognizes that the translator of necessity infuses something of his own individual and culturally bound self, regardless of the depth of his affinity with the writer of origin. Praising Zhukovsky's translations, he observes that they retain as much of the essence of the prototype as possible and revere its heritage. At the same time, entering another national literature, a work must adapt itself culturally. "Bobbin h h c t b o ero nepeBo^oB O M eH b 6 ^ h 3 k h opHTHHajiaM , h o o h h bhi^H no33HeH pyccKOH, o h h flBHrajm Bnepe# Han,HOHa;ibHyio ;iHTepaTypy." 22 Arguably then, one reason why translation necessitates deviations from the original text is because the work, through that process, ceases to be the sole property of its own national literature. It becomes part of world literature by accommodation to a new tongue. As Arseny Tarkovsky realized, "art, in its best form, is a national form. It's something that belongs in the possession of a given culture."23 Thus we are indebted to translation for whatever internationality exists. Felstiner's work is particularly clear about recognizing that 18 overarching all the intricacies of linguistic equivalency in translation is the problem of cultural uniqueness. While a transplanted work loses its separate identity as a national work, "doing without translations might confine us to a kind of solipsistic cultural prison."24 Translation, he observes, preserves each nation's literature from the debilitating malady of homogeneity; "a literate public needs translations: like windows, they let in fresh air and they let us see out." 25 The naturalization process of translation is inevitable and irresistible, although it is far from easy. Etkind describes the meeting of the translator and the work as a battlefield where the most cherished, beautiful elements of the translator's native tongue will be victorious. The sacrifice of any cultural incompatibilities, innuendos and intertextual elements will be compensated for and transformed by the translator, and the result will be a new work of art. n e p e B o a ^ e c K o e H C K y ccT B o x a x T a K o s o e B K /n o a a e T b c e b a H e n p e c T a H H y io b o p b b y 3 a p o^ H O H A3WK n e p e B o a a H K a , 3 a boraT C T BO h a n c T O T y 3 T o r o A3HKa. r io a e M y ? Ilo T O M y , q T o A a a K a a c ^ o r o H3 H a c , nepeB O flqH K O B , c y m e c T B y e T H 3 B ecT H a a onacH O C T b b q y a c o M « 3 H K e. J \ j i a M H o r n x H3 H a u r n x c o b p a T b e B o h o b a a ^ a e T c h j i o h n o n c T H H e rrniH O TH aecK O H . H a ^ ,o n o B T O p a T b H en p e cT a H H O , eiu,e h em ,e p a 3 , q T o npO H 3B e^ ,eH H e n ep eB O ,n ,H oro H c x y c c T B a o b fl3 a H 0 6 h t b a B a eH H eM Hau,HOHaabHOH K y a b T y p b i nepeBO ^,qH K a. 26 19 In addition to crossing the national, cultural and linguistic barriers, a translation frequently has to surmount the obstacle of time. Great writers often translate the foreign literature of an earlier era, thereby broaching an even less accessible catalog of experiences. The ancients, for a poet like Ezra Found, for example, spoke like prophets bringing him a freshness from beyond history. As Pound put it, . . . we search foreign tongues for 'maestria' and for discoveries not yet revealed in the home product." 27 The line of demarcation between the old guard and the avant garde is decidedly blurred in the case of unorthodox translations such as Pound s. Pound explained that his poetry, heavily injected with "borrowings" from other literatures, was often and necessarily incomprehensible: "Obscurities inherent in the thing occur when the author is piercing, or trying to pierce into uncharted regions; when he is trying to express things not yet current, not yet worn into phrase; when he is ahead of the emotional, or philosophical sense . . . of his contemporaries."28 Translations incur a kind of time warp in which the past becomes present. Making an old text come alive in another language while retaining its historical context is one of the toughest challenges of the art, as Liubimov explains. 'TlepeBO/tHMHH aBTop, xax 6h hh 6h;i oh xpOHoaorHqecKH ^a/ieK ot Hac, .apjixeH no cjiosy M aJIK O BC K O rO , K aK JK H B O H C JK H B blM H roBopHTb. 3 to 20 6eccnopHO. H TeM He MeHee nHTaTeaio Heo6xo,nHMo HOM yBCTBOBaTb BpeMeHHyiO .HHCTamtHio. 29 No matter what factors a critic identifies as problems or barriers in translation, all concur that equivalency, though desirable, is ultimately unattainable. Something must always be lost, or changed, and translation necessitates mutation. When so much as a single word of a text is changed, the whole becomes different according to Belinsky. BcHKoe npoH3Be^eHHe HcxyccTBa ToabKO noTOMy x y fl05«ecTBeHH0 , mto co3,naHo no 3aKOHy HeofixOflHMOCTH, nTo b HeM HeT HHnero npoH3BOJibHoro, m o b HeM hh o^ho cjiobo, hh o,hhh 3ByK, hh o,a,Ha nepTa He MO*eT 3aMeHHTbCii apyrHM cjiobom, ^.pyrHM 3ByKOM, A pyroio nepToio .... Xy^oacHHK Mo^ceT nepeMeHHTb He ToabKO caoBO, 3ByK, nepTy, ho BCHKyw $opM y, a,a:*ce qeayio nacTh CBoero npoH3BeaeHHfl, ho c 3toh nepeMeHOio H3MeHfleTca h (JopMa h H^e«; h 3to By^eT y;*e He Ta xce Hflea, He Ta ace iJiopMa Toahico yaynuieHHaa, ho HOBaa H ^ea, HOBaa iJiopMa. MTax, b hcthhho xy^oacecTBeHHbix n p 0 H 3 B e a e H H a x , K an B h im e ^ n iH X H3 3aKOHOB Heobxo^HMOCTH, HeT HHnero caynaiiHoro, HH^ero aHiimero, HHnero He^ocTaTonHoro, ho Bee Heobxo^HMO. 30 The inevitable changes are not, however, capricious. A statement of Yuri Lotman's about the semantics of the literary text is applicable to translation and provides a framework for examining what occurs and for interpreting the changes as meaningful and not merely distortions. The possibility of 21 violating customary and predictable semantic relations disautomatizes the text and projects the image of a disautomatized world. 31 In translation a second layer of disautomatization occurs. Predictably the text in its original form is violated. But more importantly, the challenge to transfer the meaningful semantic distortions of the first language which accomplished its disautomatization, incurs a second set of semantic alterations in the second language. Reformation of the conventional constructs of the second language occurs at many levels as it contorts to accept the messages from the original. The original text is reformed in order to deliver its content and shape to the recipient linguistic system. The disautomatization accomplished through translation can sometimes be, in many respects, more startling than in the primary text. One poetic mind is made unfamiliar even to itself in this refracted representation by another. The meaning, words, rhythm, tone, rhymes, all are violated to the degree necessitated by the limitations and by the visions of the translator, and by the deconstruction of the original linguistic system. The receptor literary world s established conventions are similarly thrown into upheaval when a translator pries open its natural boundaries. For it is in alterity that a work becomes intelligible in another language and cultural, literary tradition. Disautomatization of the original text comprises what is introduced or invented in translation and is largely 22 responsible for the richness, the poeticalness, the artistry of the new work. By the grace of these compensatory features, the translation can escape the fate of being "pale by comparison ". Instead of subsisting as a shadow figure, it can be visionary. It is this very disautomatization, necessitated by the simultaneous requirement in translation that a foreign text be made familiarized, that accomplishes the dehomogenization of the translator s native body of literature. Lotman's application of the disautomatization concept offers a framework for describing and analyzing the translation concomitantly with the original that eschews judgment of the translation in terms of equivalency. Lotman s design complements the thinking of Peter France who also recognizes that changes incurred are not necessarily indications of lack of knowledge or expertise on the part of the translator. France, while focused on the question of the validity of translations, appraises them in somewhat looser terms. Indeed the very possibility of regarding translations as significant interpretations depends on their possessing a certain coherence and integrity, an internal structure of their own, patterns of recurrent verbal usage, images, allusions, and peculiarities of speech, which make it possible to regard deviations from the original text as other than chance aberrations." 32 In sum, deviations are not necessarily errors, but are necessary. Translation specialists, one can thus conclude, 23 generally concur that deviations are not aberrations; they are inevitable and even necessary in an accurate and artistic translation. Translation theory has identified and even justified the causes of change. But, underlying each approach is the basic premise that although it is not by chance that changes are made, neither is it the deliberate act of most translators to alter an original text. Since every translated text is a legacy from another author and cannot, therefore, in any sense be considered independently from its prototype, Harold Bloom s theory regarding the successive ages of literature has important implications for the subject of translation. What he determines to be true of the creative process of the poet is also true of the process of translation undertaken by a poet. Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence provides data from philosophy, psychology, and literary criticism to explicate the impact of past poets in the birth and evolution of new ones. As the most manifest form of influence and intertextuality, translation is a particularly appropriate subject for Bloomian analysis. A condensed review of the most salient points of Bloom's theory illuminates its relevance to the study of translation. Bloom believes that all poets encounter the spectre of influence, and the greatest or "strongest' ironically more so than others. 24 Poetic influence, when it involves two strong, authentic poets, always proceeds by a misreading of the prior poet, an act of creative correction that is actually and necessarily a misinterpretation. The history of fruitful poetic influence, which is to say, the main tradition of Western poetry since the Renaissance, is a history of anxiety and self-saving caricature, of distortion, of perverse, witfult revisionism (italics mine) without which modern poetry as such could not exist. 33 Bloom vigorously counters any denial of influence on the part of a writer, explaining that "this view, that poetic influence scarcely exists, except in furiously active pedants, is itself an illustration of one way in which poetic influence is a variety of melancholy or an anxiety-principle." 34 It is possible, in the light of Bloom's examination of what he calls ' intra-poet ic relationships" 35 to view translation as an expression of this "anxiety of influence", as away of confronting it directly. Thus taken, translation, like all literature, is a psycho-therapeutic process. 36 According to Bloom, the poet, in tension against his precursors, misunderstands or misinterprets so that he can define the world his own way. "Strong poets make [poetic] history by misreading one another, so as to clear imaginative space for themselves.'"37 Bloom describes a reverse symbiosis, where the poet fears his similitude instead of embracing it. This interpretation allows more space for the temperamental creative nature. This Freudian influenced view of the poetic 25 mind recognizes the force of the conflict of egos, even more pronounced where there is a fundamental and strong identification between the two. Such an approach also offers a more complex view of the kind of symbiosis shared by Poe and Baudelaire. Their similitude draws the kindred spirits together, and the later poet is, in a sense, possessed by the ancestor. The act of translation works in a kind of exorcism to divide them and to reverse the possession. From this perspective, not only is exact replication impossible, but the failure is deliberate and "willful ". T.S. Eliot, writing that good translation is "not merely translation, for the translator is giving the original through himself, and finding himself through the original," 38 recognized the impact of the forefather upon the translator. But the Bloom paradigm explains how the influence of the translator upon the predecessor is, in fact, the primary motivation. Bloom's theory is what he calls "corrective", its aim being to "deidealize our accepted accounts of how one poet helps to form another." 39 For the newcomer in a new age of literary history, translation is one way to confront the demon of duplication. "Conceptually the central problem for the latecomer is repetition," explains Bloom, "for repetition dialectically raised to re-creation is the ephebe s road of excess, leading away from the horror of finding himself to be only a copy or a replica." 40 If as Bloom insists the ephebe is horrified at the thought of 26 replicating, how could he subjugate himself by devoting his energies to translation? What is translation if not repetition? Just as Bloom sees the new poetic voice finding itself through dialectic re-creation, so may the translation process be viewed. It can be considered the most audacious frontal attack against the phobia by the ephebe. Far from repressing his fear of being a carbon copy, he takes the master and endeavors to sublimate it by endowing it with what he perceives as his superior, or at least modern, poetic voice. He conquers the anxiety of influence by yielding to it at first, and then infiltrating it. Octavio Paz reflects traditional criticism when he observes that "poets are seldom good translators. They are not good because they almost always use the original poem as a point of departure for writing their own poem. 41 Yet, Bloom s theory expands this viewpoint to conclude that the punto de partido" which Paz deems pejorative is, in fact, essential. "Poetic influence is the passing of Individuals through States, in [William] Blake's language, but the passing is done ill when it is not a swerving." 42 Bloom s understanding of the process of poetic influence comprises three features or stages that apply to translation as well as to original writing. First, the influence which he describes occurs between a poet and a predecessor. Second, that relationship represents a developmental stage in the 27 making of the second poet. And finally, the second poet, in order to actualize his own poetic voice, must and will deviate from the former. Transferring Bloom's term from the writing of original poetry to translation, "swerving" can be seen as the revisioning done by the successor poet as he works in conjunction with and simultaneously in tension with his predecessor. To make the predecessor live in another language, culture, time and history, and, most importantly to live himself as a literary figure, the translator-poet swerves. The relationship between the past, present, and future of literature is the pivotal one in Bloom s analysis and in the whole translation issue. In both cases the thrust of the later poet is the primary point of contention. How does the poet express himself against the rich background of literary history? Paraphrasing Goethe, Bloom states that "models are only mirrors for the self anyway. ...the great majority love in another only what they lend him, their own selves, their version of him.Again this statement recalls Baudelaire and his kinship with Poe, and declares the narcissism of poetry where a poet aligns himself with the forefather most closely resembling himself, and then either through creation or re creation, asserting his own dominant voice, endeavors to eradicate any differences. Bloom recalls Nietzsche s words that "the man of action, the true poet, is unjust to what is behind 28 him, and only recognizes one law - the law of that which is to be."44 Thus, asserts Bloom, "poets create their own precursors." The movement is forward, and at the same time it impacts the past, for earlier poets will be reinterpreted in the light of subsequent literature. And the affinity between a poet of the past and one of the present will of necessity rekindle the spirit of the former. Although Bloom does not speak of translation, surely the interplay between two literary voices is if anything more evident in this context. In translation, the later poet's mark upon the earlier is even more pronounced, since in the act of translation the poet engages in the fiercest of all battles with repetition. Of primary concern in discussions of translation, repetition is central also to Bloom's theory of the anxiety of influence, which is fueled by the words of Kierkegaard: "He who is willing to work gives birth to his own father."45 For Bloom this is the self-realization" of the poet whose poetic character is incarnated when he discovers the "dialectic of influence", when he discovers poetry as being "both external and internal to himself." 46 Bloom s thinking is also strongly influenced by Blake who, according to Bloom, understood that "to be enslaved by any precursor s system is to be inhibited from creativity by an obsessive reasoning and comparing, presumably of one's own works to the precursors."47 To be 29 liberated then, the poet must overcome this anxiety. It is Bloom s conviction that "the new poem s achievement makes it seem to us, not as though the precursor were writing it, but as though the later poet himself had written the predecessor's characteristic work. " 48 When later examining Pasternak's translations of "Art Poetique" and "II pleure dans mon coeur", one is struck with the perspicacity of Bloom's insight. No poetic act is ever complete, and so the successor poet in his time will finish only for a time that of his forefather. The poetic act, and so the translation, must be repeated ad infinitum. The poet is not born in avoid but only in relation to and in repetition of what preceded him. It is as if there exists in the universe an aboriginal poetic self ", "the poet in a poet" to be born again and again.49 Translation for the poet constitutes a gestational stage. As it informs him, he reforms it. In this sense, even the so-called faithful translation is perfidious. As his misreading, the perfidy is a palimpsest of the later poet's critical appraisal of the original text as well as of his own infusion. "Poetic influence", or "misprision", "is necessarily the study of the life-cycle of the poet-as-poet," 50 and jn the strong poet s life-cycle, Bloom traces six "revisionary movements" 51 that describe how one poet deviates from another". 52 j wo 0f these revisionary ratios are especially helpful in examining what transpires in translation. CLINAMEN is Bloom's term for 30 "the poetic misreading or misprision proper," and "a poet swerves away from his precursor, by so reading his precursor s poem as to execute a clinamen in relation to it." 53 Bloom further elaborates that when this occurs "between the strong poet and the Poetic Father [the clinamen] is made by the whole being of the later poet, and the true history of modern poetry would be the accurate recording of these revisionary swerves." 54 Clinamen is "swerve" and constitutes the artistic freedom essential for creativity and for artistic translation. KENOSIS is the term Bloom applies to the relationship between predecessor and successor poets. The later poet, apparently emptying himself of his own afflatus . . . seems to humble himself as though he were ceasing to be a poet, but this ebbing is so performed in relation to a precursor s poem-of- ebbing that the precursor is emptied out also . . . .55 it "appears to be an act of self-abnegation, "56 but actually, the later poet is interested "only to the extent that [the precursor] reveals to him the condition of his own countenance."5? Stanley Kunitz is also interested in the influence aspect of translation. He, however, depicts a conflict free process, where in an embrace of influence, the translator poet feeds on and is nourished by the predecessor. "Poets are attracted to translation because it is a way of paying their debt to the tradition, of restoring life to shades, of widening the company 31 of their peers. It is also a means of self-renewal, of entering the skin and adventuring through the body of another's imagination. In the act of translation one becomes more like that other, and is fortified by that other s power." 58 jhe osmotic process Kunitz describes is unidirectional, from past to present, and the seemingly weaker modern writer develops as he more closely approximates the work of the older author and more and more becomes his double. Such a position fails to account for the fiercely independent, innovative spirit of what Harold Bloom calls the "strong poet". It does not account for the writer whose creative force and talent are equal to or even surpass that of the predecessor, and it does not account for disparities between original and translated texts. On the other hand, Bloom s paradigms of the strong poet and the metapoetic process seem ideally applicable to translation and to Boris Pasternak who was certainly a strong poet and whose own writings are rich with insights about the nature of poetry and poets. In the history of Russian literature, the intermingling of original writing and translating has been widespread. As Lauren Leighton points out, "the major Russian writers - Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Bunin, Blok, Pasternak, Akhmatova - have always been translators, and did not consider themselves writers unless they translated." 59 Translation, in the Russian tradition, is an integral part of the writers' opus, forming them as they form it. Translations are 32 part of the Russian writer's legacy, as Lev Ginzburg explained: TlepeBOA HMKor^a He 6h;i Be/iHKHX p y c c K H X micaTejieH npocTHM yBJie^eHHeM, ot^ hxom ot opurHHajihHoro TBOpqecTBa. 3 to 6m^o hx kpobhhm neJioM, HeoTteMJieMOH cocTaBHOH qacTbio hx JiHTepaTypHoro Tpyna.' 60 Among them, Boris Pasternak had the most to say about his attitude toward translation and his method. He was not equivocal about either. Although his translations are reknowned, they represented only the most painful choice for Pasternak as his correspondence with Olga Freidenberg in 1944 reveals, "rope Moe He BHeuiHnx TpynHOCTiix »ch3hh, rope b tom, < ito a jiHTepaTOp, a MHe ecTb * ito cxasaTb, y MeHJi cboh mwcjih, a /iHTepaTyphi y Hac HeT h npn aaHHHX ycjioBHflx He 6y.ueT h 6biTb He MO»ceT.“ 61 As for technique, we know for certain that when he assumed the task of the translator he purposefully and decisively broke with the tradition of literalism. He rejected the idea of producing anything resembling a "copy", a work externally alike the original, and determined instead upon the creation of an inherent similarity in which characters would find "their own voice." 62 Nonetheless, in his "Notes of a Translator" Pasternak comments on the importance he believed this intimate contact with his literary forefathers had in his own poetic germination. "It is more important in life to lose than to acquire. The grain will not sprout unless first it dies. One must remain untiringly 33 alive, looking into the future and feeding on the living reserves which memory and oblivion together accumulate." 63 For his own work to evolve, it had to be nourished through his experience of incorporating great works of other literatures into his own. It is well known that Pasternak s most intense periods of translation came at the times when his own work was subjected to the harshest censorship. 64 But it is a mistake to interpret this as an ancillary pursuit. The question is often asked, whether Pasternak undertook translation out of his own creative incentive or out of financial need. Evidently both motivations have validity, and in certain cases the latter has been documented. lUeKcimpa, IleTeiJiH h ‘ haycTa’ . . . o h nepeBe^, C T p a u m o T o p o n a c h h x a ^ T y p a n p o T H B c B o e r o a cen a H H B , t o t o TO/ibKO, u t o 6 u 3 a p a 6 o T a T b ^ .e H e r h H M eT b B03M0»CH0CTb co 3 ^ ta T b c b o h Lebenswerk ZfoKTop ^K H Baro'. Mm c h h o b 3 T 0 B p eM fl oh CKa3a;i: IU eK cn H p h T e T e H a^toe^H M H e, KaK f l o a B i i a h M3fieCTH£‘.65 Regardless of motive, it is important not to underestimate the extent of translation's influence on a writer, as Mukarovsky comments: Poetic influence plays a unique role inside the translator s own speech. It drives inward. Anyone translating a poet, or attempting to, is brought face to face, as by no other exercise, with the genius, bone-structure and 34 limitations of his native tongue .... Translation taxes and thus makes inventory of our resources. 66 As a poet conjoins his poetic spirit with a work and its author in order to accomplish this transfer of effect, he is challenged to stretch his vision his sense, his poetics. The task makes the translator poet doubly inventive, and the product projects the poetic world forward. In artistic translation, creativity thwarts imitation at every turn. Pasternak's Shakespeare translations have received the most attention and the most thorough analysis from scholars. In his comments about them, Pasternak reveals his dissatisfaction with Shakespeare's text and, anticipating Harold Bloom, admits that he could not resist trying to improve what he perceived as reprehensible deficiencies in plays where "the highest poetry alternates with undisguised rhetoric, piling up a dozen empty circumlocutions instead of the one word on the tip of the author s tongue which in his haste he did not find." 67 Ironically, Shklovsky identifies a similar defect in Pasternak s own writing: "He spoke as usual, threw out his words in a dense throng to one side and the other, but the most important thing was not said." 68 The same inarticulate energy thus seems to have characterized them both at times, and this commonality exemplifies the symbiotic dynamic at work between two writers when one sets out to translate the other. Without this connectedness between their two literary voices, 35 perhaps Pasternak would have left certain truths on the tip of Shakespeare's tongue. The inherent unity between the works of the predecessor and the ephebe is at the heart of the history of literature in which, according to Bloom "the poet is condemned to learn his profoundest yearning through an awareness of other selves" 69 Pasternak s longtime friend Durylin describes the same unity in Pasternak's original and translated works. IlacTepHaK o6jia#aeT npeBocxo^HMM (JlH.lO^OrHMeCKHM H |J)H JIO C O l|»C KHM o6pa30BaHHeM, ho BCTpenaeTca oh c UleKcimpoM He KaK CTHXOTBopeu,, crHbaiomHHca n o # iJiHJio/torHneckhm rpy30M , a Kax noaT, no#aioin,HH pyKy noaTy, hto6h nepeBecTH ero nepe3 peKy BpeMeH, Ha npeKpacHMH beper #p yroH Ky;n>Typhi, # p y r o r o ho #py»cecTBeHHoro ashiKa. 70 Durylin examines the translations from the perspective of the poet, correctly realizing that the "misprision" is inwardly driven by the "anxiety of influence" rather than by an outward reader-oriented goal. 71 The most extensive work done on Pasternak's translation is by Anna K. France. She decides that the deviations from the original Shakespeare texts are faithful in spirit: Even his departure from the letter of the original were done in the interests of a deeper faithfulness, in an effort recapture the immediate power and life of the Shakespearean originals. Indeed, this body of 36 translations serves to illustrate the essential dilemma of the literary translator, who, even as he seeks to recreate faithfully the work of another writer in his own language, must call upon his own creative and imaginative resources and ultimately manifests his own artistic personality.72 But France s viewpoint is challenged by a redefinition of translation ensuing from Bloom’s redefinition of criticism as "the quest of learning to read any poem as its poet s deliberate misinterpretation, as a poet, of a precursor poem or of poetry in general." Know each poem by its clinamen, Bloom asserts, and you will "know that poem in a way that will not purchase knowledge by the loss of the poem s power." 73 Even France's own analysis belies her stated conviction that the translations were faithful "in s p irit'. Notably she points out Pasternak's "tempering of [Hamlet s] more pessimistic strain."74 And ultimately she concludes that "in general, throughout the tragedies Pasternak mitigates the dark, pessimistic strain of the original works, making evil seem less inexorable, not so completely beyond man's ability to contain, control, or overcome. [ . . . ] Pasternak tends to accentuate what is most positive in the works, the more admirable aspects of Shakespeare's characters."?5 The translations are to a considerable degree a "misprision" of the original plays; in a creative distortion, Pasternak s voice speaks as loudly as Shakespeare's. As France indicates, "part of the effectiveness of his versions . . . comes from the fact that they are so 37 thoroughly grounded in Russian idiom that they scarcely seem translations from a foreign language."76 Pasternak s writings reveal his conviction that when a translation succeeds it is precisely because it is, in very strong measure, a novel work. "Translations," he said, "are essentially impossible because the main charm of a work of art lies in its unrepeatability." However, he continued, "translations are conceivable because ideally they too have to be works of art, and, by virtue of their own unrepeatability, must stand on the same level as the originals, while sharing their text."77 Pasternak s requirement of "unrepeatability", an insistence expressive of the very anxiety of which Bloom speaks, is a manifestation of Bloom's theory that the "ephebe" is destined to repeat his predecessor, for "good poetry is a dialectic or revisionary movement (contraction) and freshening outward- going-ness."78 The later work s repetition necessarily involves a "clinamen" or "swerve", and thus in translation as in criticism, "there are not interpretations but only misinterpreta tions. . . ."79 38 Notes: Chapter One 1 Kornei Chukovsky, A High Art. tr. and ed. Lauren G. Leighton (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984) 41. 2 R. Bly, "The Eight Stages of Translation" Translation: Literary Linguistic, and Philosophical Perspectives, ed. W illiam Frawley (Newark: U niversity of Delaware Press, 1984) 72. 3 Chukovsky 20. 4 Chukovsky 4 1. 5 Chukovsky 18. 8 Chukovsky 18. 7 H. Block, "The Writer as Translator: Nerval, Baudelaire, Gide" in Translation Spectrum. Essays in Theory and Practice, ed. Marilyn Gaddis Rose (Albany: State U niversity of New York Press, 1981)120. 8 E. Pound, unpublished papers, Rene de Gourmont folder, Beinecke Library, Yale U niversity, 3. 9 K. Chukovsky 23. K. Chukovsky 23. 1! Stanley Kunitz, "A Sum of A pproxim ations'. Translation W inter 1973 56. 1 2 C. ^fypu^HH, "3eMHOH npocTop", JlHTepaTVPHaa Yaeba Ns6, 1988 110. 18 K. Chukovsky 45- K. Chukovsky 256. K. Chukovsky 177. 18 A. /Kobthc, "TIy;ibc CTHXOTBopHoro nepeB0.ua," in MacTepcTBO nePBOiia CO ophhk 1963 (MocKBa: Cobctckhh nncaTeab, 1964) 124. 17 Another example of this viewpoint is given by the w riter Octavio Paz: "Traduccion y creacion son operaciones gemelas. Por una parte, segun 10 muestran los casos de Baudelaire y de Pound, la traduccion es in d istin gu ib le muchas veces de la creacion; por la otra, hay un incesante reflujo entre las dos, una continua y mutual fecundacion." Traduccion: literatura v literalidad (Barcelona: Tusquets Editor, 1971)16. 1 8 /lea rHH36ypr, Haa ctpokoh nepeBoaa. (MocKBa: CoBeTdcaa PoccHa, 1981 )26. *9 A. /Kobthc 111. 20 E $ hm STKHHa, PyccKHe no3TM-nepeBoaqHKH-QT TpeaaKQBCKoro ao nyuiKHHa (/feHHHroaa: HayKa, 1973) 216. 21 E. STKHHa 216. 22 E. 3TKHHa 3. 39 23 John Felstiner, Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu (Stanford: Stanford University Press) 5- 24 Felstiner 5. 25 Felstiner 13. 28 E. 3 tkhha 445. 27 Ezra Pound. Instigations of Ezra Pound (Freeport. New York: Books for Libraries Press. 1967) 4. 2SPound, Instigations 348. 29 HHKOJian /Iio6hmob, TlepeBOtt-HcKyccTBO.' MacTeocTBO flepeBoiia (MocKBa: CoBeTCKHH IlHcaTejib, 1963) 246. 30 in Etkind 246-47. 31 Y. Lotman, "Language and Reality in the Early Pasternak" Pasternak. A Collection of Critical Essays ed. Victor Erlich (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 197S) 28. 32 Peter France, The Poets of modern Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 196. 33 Harold Bloom. The A nxiety of Influence (Oxford: Oxford U niversity Press, 1973)30. 34 Bloom 7. 35 Bloom 5- 36 Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic approach follows a sim ilar vein and complements the Bloomean analysis of translations and original poetry in the subsequent chapters. 37 Bloom 5- 3§ T.S. Eliot, introduction to Ezra Pound, Selected Poems , ed. T.S. Eliot (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1928) 1 3. 39 Bloom 5- 40 Bloom 80. 41 0 . Paz (translation mine). 42 H. Bloom 45- 43 Bloom 51. 44 Bloom 55. 45 Bloom 26. 46 Bloom 25- 47 Bloom 29. 48 Bloom 16. 49 Bloom 11. 50 Bloom 7. 51 Bloom 10. 52 Bloom 11. 53 Bloom 14. 54 Bloom 44. 55 Bloom 14-15- 40 56 Bloom 91. 5’ 7 Bloom 21. 5s Kunitz 61. 59 Lauren Leighton, introduction to Kornei Chukovsky A High A rt (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984) ix. 60 Lev Ginzburg 49. 61 EopHC FlacTepHaK, lleoenHCKa c Oahroii «f>peH.aeH6epr ed. E lliott Mossman (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1981) 232. 62 M. M opo3oe, "lUeKcimp b nepBO^ax llacTepHaKa" JlHTepaTvoa h hckvcctbo. 1 9 4 3 , 7 aBrycTa. 65 Boris Pasternak, ' Notes of a Translator" 165-66. 64 Felstiner's observation about Pablo Neruda's translations have bearing on the Pasternak case as well: "Neruda was less interested in recreating other writers' works through verse translation than in drawing emotional sustenance from them....'' 27. 65 B.C. BaeBCKHH, "'^aycT' TeTe b FlepeBo.n.e IfacTepHaKa," CeoHfl /iHTenaTVPU h jfebnca Tom 49, N8 4 (MocKBa, 1990), c t. 3 4 7 -3 4 8 . On the other hand, Pasternak elsew here recorded his satisfaction w ith the Petefi work: "S I flyviaio nocaaTb BaM cTHxoTBopeHHfl rieTe$H, ogeHb xoporno H3^.aHHbie, b HenaoxHX nepeBO^ax." in a letter to C. HypbiaHH 21 Mas 1948r. /iHTeoaTVPHaa Yqeba 6-88 ct.1 1 6 . 66 Jan Mukarovsky, On Poetic Language. Ed. and trans. John Burbank and Peter Steiner. (Lisse, Belgium: The Peter de Ridder Press, 1976) 27. 67 in Gifford 150. 68 Boris Pasternak, 69 Bloom 26. 70 M.A. PamKOBCKaa, "/(Be Cyflbbu: BcTpeqn c npomauMH" CoBeTCKag P o c c n a (MocKBa. 1 9 9 0 ), c t. 3 7 4 . 71 A contrasting viewpoint is represented by B.C. BaeBCKHH in "'4'aycT' TeTe b nepeBO^e llacTepHaKa. B. FlacTepHaK CTpeMHTca He paccka3aTb, a r,a,e ToabKO mo»:ho no3BoaHTb qHTaTeaHio....EcaH Ha^o, pa^H 3Thx npHHU,HnaabHU,x ycTaHOBOK FlacTepHaK JierKO acepTByeT BHemHeH 6;iH3HOCTbio k opnrHHaayct. 343. 7 2 Anna K. France, Boris Pasternak’s Translations of Shakespeare (Berkeley: U niversity of California Press, 1976)13. 7 3 Bloom 43. 74 A. France 14. 75 A. France 1 35- 76 A. France 209. 77 Boris Pasternak, "Notes on translation", Pasternak on art and creativity, ed. and trans. Angela Livingstone (Cambridge: Cambridge U niversity Press, 1985)187. 78 Bloom 95- 79 Blom 95- 41 Chapter Two Pasternak and Verlaine: the Foundation of Influence Recently Pasternak s translations of Paul-Marie Verlaine have begun to receive more than passing attention from scholars. Although only seven short poems form the entire collection, they, the essay "Paul-Marie Verlaine ", and the Verlaine-Pasternak relationship or "influence” in general can be mined in the light of Harold Bloom's theory. To set the context for the examination of the translations in the following chapter, it is first important to explore the basis for the Pasternak-Verlaine enterprise. While the major periods of translation in Pasternak s career were driven politically, the translated poems, seen as the most blatant evidence of influence, play a role in the artistic progression of Pasternak's original work in addition to enhancing the wealth of Russian literature. In the case of the Verlaine inheritance, it isn't very difficult to identify the most apparent link between the poets and to conclude that Pasternak's pursuit of simplicity provoked his attention to Verlaine. Bloom's revisionary stage, kenosis, however, reminds that "apparent self-abnegation" is in fact a blind cover for the successor poet, in this case Pasternak, to declare his independence. Thus, although one might be tempted to credit Verlaine with guiding Pasternak's writing towards its eventual 42 clarity, it is crucial to remember that according to the rubric of the "anxiety of influence ", the process’s chronology is reversed and actually progresses from present to past. The act of translation involves a time warp in which the successor poet predates the ancestor. Verlaine, therefore, expresses for Pasternak the latters own beliefs. Lydia Ginzburg's introduction to a collection of Pasternak letters makes the timing of Pasternak s priorities clear: 4>0PM H MeHflJIHCb B 3aBHCHMOCTH OT p a 3 H H X npnuHH. F lp e ^ e Bcero o t xpoHo^orHH. 3^ ecb co BpeMeHeM tot ace yxo^t ot cjioacHoro h H3hicKaHHoro, Te ace iiohckh npocTOTH, KOTopwe TaK xapaKTepHbi noaTH^ecKoro onhrra LlacTepHaKa. B KaKOH- to M epe 3 th noHCKH BHymeHH 6h ;iii riacTepHaicy HenoMeph um .n.aBJiemieM BpeMeHH .... riacTepHax ^aace yTBepac/taji, <ito CTpeMHJica k npocTOTe H3Ha*ianbH0, noHHMaa no# npocTOTOH npucym yio ero paHHeMy TBopqecTBy cnoHTaHHOcTb, nepB03aaHH0CTb BocnpnaTHB MHpa. 1 Pasternak, it must therefore be emphasized, usurps the foreign texts for purposes of his own that are not restricted to and in some cases may not even include altruism or homage, not to mention economic survival in the Stalinist Russian context. Translation also served pragmatic and personal literary goals. Hence, a Bloomian explanation of the divergences in translation can be derived from his definition of poetic influence as "an oxymoron" - that is, influence involves both 43 imitation and opposition. 2 A number of compelling facts elucidate the appropriateness of Verlaine for Pasternak's purposes. As subsequent discussion of the particulars will demonstrate, there are numerous commonalities in their respective poetics and striking thematic unities as well. But the most salient similarity is their shared focus on the metaliterary. It has often been observed that all of Pasternak's work is about art and the way it originates. It is Olga R. Hughes who has written the most extensively about Pasternak as a definer of art. "Art itself is one of the permanent themes" in his poetics, she observes. 3 Her statement that Pasternak's works testify to his "firm belief in the transforming powers of art" links him decisively with Verlaine, much of whose poetry like Pasternak s is meta-poetical. The poem "'Art p o e tiq u e o f course, is Verlaine s most famous and doctrinal metapoetical statement, and as one of the Pasternak translations will be closely examined in the fourth chapter along with Pasternak s version. But Verlaine's most uncomplicated statement is found in his advice to his successors: "L'art, mes enfants, c'est d’etre absolument soi- meme."4 Breaking the constraints of an ancient poetic order, he fancied himself a free spirit in art as in life, a defier of tradition. His contemporaries were convinced that Verlaine was a libertine in his poetry as he was a bohemian in his life of debauchery: "La regie de Verlaine sera de ne point avoir de 44 regies." 5 But in fact, his works reveal his inescapable homage to classicism and contradict their author s protest. The next generation realized that Verlaine s so-called rupture from tradition occurred within the framework of classical order and incurred no real abandonment of poetry's structural tradition. They would criticize his "illogisme" but "iIs denonceront chez lui un gout qu'ils jugeront inexplicable pour la clarte de l'expression, pour la rigueur de la phrase, et surtout un respect etrange pour la rime et la mesure ancienne des vers." 6 Verlaine's assertion of uniqueness and innovation as well as his inescapable adherence to many traditional tenets are explained by Bloom's model of "anxiety of influence", and were grasped by Pasternak as we shall see. A brief examination of Pasternak's definition of art and poetry in some of his most forthrightly meta-poetical poems written prior to the Verlaine translations will prepare the way for the subsequent discussion of "Art poetique." That Pasternak underwent a lengthy stage of inquiry into the nature of creativity is evidenced by the number of poems with theoretical themes and titles, particularly in Mv Sister Life. There is, for example, the series of definition poems: ' OnpeaejieHHe no33HH\ OnpeAe^eHHe .Hyiim', and "Onpe.nejieHHe TsopqecTBa.' The first of these is dictionary like in structure and in its exhaustiveness. In this poem Pasternak typically relies on nature in his effort to define the 45 undefinable which is poetry, and he compiles a list which includes a free-associative, diverse collection of objects such as sweet dried peas, iceblocks, and whistles. Other more lofty and more typically poetic referrents are music from Figaro, the stars, the firmament, and the most famous definition of poetry, " 3 t o - AByx co^oBbeB noe^HHOK, itself a dramatic metaphor for anxiety of influence. In "TeMH h BapnaitHH," Pasternak's effort to define poetry takes the form of an apostrophe to poetry, in which again he emphasizes that for him poetry's ingredients are the ordinary, trivial things of daily life. The poem "FIo33Hji" brings poetry to the level of ordinary life, rescues it from remote cultural heights. Thi - ;ieTO c M ecT O M b T p e T h e M ic ; ia c c e , T h - n p w r o p o f l , a H e n p m ie B . Using the most common household metaphors, Pasternak summons poetry to life. rio33Hfl, Kor^a noa KpaHOM n yC T O H , KaK BHHK Bej3,pa, TPI0H 3M , To h T o r a a C T p y a c o x p a H H a , T e T p a ^ fa n o flC T a B ^ e H a , - CTpyH C b! Although Pasternak includes traditonal poetic landscapes, those landscapes are littered with the debris of daily human existence. The language of his poetry is democratic, and the lofty position of a poet is also subject to interrogation. 46 P a s t e r n a k a p p r o a c h e s p o e t r y a n d p o e t a l i k e w i t h a h e a l t h y s k e p t i c i s m . In "IU eK cim p,' a s o n n e t c o m p o s e d i n t h e m i d d l e o f t h e n i g h t a d d r e s s e s i t s a u t h o r , S h a k e s p e a r e h i m s e l f , w i t h o n l y m i t i g a t e d a w e . \3 npH3Haio/Ciiocof)HOCTH B anin , h o , reH H H h M a c T e p . . . . He n o H M y /H e M BaM He y c n e x n ony /u ip H O C T h b 6h JlbSp JtHOH ? Pasternak repeatedly expresses concern that a poet can be out of touch with reality. In "npo 3 t h c t h x h " he describes himself in a slightly derisive tone as winter s recluse. Significantly, it turns out that he had been closeted in the company of his literary ancestors, Byron and Poe, when he awoke to ask his now legendary question: "KaKoe, MHJiwe, y Hac/ ThicflM e;ieTbe Ha .n.Bope?’ Poetry can be an altered state as Pasternak describes it in this poem, and the poet must be on guard. "BHe3anH0 b c b o m h io , co;mu,e ecTb./yBHUcy: CBeT aaBHO He t o t . " Reality is not restricted in Pasternak s poetry to the inclusion of mundane household objects, persons, places, and language from the street; above all it is the poetry itself.7 As Pasternak defined it, reality was "the capture by means of privileged images of the dynamics of life, without any special claims to precision or strict objectivity." 8 As for Verlaine, poetry was not part of life, nor larger than life; it was life. Along with their poetry, faith lent Pasternak and Verlaine alike courage for their lives and inspiration for their writing, and to a considerable degree the boundaries between 47 faith and art overlap. In the case of both poets, a belief in something mystical and powerful imbued their worldviews and kept each writing up to the end. Although Verlaine’s Christian period was judged one of his weakest literarily, its fortifying influence cannot be categorically dismissed. In Pasternak's case it is primarily the Zhivago poems that bear the Christian influence, and they denoted, at least for Pasternak, the zenith of his poetic life. What is significant is that for Pasternak and for Verlaine there was a brief, overtly religious period, while underlying their whole work is a sense of the transcendent. This transcendent core is art itself. In the substructure of their poems, the aspects that link the works of Verlaine and Pasternak are, at first, the very ones that paradoxically estrange them. The predominant themes of Verlaine s poems include the same ones that thread their way through all of Pasternak: nature most especially, love, music, faith, and of course poetry. For both of them, nature most often provided the backdrop against which they depicted their state of mind, but Verlaine s landscape is grey, reflecting like the other components of his poetic world his chronic melancolia. He prefers "les paysages d'hiver, tres mal eclaires," "les sous-bois nocturnes," "les soirs surtout, les soirs equivoques d automne" ou la lumiere semble defaillir. 9 Verlaine cathects the fog, a sunset, a sky darkened by rain. He is dominated by "un gout tres fort pour l'ombre et le demi- 48 jour." 10 Verlaine is not a poet of the south. Unlike the impressionist painters of his time, he did not turn away from the muted shades of Paris and Normandy to seek the sun- soaked colors of the Mediterranean. He remained addicted, even as he was throughout most of his life to alcohol and harmful relationships, to the north. "II est indeniable que Verlaine a aime d une preference decidee d'homme du Nord les paysages sans lumiere, ou les lignes s'estompent, ou les masses et les accidents a peine silhouettes, perdent leur caracatere." 1 1 In the dim light, conducive to escape from a harsh reality, he created a poetic universe which replicated his alcoholic escapes from reality, a world at times beautiful in its dreamlike quality, at times as nightmarish as the real world around him. ' Realite, reve, hallucination de l'ivresse, cauchemar . . . ce ne sont point, toujours, chez Verlaine, des etats de sensibilite, tres fortement differences, mais bien des stations, assez voisines, d une meme route, souvent parcourue." 12 It is important to realize, however, that for Verlaine his poetry did not constitute a passive escape to nature. "Ce n est point la reverie romantique, un vagabondage de l'esprit." 13 Instead, and only in his art, Verlaine exercised power over the world he could find no peace in. The world of his poems was his own, and in it he accessed a transcendent order beyond reach in reality. “S il chante la fuite du monde, ce n est que pour mieux celebrer le paradis imaginaire du poete." 14 His 49 "paradis imaginaire" strongly relied on nature as the embodiment of order. His poetic reality was an altered state of consciousness, not demonized like his life by stupefying addictions, but controlled and transformed by his creative imagination. In his verses he could achieve what was impossible in life - he was able to "deplacer les perspectives et de modifier les rapport des choses." *5 A few examples taken from different time periods illustrate the continuity of this overarching motif in Verlaine s treatment and use of nature. Indeed, all of the qualities that ultimately would become his trademark are evident in his very early work. Foemes Saturniens was published in 1866, when Verlaine was twenty-two. Among these are "Lassitude" and "Effet de Nuit" (which number among Pasternak's translations and are subjected to close analysis in chapter four) and the celebrated "Chanson d'Automne". In this poem, the details of the landscape are left to the reader's imagination which is fueled by the plaintive sounds of the autumn wind, "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" that dominate and organize the harmonious structure and composition of the poem. Identifying himself with barren-turning autumn, the poet describes himself as "tout suffoquant et bleme." The only visual image in the poem appears in the dramatic concluding stanza, where the poet s unity with nature is depicted with finality: 50 Et je m en vais Au jour mauvais Qui me traine De ga de la Pareil a la feuille morte. In "Crepuscule du soir mystique," also from Poemes Saturniens. Verlaine, revealing an inheritance from his predecessor Baudelaire and hence also from Poe, creates an environment in which Nature is redolent with mystery and overshadowed with a hint of horror and the grotesque. Verlaine s flowers are also "fleurs dumal", sinister and overpowering, proffering not exotic and romantic perfumes, but asphyxiating fumes and a resultant twilight sleep haunted by phantoms. The repetition of only two rhyming sounds at the end of each line reinforces the imagery of the words and evokes an aura of inescapability, of trance. The oppositions in the poem further reinforce the atmosphere of entrapment. Any possibility of finding beauty in renoncule" is obviated by "recule" and "circule" which, phonetically similar, semantically connote the desperation of a dead end. Similarly, the suggested openness of "Horizon" and the calm of "raison" are countered by "maladive exhalaison" and "poison." In poetry, Verlaine's Nature is a cloistered domain, a domain that in its very mystery is the ideal reflection of the real world the poet inhabited. It was by replicating his reality in his poetic imagination that he could 51 gain sway over it and become, if only temporarily, not its victim but its creator. The next collection Fetes Galantes appeared three years later. It is, according to Gourevitch, "a book of escape." 16 Again Verlaine is attracted to the muted light of "crepuscule." Titles include "Clair de Lune" and ”En Sourdine", and the themes are, one begins to realize, quintessential^ Verlainian. The invariant motif is the juxtaposition of nature, shadowy and foreboding, with the human spirit, afraid to hope and finding solidarity with nature in a seductive state of semi consciousness. Verlaine s favorite hours and the melancholia that plagues him, permeate Fetes Galantes as they did Poemes Saturniens: "le demi-jour", "solennel, le soir." "cette heure dont la fuite tournoie au son des tambour ins." "nos sens extasies," "lesvagues langueurs," "desespoir," "visions qui derangent," "melancoliques pelerins." One of the most poignant examples in Fetes Galantes of Verlaine s struggle with despair is found in "Colloque Sentimental." The poem describes a ghostly encounter between two lovers in whose visage remains not a trace of life not to mention love. Like their countentance, their voices too are eery and devoid of even a memory of warmth or tenderness. Their conversation constitutes an attempt at retrieving even so much as a memory of their "extase ancienne", but the dialogic exchange that comprises the largest part of the poem insures 52 defeat of any nostalgic escape. For every wistful recollection of the one dead lover, the other crushes it with the dismal reality that "lespoir a fui, vaincu, vers le ciel noir." The poem s concluding line turns the text back over to the poet and is an early example of a recurring theme in his later poetry as well: "Et la nuit seule entendit leurs paroles." Even in La Bonne Chanson. Verlaine's wedding gift to Mathilde, underneath the happy surface lurks his true self from which he could only attempt to escape. In "En robe grise et vert" he senses that his happiness and pleasure are only the fleeting consequences of a spell he is under: Aussi soudain fus-je, apres le semblant D une revolte aussitot etouffee, Au plein pouvoir de la petite Fee Que depuis lors je supplie en tremblant. Despite the sunshine that makes its appearance in this collection, it is clear that the light of day is doomed to be replaced by night. Nature is assigned a symbiotic role with the events in Verlaine s life. In "Avant que tu ne t en ailles" love s awakening coincides with nature s: Dans le doux reve ou s'agite Ma mie endormie encor... -Vite, vite, Car voici le soleil d or. But tenderness is easily overshadowed by incipient melancholia even in the early, hopeful stages of love. In his poetry, Verlaine is clearly presentient of the perfidy of love: L'etang reflete, Profond miroir, La silhouette Du saule noir Ou le vent pleure . . . ( La lune blanche") Romances Sans Paroles is considered by most to be the apotheosis of Verlaine s poetry. The title itself launches this collection s challenge to all prior understanding of poetry. Verlaine s collocation "De lamusique avant toute chose" from "L'art poetique" is foreshadowed by the title of the collection. The poet expresses his belief in poetry as being a medium stronger than just words. The rational linguistic order alone is inadequate for the representation of the machinations of the human spirit and psyche, and only the poetic imagination can find a clearer path to expression in nature. The first poem "C'est l'extase langoureuse" describes how in nature s "language" or music, the poet s painful struggle for articulation, at the root of his melancholy, is achieved. 17 0 le frele et frais murmure! Cela gazouille et susurre, Cela ressemble au cri doux Que 1 herbe agitee expire . . . Among the Romances sans paroles is the celebrated "II pleure dans mon coeur . . ." where no boundaries whatever divide man and the elements. (Pasternak also translated this poem, and therefore an extended discussion follows in chapter four.) Another oft-quoted poem, "0 triste, triste etait mon ame", contains one of Verlaine's most blatant exposures of his 54 solipsism. His sense that time and memory are as blurred as the "crepuscule" which forms the central metaphor of the poem is expressed in the form of an unanwerable rhetorical question of the kind that is characteristic of much of Verlaine s poetry. Mon ame dit a mon coeur: Sais-je Moi-meme que nous veut ce piege D etre presents bien qu'exiles, Encore que loin en alles? The Sagesse collection contains the last poems that have been judged worthy of critical attention. After this period Verlaine and his writing degenerate on an unwavering course of debauchery and decadence. The poem originally entitled "Berceuse" is a piercing self-portrait. Verlaine describes himself metaphorically in a scene that encapsulates the fundamental oppositions which form the core of his poetics. Despair opposes hope, oblivion opposes memory, darkness opposes light, and governing all of these is the diametric opponent of poetry, silence. The silence in this poem is not a void, but rather the most potent dark force of nature, its black hole. The poet ultimately succumbs to it and even joins forces with it, making of himself a cradle. 18 In a final paradoxical act, he lulls himself to silence. Un grand sommeil noir Tombe sur ma vie; Dormez, tout espoir, Dormez, toute envie! 55 Je ne vois plus rien, Je perds la memoire Du mal et du bien... 0 la triste histoire! Je suis la berceau Qu'une main balance Au creux d un caveau: Silence, silence! In the end Verlaine was without will to rescue himself from his debilitated moral and physical state. His work declined with his health, and in reality his death bore no ressemblance to the poetic images he had been creating since his youth. The early presentiments of "La Chanson d'automne", the pervasive, melancholic awareness of incipient death were ultimately born out. But in nature and in Verlaine's poetry, the sad life cycle was as beautiful as they were repugnant in his life. The clarity of Verlaine s vision was perfectly met by the simplicity and transparency of his poetics. Turning to Pasternak, one discovers that in Verlaine Pasternak confronts his own dark side, the shadow self which was largely overshadowed and determinedly vanquished in his own poetry. Where Verlaine was a confessional poet, Pasternak deliberately minimizes the I of lyric poetry. As Sinyavsky indicates, "Pasternak's lyrics are seldom couched in the first person. He tells us little about himself, painstaking, distancing, hiding his T." 19 He abjures what he called the "concept of the poet's biography as spectacle," preferring to let 56 the world speak for him and instead of him. His famous metonymical use of nature enabled him to disperse his emotions into the environment. The end result is that while Verlaine’s personal condition overwhelms nature, in Pasternak's case the nature of the universe humbles the nature of the individual man. Correspondingly, whereas Verlaine s canvas is grey and morose, Pasternak s is scintillating even under stormclouds or soaked with rain. A representative scene is found in Tloc^e .ztoac.ufl" (1915). The poet recreates the fury of a storm, and although it had wreaked considerable devastation, it is that storm s energy and passion that he focuses on. Its vigor ignites his imagination. "Bee c t h x j i o . Ho m to 3 t o 6 hjio c n e p B a !" A p r o f u s i o n of v e r b s and adjectives dominates the lexicon: onpoMeThio, Bpa3Hopa/t, noKaTflCb, pasojKiaceTCfl, and the effected dynamism climaxes in the memorable line "A t o , < i t o y Tono-ra jkhjih nojionajmcb." The aftermath of the storm is depicted with corresponding liveliness, but now Pasternak s images tame nature with a typical juxtaposition of a homely, domestic touch. Tax B03^yx ca^oBbiH, xax co^bi HacTOH, IIInnyMKOH n r p a e T o t r o p e a u T o n o j m . a n d CBepxaeT K;ry6HHKH MopoaceHMH k j i h h , M rpa^HHKH CTefllOTCfl C O JIb K ) nOBapeHHOH. Verlaine studied life and contemplated death. Pasternak's stance, in contrast, is well represented in Yuri Zhivago's words: "HcxyccTBo Bcer^a, He nepecTaBaa, 3aHHTo 57 ,a,ByMfl BemaMH. Oho HeoTCTynHO pa3Muni/meT o CMepTH h H eoTCTynHo tbopht 3thm 3K H 3H b." 20 This was Pasternak's conclusion at the nadir of his life, but so had it been since the beginning. As early as 'TToBepx bapbepoB" (1914-1916) he proclaimed: "S I noHAJi jkh3HH n,e;ib . . . Like Verlaine, Pasternak was from a northern clime, but he rejected its somber tones, expressing his hopefulness by choosing his palette from the bright colors of the spectrum. His poems are studded with shimmering, mirror reflections; winter’s color is silver, not grey; bright berries glisten, and clouds are busy creatures. He wrote of all the seasons and months, but none of them was unmitigatedly bleak or somber. The month of February, for example, inspired him often. In ".HeTCTBo" (1 9 2 5 ) he wrote: "S I rpo3y no;no6iiJi/B 3th nepBbie AHH $eBpa;L8." And acknowledging the customary melancholic response elicited by the dark, late winter month, he fought the passivity of depression. Even sadness must be expressed with gusto: <f>eBpa/ib. ^.ocTaTb HepHH^i h n/iaicaTb! TlHcaTh o (JieBpaae HaB3phi/i, . . . ifocTaTb npojieTKy. / . . ./ FlepeHecTHCb T y^a, rjte JiHBeHb Em,e myMHeh qepHH;i h cne3. The poem's concluding lines share with Verlaine the hope derived from being a poet: 58 H leivi cjiyMaHHeH, TeM BepHee CaaraioTca cthxh HaB3pH^. Pasternak, as Zhivago, would write of February as late as 1946. In hoW the fury outdoors is viewed in counterpoint but somehow at the same time in perfect harmony with the quiescent domestic scene, a technique which had become by that time a Pasternak hallmark. Verlaine's poetic universe is uniformly colored; the same somber shades are applied indoors and out, to the human and the natural spheres. In Pasternak s case, cold is juxtaposed with warmth and darkness with light. Only suggested in the form of shadow play, the human presence injects a hint of passion that brings the otherwise still life depiction energetically to life. But most of all a sense of harmony and order prevails, and by concluding with these lines, Pasternak stresses this affirmation: Meao Becb Mecaq, b $eBpajie, H TO H ae/LO C B e q a r o p e ^ a Ha CTOJie CBe^a ropejia. Words like "H aB3pH ,zi," "HaxpanoM," "c 6yxTH-6apaxTw” and "He3anHo" connote energy, movement, excitement, and life's blood coursing, and are vital to Pasternak s lexicon.21 Pasternak broke down the barriers between indoors and outdoors, unifying the natural and the human worlds where Verlaine projected the one upon the other. In Verlaine's poetry, nature reflected his own depression. Pasternak s nature is energetic 59 and penetrates the walls of his houses. Macrocosmic nature comingles with a raicrocosmic domestic scene, somehow at once enlarging it and rendering it cozy. By virtue of this harmonious interplay, Pasternak's poetic world is a secure place, full of promise. '3epKa;io'' (1917) offers a classic example: 'B tpiomo H c n a p a e T c a ^ a m x a KaKao." And t h e s a m e t h e m e is p a r t i c u l a r l y prominent in this poem from Ha PaHHHX noe3itax (1936-1944) Ck p o m h h h flOM, ho piOMKa poM y M HabpocKOB qepHHH r p o r , M B3aMeH KaMop - xopoMbi, M Ha q e p f l a x e - *iepTor. The nighttime hours that connote in Verlaine the threat of danger - confinement, suffocation, lovelorn trysts and death - are usually magical and ebullient in Pasternak's verse. He writes in the poem "CecTpa mok -;*CH3Hh " : " H pymHTca CTenb co CTyneHex k 3B e3,ne." The cosmos is best perceived at night, and Pasternak’s focus stretches beyond Verlaine's quite subjective and earthly boundaries. With his vision thus turned upward and outward, Pasternak concentrates on questions more metaphysical than self-indulgent. Encountering the transcendent, he is sensitive to the paradoxical nature of human existence and perception, at once individual and universal. "M H e xo^eTca .homoh, b orpoMHOCTb ..." (from "Bqjihm". BTOooe Po^KiieHHe. 1931) in particular exem plifies how Pasternak unravels the mystery of the human condition in relation to the universe. 60 Contiguity among ail the universe's components is at the heart of the Pasternak poetic world and is the root of his poetics. 22 Pasternak s internal rhyme, acclaimed by Bryusov as "new rhyme" and the phonetic affinities between adjacent and distant words concretize the likeness he perceived between things, between nature and humanity, and between the temporal and eternal. This sense of the innate unity and transcendency in the world is what above all else divides the poetic worlds of Pasternak and Verlaine. Despite the years of repression, the interruption of long periods of translation and foreign "influence", Pasternak s fundamental view remained unchanged. Nature is always his spokesman, and he always takes pains to destroy barriers between man and the elements. Thematically, he remains virtually constant. These lines from the 1947 Zhivago poem ”3eM;ifl' imply much the same world view that had motivated the early writings: M moskho cmbiuiaTh b K o p H f lo p e , M to npoHcxo^HT Ha npocTope, 0 qeM b c/iyMaHHOM pa3roBope, C Kane^bio roBopHT anpe;ib. But even though consistent, Pasternak s literary biography like his human story, underwent major periods of crisis and transition. In the general Bloomian context, these can be defined as the struggle of Pasternak the "ephebe" to make revisionary swerves". The Verlaine influence is best 61 observed and interpreted in tandem with the original Pasternak poetry that directly preceded it. Pasternak translated the seven Verlaine poems in 1938. Prior to this, his last published collection of original verse was BToooe ooaciieHHe. which appeared in 1932. The charismatic title derives from several perhaps equally important turning points in Pasternak s life, namely his second marriage and the beginning of his "Georgian period." Gifford treats BToooe ooacneHHe as evidence of a m id-life crisis for Pasternak. Political events necessitating a Georgian exile, turning forty, and a second marriage are acculumulated testimony for this position. Another scholar finds traces of the image of a second birth beginning in the twenties. 23 In any case, the metaphor applies to poetical development as well as to a biographical stage; "y Hero HOBue r;ia3a, HOBoe 3peHHe, eivry OTKpwBaeTca HOBoe BH^eHHe MHpa, oh bh^ht CTapoe no HOBOMy.' 24 Thematically as well as structurally, BToooe poaaieHHe is a prophecy of incipient evolution and transformation, and in the Bloomian context is especially provocative. Bloom in fact applies the identical term to his description of the actual contact between the past and present of literature in the process of writing the future. "The poetic character [is] incarnated when a potential poet first discovers . . . the dialectic of influence, first discovers poetry as being both external and internal to himself. All such discovery is a self- 62 recognition, indeed a Second Birth . . 25 As the poems in BToooe poaciieHHe reveal. Pasternak is already at a critical turning point when he is forced to engage most actively in the "dialectic of influence" through translation. The titular theme is developed in three supporting motifs all related to time that weave among the three sections into which Second Birth is divided: the cyclical nature of Nature, the corresponding human cycles of life and death, and the poet s unswerving belief in the permanence and transcendence of artistic creation. (The final chapter returns to Pasternak's interest in cycles to address the continuity and change that his work reflects after the Verlaine period.) References to time are ubiquitous in BToooe oosKneHHe. and the first lyrical cycle "Bo^hh" establishes the notion of a continuum as integral in nature, life, history, and literature. Sinyavsky illuminates the major metaphorical and self-prophetical role of "B o^hh": The poet tells here what he wants to write about, and his intention itself, his promise, turns into a story about life flowing in waves into the future, a life incompletely realized, hiding within itself new possibilities and intentions resembling those schemes which inspire the poet and which are also only half- expressed and roll into the future. The form of the introduction proves thus to be extraordinarily capacious and meaningful, and in harmony with the idea of the living historical and poetic development that is at its core. 26 63 The first poem bears the same title as the first lyrical cycle, and its opening stanza introduces the main motif that echoes throughout. As Gifford observes, it "does what Pasternak s poetry had seldom done before, at least in lyric form - it enters the process of time with all the moral consequences of living beyond the moment. Turning to the future it recognizes that the future will also contain the past." 27 3necb 6y.neT ace: nepeacHToe, H t o , q e M a em ,e acH By, M oh CTpeMJieHha h ycTOH, H BHHBHHOe HajiBy. Beginning two more of the ten poems that comprise the "B ojihh" cycle with the identical opening line, "3necb 6yneT Bee," Pasternak makes his state of expectation quite clear. At the same time he sees himself as part of the continuum of life, of what is past and what is to come. In the second stanza, he contemplates his relationship to nature, its power and its vastness. ITepeno mhok) bojihh Mopa. Hx MHoro. Mm hcm ucahm caeT . Hx T h M a . O hh n iy M a T b M H H o p e. rip H b o H , KaK B a $ a H , h x n e a e T . Infinity of space corresponds to infinity in time, and again in this instance, Pasternak repeats this refrain in the subsequent poems. The depiction of an endless expanse of waves in this p o e m i s e x t e n d e d i n t h e c y c l e b y s u c h i m a g e s a s o r p o M H U H n/iaac", "orpoMHHH 6eper", and Pasternak defines its 64 significance with the paradoxical MHe xo^eTca ^omoh, b orpoMHOCTb." Against this clarification, the meaning of the phrase "ohh my mat b M HHOpe" is also exposed at the same time that the dominant theme of the third and final cycle is prefigured. The awesomeness of the universe is tempered by poetic insight and representation; in the poet s hands it becomes a minor key. The unexpected Pasternakian twist "Rax Bat|uiH hx neqeT” is not as unaccountable as first it seems. Just like the startling return home 'b orpoMHOCTb'' of the third poem in "Bojihei' this homey image eases portending anxiety and simultaneously by means of its "swerve" rescues the poem from the banality of standard poetic sea imagery. Pasternak concentrates on the relationship between the finite individual and the infinity of space and time. The word "oriflTb" punctuates many poems in BToooe ooacneHHe: Pasternak seems obsessed with the contradictory sense of fleeting yet endless time. In "M He xoqeTca aomoh", the metaphpor of a harness similarly depicts the poet's yielding to a more powerful force. "H a npHMy Tefia, xax ynpaacb." In the same stanza, Pasternak juxtaposes the poet's action of putting on a harness with the corresponding action of someone other - TH - learning him by heart, "Kax cthx ". Pasternak predicts a complete merger of identity between the poet and poetry that in his view constitutes Second Birth. What is important is that the poems of this collection prophesy a new nativity; they 65 themselves do not evidence "a new poetics, but an application of the old poetics, perfected and even enriched, to the needs of a man speaking." 28 Although different scholars have determined the reincarnation to have occurred during the so- called "Soviet period" 29 or at the beginning of the 1940 s "when [Pasternak] took a renewed interest in Christianity," 30 Pasternak himself believed that his second birth materialized only with the writing of Hoktoo XHBaro. Indeed, the complex relationship between Pasternak, Yuri Zhivago, and the Zhivago poems brings this early, embryonic concept of "second birth" to fruition, and this will be examined at length in the final chapter. The vision of a second birth is the optimistic outcome hoped for by a poet acutely conscious of his mortality. "W/ih Ahh, injih TyMH in one poem, and "CTo^eTbe c jihiuhhm - He Bnepa" in another sadly emphasize the fleetingness of life. Other poems in their specificity reflect upon the passing of another January, October, or even the thirtieth of April. Pasternak speaks as he seldom does about himself, in the voice of an as if already elderly man, revealing his uncertain state of mind at this juncture in his life. In "Fiona m u no KaBana3y jia3aeM" (1931) he reflects on what his purpose might be. S I bpomeH b 5KH3Hh, b noTone £HeH KaTHin,yio noTOKH p o^ a, M MHe np oH T b cbok) T p y ^ H e H , M eM pe3aTb HOXHHD,aM H Bo,n,y. 66 And the poem that follows, written in the same year, continues the same theme, emphasizing the life crisis particular to a poet. 0 3Ha;i 6h a, qTo Tax fiuBaeT, Korna nycKa/ica Ha nebioT, 4TO CTpOtIKH C KpOBblO - yfiHBaiOT, Hax;iHHyT rop-ioM h ybhioT! One writer notes the power of the verse itself to resonate with th e d an ger it e x p r e s se s : riosT om ym aeT ceba bo BJiacTH BHeuiHHX B03^eHCTBHH, bo BJiacTH accou,Hau,HH, HHor/ta B CMepTeJibHOH onacHOCTH. Cthxh MoryT HaxjibmyTb rop;ioM h yfiHTb." 31 Loneliness appropriately accompanies these metaphysical musings. The poet's "I" is frequently metonymically portrayed but is relationally distant instead of proximate. Many of the poems emphasize a particular and present place, but the poet stands at a distance from it. The poet's awarenesss of the incomprehensible relationship of the human person to the cosmos is emphatic. The opening line of one poem makes this especially clear: "Thi 3nech, m h b B03,a,yxe ohhom." Attaching "byneT" to "3Aecb" in several poems, Pasternak makes the immediate setting both real and remote at the same time. Home is frequently the setting in these poems, but it is never home in the traditional sense of cozy security. One has the sense that home is something longed for but out of reach, like the vastness or the void with which it is paired. "M He xoqeTca flOM OH, b orpoMHOCTb . . . " and "HHKoro He 6 y . n e T b noMe . . . " 67 upset expected associations. In the latter poem, the motif of emptyness is especially developed. The repetition of "TO Jibico", "Kpwm", and "cHer" in the second stanza reinforces the feeling of emptiness and quiet, and the subsequent isolated, p u n c t u a t e d HHKoro" i s s i l h o u e t t e d a g a i n s t t h e m . ToJIbKO be^EWX M OKPUX KOMbeB EblCTphlH npOMe^bK M aXOBOH. TojibKO Kpfaimn, CHer h , KpOMe K p u rn h CHera, - HHKoro. Additional repetitions of " H onaTb" in the strong initial position follow to indicate that this loneliness is not unusual or infrequent. The ultimate appearance of the woman is utterly unexpected, and more importantly, she is an ethereal being. Ho Heac^aHHO no nopTbepe fIpo6e;sKHT BTop»:eHbfl apoacb. T H in H H y rn araM H M e p a , Tm, Kax 6y,nymHOCTb, BOHflenih. Tw n oH B H inbca y a s e p H B 'leM -T O 6 e a o M , 6 e 3 n p H n y a , B n e M -T O B n p a M b H3 T e x M aT epH H , M3 k o t o p w x xaonha m b io T . In another poem, "/IiodHTh h h h x - TaxeauH KpecT . . . Pasternak sadly acknowledges that even in love, a person is ultimately solitary. Not surprisingly, given the poet's preoccupation with the uncertainty and loneliness of life that passes all too quickly, these poems also reflect on immortality. As seen in the poem "Th paaoM, jtaab coitHaaH3Ma." the typical human legacy of 68 self through one's children is merged in a poet's conception of life after his death with the legacy of his poetry. r,n,e ro/ioc, nocjiaHHhiH B^oroHKy HeofiopHMOH HOBH3He, Bece^beM Moero pebeHKa M3 b y ^ y m e r o bto pht MHe. In BToooe oosKiieHHe the poet juxtaposes the human life cycle with nature's. The seasons of each interweave throughout these poems, giving one to believe both begin anew again and again in p e r p e tu ity . In the poem "/IeTo", for example, Pasternak turns his attention to autumn and death: M oceHb, flOTOJie BonHBmaa Bfainhro, ripoMHCTHaa ropjio; h n o H s u m mm, M to mm Ha im p y b bckobom npoTOTHne - Ha nHpe ILnaTOHa bo BpeMa MyMH. But in th e fo llo w in g stanza, the poet q u e r ie s, "OTKyjna ace 3Ta neqajib?" and in th e fin a l lin e of th e poem, he t e n ta t iv e ly c o n c l u d e s : " B eccM ep T b H , bM Tb M o a c eT , n o c a e ^ H H H 3 a a o r ." Against the background of this cautiously hopeful note, Pasternak's next poem "CMepTb noaTa” sets aside nature to broach the question of human mortality directly. Pasternak, unabashedly acknowledging the power of influence, makes a gesture of homage to Lermontov, whose poem on the death of Pushkin first bore this title, as well as to Mayakovsky whom he eulogizes. The fact that the subject is the death of a poet underscores its personal pertinence, and its conclusions typify the overarching theme of BToooe ooaciieHHe. In this poem 69 Pasternak poetically defeats death on behalf of all poets when he obituarizes M a y a k o v s k y . 32 Life for a poet supersedes death, according to Pasternak, not solely because he himself is great, but because he is joined with the other immortals. " They perdure as a unity, buttressed by the collective power and permanence of their literature. Tm cnaji, npnacaB k noaymKe meicy, Cna;i, - co Bcex Hor, co Bcex v50ja.Hr Bpe3aflCb BHOBb H BHOBb C HaCKOKy B pa3pajt npejo,aHHH m ojioamx. Pasternak's trust in a second birth thus is rooted in culture as well as in nature. Two other poems illustrate the tim eless power and salubrious effect of creative genius. The poem that follows "CMepTb noaTa" unfolds sim ultaneously with a performance of Brahms. The opening lines reveal the poet's viewpoint: To^aMH Kor^a-Hnbyjtb b 3a;ie KOHi;epTHOH/MHe EpaMca CHrpaioT, - tockoh H30H^y." The phrase "MHe EpaMca CMrpaioT", like a musical refrain, reoccurs in the course of the poem and serves as a harmonious backdrop for the poet's reminiscences. The past of culture and his personal past are thus structurally and thematically linked. The poem "OnaTb IUoneH He HmeT BHroji . . . operates in a similar fashion with similar effect. In this instance, themes of time and death are more overtly pronounced. The immortality of Chopin is emphasized by the proliferation of ''onflTb" that punctuate the poem. In this poem the Chopin 70 refrains are heard through an open window, and Pasternak u s e s t h i s d e v i c e t o c o n n e c t t h e m a j o r t h e m e s o f B T o o o e oo^cneHHe. In the following stanzas, for example, earth and sky, past and eternity are unified through Chopin s sonata: r peMHT IIIoneH, H3 okoh rp«HyB, A c H H 3 y , no/i, e r o 3(Ji^ieKT rtpsLM Ji noACBeqHHKH KamTaHOB, H a 3Be3/J,bI CM OTPHT npOIQ/IblH BeK. KaK 6 b io T T o r ^ a b e r o c o H a T e , Ka^iaa m^ thhk rpoMa^t, MaCM pa3Tje3A O B H 3aH flTH H , H chob de3 CMepTH, h $epMaT! Anticipating a second birth, Pasternak at this stage of his l i f e a n d w o r k c o u n t s o n b e i n g n u m b e r e d a m o n g t h e i m m o r t a l s . His estimation of his friend Tabidze whom he first met in 1930 a t t h e t i m e h e w a s w r i t i n g t h e p o e m s o f B T o o o e o o a c iie H H e resonates with the same feeling he seems to have about h i m s e l f : T ^ a B H o e b e r o n o33H H *iyBCTBO H e n c u e p a n a H H o c T H jiH p H ^ iecK ofi n o T e m t H H , C T o m u e e 3a Ka»c/i,biM e r o CTHXOTBOpeHHeM, nepeBec HecKa3aHHoro h Toro, hto oh em e CKa>KeT, Ha/t CKa3aHHhiM. 33 Hope abounds, and this hope is c e n t e r e d i n h i s v e r s e ; b u t n o n e t h e l e s s t h e r e i s a s e n s e o f u r g e n c y , a s t h e f i r s t l i n e s o f t h i s p o e m m a k e c l e a r : Ct h x h m o h , d e r o M , d e r o M . M H e b B ac H y x c.u a , KaK H H K or.ua. Pasternak indicates in BToooe poxc-neHHe the direction he plans to pursue as he taps his as yet "unexhausted lyrical 71 reserves." His awareness of the indissoluble bond that joins poets from era to era is keenly felt. In Pasternak one finds none of the denial of this wedding that Bloom finds necessary to overcome on behalf of some poets. In the second of the poems with the identical opening line, Pasternak compares himself to those he considers truly great, 3^ecb fiy^eT Bee, nepeacHToe B npeflBHAeHbH h HaaBy, H Te, KOTopbix si He ctoio, M to, 3a hto cpe.zi.b hhx cjibiBy. he specifies the simplicity that characaterizes them, EcTh b onhrre boflbiunx noaTOB MepTW ecTecTBeHHOCTH toh, M tO HeB03M05KH0, H X H3Be^aB, He KOH^HTb nO^HOH HeMOTOH. and predicts his future unity with them. B poACTBe co BceM, ^to ecTb, yBepacb H 3Haacb c 6yflym,HM b bbiTy, He^b3fl He BnacTb k KOHijy, KaK b epecb, B Hec^wxaHHyio npocTOTy. BToooe ooacjieHHe was published in 1932. If the form this birth was actually to take bore little resemblance in the biographical sphere to Pasternak's most hopeful fantasies, neither did it realize his most dreadful fears. As for his writing, for the remainder of his life his voice would be mingled with those of the foreign authors he elected to translate. The voice of the poet Verlaine, though modestly represented among the translations, permeates Pasternak s 72 later poetry. Verlaine is an ancestor poet of major influence and one of the poets whom Pasternak rewrites in his own voice. The texts of the translations map a formative stage in that misreading process. 73 Notes: Chapter Two •ilHflHa S i. rHH36ypr, TlHCbMa Bopnca riacTepHaKa," fleoenHCKa BooHca IlacTepHaKa. ed. E.B. IlacTepHaK h E.B. nacTepHaxa (MocKBa: XyfloacecTBeHHaa ZlHTepaTypa, 1990) 4. 2Harold Bloom. The A nxiety of Influence (Oxford: Oxford U niversity Press, 1973) 31. ^Olga R. Hughes, The Poetic World of Boris Pasternak (Princeton: Princeton U niversity Press, 1974) 3. 4Pierre Martino. V erlaine (Paris: Boivin & Cie, Editeurs, 1924) 19. ^Martino 19. ^Martino 19. 7 M. /[Hxa<ieB, "Bopnc JleoHH^OBHq IlacTepHaK," Eqphc IlacTepHaK. H36oaHHoe b j i b v x t o Max ( MocKBa: X y ^ o a c e c T B e H H a a /InTepaTypa, 1985), P. 19. ^as translated by De Mallac, Boris Pasternak: His Life and A rt (Norman: U niversity of Oklahoma Press, 1981) 507. ^Martino 154. •°M artino 155- 1 Martino 156. • 2Martino 156. •^Michel Barlow. Poesies Verlaine (Paris: Hatier, 1982)73. • 4Barlow 73. 15Martino 156. 16ooris-Jean n e Gourevitch, Paul Verlaine: Selected Verse (Waltham, Massachusetts: Blaisdell Publishing Company, 1970) 61. •^Pasternak's "naaqym,HH ca^," records a sim ilar struggle for articulation, sim ilarly assumed by nature. This poem comes under scru tin y in Chapter Three. •^for an analysis of Pasternak's poem "BeTep" in which a similar metaphor is operative, see A.K. > K o ; i k o b c k h h h " n o 3 3 H fl h rpaMMaTHKa nacTepnaKOBCKoro BeTpa". Russsian Literature. XIV, 2 4 1 -2 8 6 . •^A.Sinyavsky, "Pasternak's Poetry" Pasternak. A Collection of Critical E ssays, trans. and ed. Victor Erlich (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1978) 77. 20BopHC nacTepHaK, Hqktop ^fcHBaro (MocKBa: H3,a,aTeabCTBO KHHXCHaa najiaTa, 1989)77. 2 •see A lexander Zholkovsky, "ObcTOJiTeabCTBa BeaHKoaenHfl: 06 o^hoh nacTepHaKobckoh qacTH pemt Bo3bMH Ha PajocTb. To Honor leanne van der Eng ed. W. Weststeijn et al. (Amsterdam: Slavic Seminar, 1980) 157-168. 22see A lexander Zholkovsky on such "archi-motifs" as "contacts betwen opposites" and "overstepping of boundaries" in "The Sinister' in the Poetic World of Pasternak," IJSLP Vol. XXIX, 1984,1-19. 7 4 23/lHxaqeB 19. 24()lga Hughes, 'CTHXOTBopeHHe Mapbypr h TeMa BToporo Poac^eHHa'," Boris Pasternak: Collogue de Cerisv-La-Salle fParis: Institute D'fitudes Slaves, 1979) 291. 25Harold Bloom. The Anxiety of Influence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973)25- 26sinyavsky 96. 27Henry Gifford, Pasternak: A Critical Study (Cambridge: Cambridge U niversity Press, 1977) 137. 28Dale Plank, Pasternak's Lvric: a Study of Sound and Imagery (The Hague: Mouton, 1966)1 12. 29see A.K. > K o ; i k o b c k h h , V Iio b o B H a a x o ^ K a , y n p a > K b jo,jisi F l e r a c a h n o x o p o H H a a x o / i b i 6 e ; i b H a a : T p n C T H X O T B o p e H H a n t p h n e p n o a a r i a c T e p H a K a , " i n A. K. / K o j i k o b c k h h , K).K. I l f e r a o B , M h o a B T o e a h C T p y K T y p a T e K C T a (T e n a f l v . New J e r s e y : Hermitage, 1986) 239. 3°Gifford 237. 8I/lHxaqeB 12. 82see also Sinyavsky 87. 83Eopnc IlacTepHaK, "ABTo6Horpac|)HqecKHH oqepx,'' Ilpo3a 1 9 1 5 -1 9 5 8 . noBecTH, paccKa3bi. aBTodHoroac&HqecKHe nooH3BeiteHHa . ed. T.n. CTpyBe h B.A. ^HaHnnoBa (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961) 50. Chapter Three Verlaine’s Other Russian Voices 75 Prior to Boris Pasternak three other "strong" Russian poets also attained fame as translators of Paul Verlaine: Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky (1856-1909), Fyodor Kuzmich [Teternikov] Sologub (1863-1927, and Valery Bryusov (1873- 1924). In spite of the fact that all three were as Russian Symbolist poets much closer to Verlaine poetically as well as temporally, each of them, like Pasternak, altered the poems and produced a Russian Verlaine that is skewed according to their individual poetics. The Bloom theory allows for an understanding of these alterations as either consciously or unconsciously deliberate, as "misreadings" rather than misunderstandings or mistakes. Bloom s influence theory redirects evaluation of their translations to identify for them as it does for Pasternak not just the dissimilarities which invite criticism or the apparent successes which merit acclamation. The theory adds a non-judgmental element whereby the translations are seen as specimens of the translator s own, original opus. They therefore evidence the historically canonical attributes of the translator's poetics but also invite inclusion of other qualities that, in the light of the Bloom theory, can no longer be limitedly identified as "accuracies" of translation. What the later poets preserved of Verlaine are as revelatory of their own perceptions as what they dispensed 7 6 with or altered. The facts that, unlike Pasternak, each of the three is known for a prevailing melancholy in their poetry that unites them more obviously and closely to Verlaine, and that nonetheless they deviated from him makes analysis of their translations doubly informative. It supports the application of the Bloom theory to translation, and it provides a comparative base for interpreting the Pasternak translations. The study of the three other major Verlaine translators is made within two contexts. The translations will be examined against the framework of the translator s original opus and subsequently, where comparison is possible, against the Pasternak renderings. By uncovering the incursions made by each translator and relating them to his particular poetic self- determination, one gains insight into both the poet/translated and the poet/translator. The bulk of the discussion will be devoted to Annensky, since he is a major poet of influence in Pasternak's genealogy. Zinaida Gippius, in fact, went so far as to say, " when I am offered Annenskij or Pasternak, I don't know whom to choose: I see two souls wrung dry. It is no accident that the embryo of Pasternak flashes from time to time in Annenskij." 1 Annensky's lyrical voice is without exception permeated with an insurmountable ennui, barely distinguishable from that of Baudelaire or Verlaine, the main inspirers of his verse. His poetry is about simple, daily life; it is a poetry of the 7 7 familiar object, and in this it differs significantly from the Russian Symbolists evasion of the material, present world. It is in this sense that Edward Brown has described his art as "a psychological not a mystical experience," and he therefore classifies Annensky as a representative of the French more than of the Russian Symbolist tradition. 2 The affinity between Annensky's aesthetics and those of the French is attested to by the evidence of his lifelong interest in French poetry and especially by his translations.3 Annensky's belief that the poet is essentially a craftsman implies, says Janet Tucker, "perfection of form and precision of language." For Annensky, "language is the medium of poetic expression" and his emphasis is upon the word as the unit of language.4 Annensky's passion for order and correctness expressed itself in a scientific dedication to the word, a quality making him the ideal disciple for the Parnasse movement, and therefore those poets figured most frequently among his translations. It is this insistance on the primacy of the word that is at the root of his distortion of Verlaine’s concept of music in poetry. Annensky found the musicality of poetry to be a tool rather than an independent, dominant force.5 The fact that Annensky paradoxically remained faithful to many of the tenets of the Parnasse while considering himself a Symbolist at least in part explains why Verlaine's "Art Poetique" does not number among his translations. Verlaine's 78 manifesto poem both proclaimed the dominant role of musicality and disclaimed the restriction of the Parnasse. Annensky's elimination of this work is evidence of his misreading the poet to serve his own ends. Annensky's unremitting gloom expresses itself in imagery and epithets that Vsevolod Setchkarev calls "deliberately unpoetic." His themes, such as rainy days and nights, shadow, fear, growing old, melting snow, dirt on roads, stuffy railway coaches, sleeplessness, decay in many variations, loneliness, banality, a kind of base sorcery, are not beautiful as such. Nevertheless, there is a poetic aura around them because of the sound combinations in which Annensky presents them. . . . 6 Setchkarev points out that Annensky speaks about the trivia of everyday life in colloquialisms so as to be as down to earth as possible, but this is only to "deepen our metaphysical disgust with life as it is."7 Without escape, Annensky's world is lifeless and hopeless. In such a dreary world, however, the poet has a crucial role to play in Annensky's view. "Bcjikhh noaT b (kmbiiieH hjih MeHbiueH M epe ecTb yMHTejib h nponoBe^HHK.'' 8 It is he who evaluates and distinguishes good from evil, and perhaps it is his special gift of sight that causes him this relentless suffering, from which symbolists would escape but into which Annensky would mire himself without respite. 7 9 Although life could offer no refuge because itself it was the source of suffering, temporary relief was provided to Annensky in the act of creation. According to Janet Tucker, "Annensky felt that beauty and suffering were intertwined and, yet, somehow opposed. The negative, morbid strength of torment was counterbalanced in poetry by the strength of beauty in which the possibility of happiness is contained."9 Tucker believes that for Annensky poetry consitutes "the most vivid denial of suffering" and that "through the act of creation [the poet] is able to forget suffering temporarily." Although the loneliness that obtains for all human beings is especially acute for the artist whose very talent isolates him in the world of his own creation, and the tension of attraction to and withdrawal from this creative sphere induces deep anxiety, it is as prisoner of the physical world that the poet effects his victory, however transitory. As "an inspired craftsman" Tucker insists, the poet "transforms beauty, through art, into a component of that world." 10 The musicality of Annensky's poetry, traceable directly to Verlaine, in no way mitigates the prevailing moroseness, but it is largely responsible for rendering it somehow beautiful. Setchkarev also acknowledges the importance of beauty in Annensky s poetic world, declaring that it is the potential for beauty in life at all levels "starting with a stone and rising up to the highest ideal" that engenders in Annensky a compassion 80 for life. However, he finds less attainment of the relief from suffering through beauty that Tucker emphasizes. Insisting that Annensky is perhaps the most pessimistic of the Russian Symbolists, Setchkarev believes that for him even art is suffering, because it is "unfulfilled longing." 1 1 The very notion of the beautiful in life and the longing for it, the longing to create the beautiful, all these caused Annensky anxiety. He suffered from an anxiety of the beautiful. In Setchkarev s words, "he is not only afraid of death itself, perhaps even more he fears the unbeautiful manifestations of death in life - and this is why he fears life and fears for life." These are the basic motifs of his writing, and the words "TOCKa, angoisse, tristesse, cafard and nostalgia" form a constant refrain. Annensky was a moralist who attempted to differentiate between good and evil, and he believed this could be done more clearly in poetry than in life. Morality could prevail in art. "In life evil often triumphs," said Annensky. "But in poetry evil is always punished - not by immediate suffering but by its disclosure."12 According to Annensky, poets have only three themes: suffering, death, and beauty, the latter achievable only in art which imparts to life a splendor of its own. The poet, he believed, has to suffer in order to create, and thus he likes to simulate suffering. "Poetry, therefore, in its essence is a complete negation of real suffering and compassion." Lydia Ginzburg has described Annensky as the SI poet of death who as poet had to love life: "Ahhchckhh noHHMaa, hto anpHMecKHH noaT He M O ^tceT He JiiobHTb t o , o M eM nnrneT, < ito 3to npoTHBope^HJio 6w caMOH cym,H0CTH JIH PH K H KaK O C O bO H CHCTeMhl BbipavKeHHH qe^OBeqeCKHX iteHHOCTeii."14 Annensky's unremittingly dark view of life motivated all his writing and ironically provided him with a purpose in life. As made clear in the second volume of his Khhith QToa^KeHHH all his reflections are "penetrated by the one anxiety with which [he was] looking for a justification of life - the problem of creation." *5 Annensky's verses are characterized by many of the same psychological factors found in Verlaine. Ginzburg has delineated the ways in which his language and poetic grammar are symbolic reflections of his disturbed worldview. ri03THKa He^OCKa30B, JiornqecKHX pa3ptIB0B H BHe3anHbix yno^ofi^eHHH c;ry)KHT y AHHeHCKoro u,e;iH Hcc/ieAOBaHHa flymeBHhix coctohhhh. /Ihphmcckhh aHa;iH3 ocymecTB^aeTca qepe3 npe^MeTHHe paytH, ByjOJIb KOTOpHX flBHIKeTCfl C03HaHHe no3Ta, H Ha ero nyTH Kaacytoe cootbctcTBHe 3HaMeHyeT noBopoT pa3BepTbreaiomerocfl ncHXH^ecKoro npoijecca. y npe^MeTHUx cjiob AHHeHCKoro ecTb btopoh naaH; ohh Bceryta conpoBoaryjaioT, 3aMem,ai0T, yty&UHpyioT HeMTO ytpyroe.16 In his essay " M to Taxoe no33Ha? Annensky him self proclaims his belief in the power of symbols to represent the mysteries of the human psyche. 82 BMecTo cKy^Hwx rHnepbo;i, kotopumh b CTapoH no33HH yc^oBHO nepe,naBa;mch cjiojKHhie h Hepe^KO BhmyMaHHbie M yBCTBa, HOBaa no33HJi Hiu,eT to<jhhx chmboaob ana omymeHHH, t. e. pea^BHoro cybcTpaTa »ch3hh, h .hjis HacTpoeHHH , t. e. toh $opMH aymeBHOH jkh3hh, KOTopaa fioaee Bcero po^HHT aio^eH Meac^y codon, Bxo.ua b ncHxoaorHio ToariBi c TaKHM ace npaBOM, xax b HH^HBHayaahHyK) ncHxo;iorHio.17 In response to Ginzburg's view of Annensky, Fedorov points out that in noting the "logical gaps" she is signaling a fundamental "HHTeaaeKTyaahHOCTB" in his poetics. Fedorov cites another passage from Ginzburg which supports his view that although the reader’s role is essential because of the gaps, this role is not intuitive, but logical. This same text from Ginzburg explains this significant feature of Annensky's poetics, differing from Verlaine's reliance on the musicality of the poetry, as semiotic. “nponymeHHue 3BeHha no3THnecKOH MbIC JIH H e H3BIMaiOTCJI, a KaK 6 h yXO^iHT B KOHTeKCT. M H T a T e^ b B o c n o /iH J ie T H eja,ocK a3 He c m y t h u m M y3M K a;ibH h iM eflH H CTBO M CMbICJIOBblX TOHaJIbHOCTeH, HO B H y T p e H H e H JIOTHKOH COOTBeTCTBHH. " lS In sum, then, Annensky's original poetry while thematically close to the French symbolists is characterized by emotional restraint, in part the result of his temperament, in part due to the influence of the Parnasse movement. But although he translated primarily these poets, he also produced 83 translations of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and of course Verlaine. The importance of these translations in the formation of Annensky's poetry has been asserted by Fedorov who explains that through these other voices Annensky was able to leap the barriers that restricted his own work. TlepeBOfl iio3bo;ijiji n o a T y BHXoflHTb 3a npeaeflH o b tu iH o r o xpyra e r o TBopqecKHX cpe^cTB h flaace acaHpoBbix ijiopM, pacmnpaa hx." 19 According to Fedorov, the link was not happenstance since Annensky sought in translation his poetic principle which he defined thus: CjIOBa otkpmth, npo3pa<JHbi; caoBa He ToabKO TexyT, ho h CBersiTca. B c/ioBax ecrb TOJIbKO MeJIbKaiOEtaa B03M 0aCH0CTfa o6pa3a. . . . C ^.pyroH CTopoHbi, ho He fijmace, nOflXO^HT K II033HH H My3HKa. riyCKaH TeKyaaa, xax cjiobo, h xaK OHa, pa3,n,ejibHaji - My3HKa acHBeT ToabKO abco/iwTaMH, h flajibuie onepHoro KOMnpoMHeca M y3W KOH c no33HeH h BmiioaeHHfl pean b opxecTp He Mor noHTH aaace BarHep.20 Annensky selected authors and texts for translation according to their ready accord with his poetics, observes Fedorov. "Bbidop npoH3Be,neHHH, nepeBe^,eHHbix Ahhbhckhm, onpe^eaaeTca b boabmHHCTBe cayqaeB TeMaTH^ecKOH h 3M0UH0HaabH0H 6/IH30CThI0 K erO II033HH."21 This compatibility notwithstanding, Fedorov remarks, Annensky proposed a rather loose model for translation, and in practice does not even observe those minimum formal restrictions. 84 Ha nepeBoja, y AHHeHCKoro 6u;ih cboh B3r^flaw. . . . Pa^H nepe.u,aMH xy^o^cecTBeHHoro ii,e;ioro h Toro BneqaT^eHH«, KOTopoe oh npoH3HOCHT, noaT flonycxaeT 3Ha*iHTe;ihHbie OTqyac.neHHa ot C M blC JIO B O H TO H H O CTH , T O JIhK O Tpebyfl O T nepeBO,nT JHKa cobjHO,n,eHHio Mepbi b cyb'beKTHBHSMe'. CaM oh, BnpoqeM, cjihhikom qacTO Hapymaji 3Ty Mepy. 22 This less than orthodox approach is the direct result of Annensky's apparent goal as a translator, to achieve mastery himself through a symbiotic partnership. Again it is Fedorov who identifies Annensky's self-serving use of translation. flep eB O /l.b l CTHXOB B f l e a T e Jib HOC TH A H H eH C K o ro H e TO Jibxo 3 a H H M a io T b o jib u io e M eCTO. . . HO H H rp aiO T HCKJHOMHTeJIbHyiO p o jib - H e K ax j i a b o p a T o p n a C T H x a , H e x a x c p e ^ c T B O ja,aa o c B o e H H a p a 3 H b ix x y A o a c e c T B e H H U x M a H e p , a K a x n y T b b f l p y r n e a y m e B H H e MHpbi, x a x B03M0>KH0CTh oBaajo,eHHa hobhmh noaTHaecxHMH r o ; io c a M H .23 Fedorov identifies Annensky s versatility in extending himself not just to poetry close to his own but to dissim ilar verses and poets and acclaims the fact that "b sthx nepeBo^ax cjibiuiaTca hoth, xoTopbix y caMoro AHHeHcxoro HeT." He discovers in Annensky an ability to invest his passions even in such instances as if he were writing about himself. This capacity to align himself with Verlaine on the emotional level, regardless of the fundamental poetic compatibilty, suggests an empathetic relationship with the man Verlaine as well as a susceptability 85 to Verlaine the poet. At the very least, it is clear that translation was not a sterile process in which Annensky operated as an aloof technician. And yet, it is this investment of self which, while it gives life to the translation, figuratively "kills" the precursor. Harold Bloom's argument applies, that the poet challenges the poet, because "nothing is less generous than the poetic self when it wrestles for its own survival." 24 Annensky's approach to poetic translation was quite liberal, and his translations deviate considerably from the originals. The line of demarcation between himself and his subject is frequently transgressed as Fedorov observes: "nepeBo#bi ero nacTo oKa3HBaioTCfl npo#o;iaceHHeM cobcTBeHHoro TBopqecTBa Ha MaTepHaae HHOCTpaHHOH II033HH." 2 5 Annensky's ambivalent attitude toward Verlaine's "de la musique" is also embedded in his theoretical proclamations. riepeBoa^HKy npHxoflHTca, iiomhmo jiaBHpoBaHHfl M eac#y TpeboBaHHflMH # B y x 5J3HKOB, em,e 6a;iaHCHpoBaTb Meac,ny BepbaahHOCThio h My3MK0H, noHHMaa n o # 3THM CJIOBOM B C IO COBOKynHOCTb 3CTeTHneCKHX 3JieMeHT0B n033HH, KOTOphlX He^b3a HcxaTb b c^oBape. JleKCHnecKaa TonHOCTb nacTO #a eT n e p e s o # y AHUib obMaHnHByiO ()JIH30CTb K nO#JIHHHHKy, - nepeBO# jiB^aeTca cyxHM, BHMyqeHHWM h 3a AeTaM M H T ep aeT ca n e p e # a n a KOHn.enn.HH nhechi. C #p yroH ctopohu, yaaeneHHe My3HK0H rp03HT nepeBO#y tfiaHTacTHnHocTbio. Co6;iiocth M epy b 86 cy6TjeKTHBH3Me - bot 3a,qaqa nepeBOflaHKa jiHpHHecKoro CTHXOTBopeHHa.26 Despite this glaring difference, the importance of the Verlaine influence on Annensky cannot be overstated. Aside from the translations, Annensky left traces of it both obvious and oblique in his own poetry. One of his poems was published under the title "HapajiJiejiH," but in an earlier monograph it bore the borrowed title of the Verlaine collection, Farallelement. and the second part of the poem was entitled " M 3 neceH 6e3 cjiob". He also experimented with quasi translations which he inscribed with "Ha mothb BepjieHa." Furthermore, music and dance motifs abound in A nnensky’s poetry; "poMaHcV ’nocturno" and "canzone" are high frequency words, and musical titles include TapMOHHaV "npejno.zi.HJi'/ and even "KeK-yoK". Another notable tribute to Verlaine is the untitled poem "He Mory noHflTh, He 3Haio..." in which Verlaine is addressed three times. In his book of collected poems "KHnapHCOBhiH Jiapeu,", in the "Tphjihcthk aojicaeBOH", two poems resonate with Verlaine motifs. The third poem is "PoMaHC 6e3 My3WKHas is the case with "M s neceH 6e3 cjiob" its intertextual acknowledgement of Verlaine is undisguised. In the second poem, Okta6pckhh MHtjj" the interplay between rain and tears is only one of the elements the poems shares with "II pleure . ..." Annensky's poem inscribes an emotional paralysis identical to "langueur" - "MHe tockjihbo. MHe He b Mo^b." Both, poems ascribe the tears 87 to an unknown cause; Verlaine s reads, "C'est bien la pire peine/De ne savoir pourquoi" and Annensky's, " H moh jii> He 3Haio, JKryT/'Cep.mte cae3H. . . Lastly, the roofs that in Verlaine's poem perform the critical functions of delineating indoors from outdoors while at the same time uniting the sounds of rain and tears, (“0 bruit doux de la pluie/Par terre et sur les toits”) play a similarly important role in "OKTabpcKHH m h |‘ as the border between the weeping poet and the mysterious blind man: Ha^o mhoio oh bcio Ho^h/OcTynaeTCfl o Kpwrny." The resemblance between Annensky’s original poetry and Verlaine's is neither slight nor chance. Among the other aspects to be discussed below in the analyses of the translations, Setchkarev identifies dominant traits in Annensky’s poetry that can readily be seen as identical to high frequency features in Verlaine's. Enumerating invariant motifs, Setchkarev includes Annensky's preference for capitalization of prominent words, and he elaborates on the importance of color and particularly chiaroscuro. Considering the strength of the bond he confessed to feel with Verlaine, Annensky actually translated very little of his poetry, particulary by contast with Sologub and Bryusov whose poetic roots are not nearly as intertwined with Verlaine's. Annensky's Verlaine is the chronically depressed, brooding poet on the eve of decadence, whose poetic environment is 88 characterized by fog, dreams, whispers, enigmas, mournful melodies, uncertainty - the landscape and mindscape of his own poetic universe - "TOCKa", 'MyqeHHif, "obMaH", 'ne*ia/ni'. In their insurmountable ennui, the poems of Verlaine and Annensky are indistinguishable from one another. Of the fourteen poems published as Verlaine translations, the first two are actually just different treatments of the same poem, "Mon reve fam ilier'. Annensky's first text which he considers a translation bears a Russian title, "C oh c kotophm a cpoAHH^ca" and is subtitled 'coHeT'. The second variant, by contrast, has a French title, Le reve familier" which is translated in Russian in a footnote, 'TIpHBbuiHhiH coh. 1 With its title nearly identical to Verlaine's, it is, paradoxically, Annensky's variation on the theme, as he inidicated in a subtitle to its original publication, "Ha mothb H3 n. Bep;ieHa." Annensky appears to distinguish translation, an effort to represent accurately the original poem, from what in his eyes constitutes his own work. However, as the language of the titles implies, Annensky is perhaps deliberately ambiguous as to the authorship of the poems. Both poems are in spirit faithful to Verlaine. Annensky replicated virtually all the imagery in the poem in both his versions, and they share a common lexicon as well as having similar simplicity, repetitions, and elipses. However, Annensky recognized only one as a translation. His distinction between them is telling; proclaiming one to be his own poem, he urges 89 recognition of the accuracy of the other. Invalidating one, he hopes to ensure the acceptability of the other and indeed of all the other efforts that in his estimation deserve to be called translation and not poems "Ha m o t h b H3 n. Bep;ieHa.' Yet it is clear that the boundaries between the two are not firm; Annensky s voice is heard in the translations, and at least some of the intrusions in the "variations come from the Verlaine source. A comparison of the two highlights some of the contrasting traits of the two poets and prefaces an analysis of the remaining poems. "Mon reve familier" is the sixth poem in Verlaine s earliest collection, Poemes Saturniens. those which he described as born under the sign of Saturn, "fauve planete chere aux necromanciens." 27 In these early poems Verlaine first announces his obsession with death, an obsession of which Annensky was also a victim 28 and declares this collection of poems to be composed "bonne part de malheur et bonne part de bile." The first subdivision of the Poemes Saturniens is subtitled "Melancholia", and poems reflecting the overarching themes are "Lassitude", "L'Angoisse" and "Nevermore", evoking the frightening world of Poe. Mon reve familier" describes a gentler counterpart to "le hi deux cauchemar" of the next poem "A une femme", but it is representative of the collection in its imagery, mood and compositional style. Even this premature poem evidences the features that characterize his great work, 90 the enjambments, the repetitions with subtle variations, and the sonority which has its roots in this poem s "('inflexion des voix cheres qui sont tues." "Mon reve familier" summons a mysterious lady who offers everything that is unattainable in life - love, understanding, and above all peace. The poet identifies and names the first two, but peace is so elusive that he cannot name it. Instead, he evokes it with the soothing sounds and remoteness of her voice. The feminine essence often inhabits Annensky's poetry, where she is commonly assumed to be his muse rather than a flesh and blood object of his passion. The idealized and remote image in this poem is as identifiable with Annensky as with Verlaine. But Annensky's variation introduces a specific reference absent in the Verlaine poem, a reference obviously derivative of Verlaine s biography. The feminine presence is concretized in "Le reve familier" as "neqajibHaa, Heamaa MaTb.' This innovation is traceable to Verlaine rather than to Annensky and evidences Annensky supplementing, annotating, and misreading" Verlaine. "Mon reve familier is a sonnet, a form favored by both poets. It is likely, as Fedorov explains, that Annensky's sonnets in general are derived from the French rather than the Russian tradition: Ec^h qeTwpexcTonHbiH bm6 b coHeTe y pyccKHx noaTOB BCTpeqaeTca pe^xo, to y Tex cjjpaHB,y3CKHX JinpHKOB, KOTopHx nepeBo,n,H;i 91 AHHeHCKHH, COOTBeTCTByiOmaS AaHHOMy pa3M epy pa3H0BH.a,H0CTb CHJiJiabHMecKoro CTHXa ( BOCbMHCJIOIKHhlH CTHx) ABJieHHe OTHKUtb He e^HHHHHOe, H B03M03CH0, MTO HMeHHO C $paHU,y3CK0H TpajUHIJHeH CBfl3aH 3T0T COHeTa y AHHeHCKoro.29 Annensky dutifully replicates the sonnet form in his translation . But the second variant, "Le reve familier", although also constructed of fourteen lines, consists of seven stanzas of rhyming couplets, averse form that Annensky experimented with only in passing and that was equally rare among Verlaine's poems. 3° The diversion evidently intrigued Annensky, though, as it is the form of two other Verlaine poems which he elected to translate: "0 triste, triste etait mon ame ..." and the unnamed first poem of Saeesse. "Bon chevalier.” Annensky's interest in Verlaine's experimentations with prosody is reflected in these instances. Although modest in number, the range of Annensky's translations is quite broad and introduces the Russian reader to Verlaine the poet at various stages of his development. Annensky the teacher is very much in evidence in his representation of Verlaine. Three of the selected poems, 'Be^epoM", "S i ycTaji. . .‘ and "S i - MaHbflK jho6b h” are from the group "Amour," of psychological interest but not noteworthy on the poetic plane. Borel comments that "la vibration en est absente," 31 and arrives at a similarly pejorative judgment of "Parallelement" from which Annensky produces two 92 translations, " Impression fausse" and "KanpH3.“ Verlaine tries again here with only fleeting success to introduce new poetic forms, and as Borel concludes, "de la plupart des pieces, l'accent proprement verlainien est, finalement, absent." Annensky s selection results from the pursuit of his own poetic interests as well as on his pedagogical tendencies. Unifying the translations and his own work, he includes Verlaine s brief and hardly representative experiment with allegory. The medieval themes and the dramatic development in the lesser known works "Bon chevalier. . ." and Crimen amor is" are common components of Annensky's thematic repertoire. His lifetime work on classical drama at least in part explains his interest in these Verlaine pieces. Additionally, in search of an innovation he never achieved for himself, Annensky found in these pieces an interesting record of Verlaine s experimentation that challenges some of the traditional critical postures. The long poem "Crimen amor is" attracts little attention from Verlaine critics. Within the confines of Verlaine scholarship "Crimen Amoris" is of interest almost exclusively for its uncommon metrical structure. One of the few studies of the poem is provided in Octave Nadal's preface to its publication in the Oeuvres Poetiaues Completes He examines the hendecasyllabic poem as a palimpsest of Rimbaud's influence on Verlaine. He points to the fact that Verlaine 93 produced only four poems in hendecasyllabic verse, and that these four poems, written in 1872 and 1873, were either written expressly for, or in testimony to Rimbaud who began to compose in this verse in 1872. Prior to this time, poets felt restrained from using the hendecasyliable because, according to Nadal, "c'est le metre le plus arythmique. ”32 But whereas Verlaine reached the limit of his unorthodoxy when he tapped the intrinsic power of the ryhthmic dissonance of the hendecosyllabic "impair ", Rimbaud went beyond it in search of still newer forms and inventions. "Verlaine, lui, resta prosodiquement orthodoxe." Nadal's discussion impinges on this study in two ways. He identifies the period of Verlaine's greatest prosodic daring as brief, as only a developmental phase in his writing, and as more imitative of Rimbaud than as emanating strictly from his own poetic tendencies. As a consciously untraditional poem, "Crimen amoris" is a critical specimen for a Verlainiste like Annensky whose inclusion of this poem exemplifies the depth of his scholarship as well as the limits of his symbiosis. Annensky completely ignores the potential of the hendecasyllabic verse and the importance of the experiment of which he was surely fully cognizant. Overriding the dominant prosodic structure of the poem Annensky writes npecTyn-fieHHe juo6bh" in the completely classical six-foot iambic line. Overriding the dominant prosodic structure of the 94 poem, Annensky revisions the poem to emphasize its thematic properties, properties that, not incidentally, comfortably belong to his original poetry. The unnamed poem which initiates Saeesse must be examined in conjunction with "Crimen amoris ”, for they are the two poems translated by Annensky that reveal his thoroughness as a Verlaine scholar more than they serve to clarify Verlaine s place in the canon. They are far from typical of the canonical Verlaine and are nowhere considered among his best or important poems. In that sense they serve more to enlighten our understanding of Annensky’s use of the Verlaine poems in his own developmental course and to reveal the depth of the affinity between the two poets. The poem, which I shall refer to as "Bon chevalier", (the Annensky title is a straightforward TlepBoe cTHxoTBopeHHe cbooHmca Saeesse") represents a deliberate effort on Verlaine's part to distance himself from the most innovative facets of his art. As one scholar observes, there is nothing in common between this poem’s return to "des procedes uses" and the impressionism characteristic of Romances sans oaroles. 33 It is with this poem that Verlaine s new penchant for allegory makes its debut, and like so many of the Sagesse poems it documents an incontestable nostalgia for the faith of his youth . The poem causally links the traumatic period of imprisonment and the ensuing nostalgia for the surety of salvation that constitutes 95 the Christian promise. Dantec provides another interpretation of the medieval motif of "Bon chevalier" and other Saeesse poems, that ties Verlaine s renascent religious sentiments not only to his life crisis but also to his poetic world. 'Ce moyen age n est pas seulement elu ainsi parce qu'il est l'epoque de la foi, il est elu parce qu'il n est plus, et que, n'etant plus, il peut enfin devenir pour l ame une patrie, une autre 'region ou vivre'."34 The mysterious voice in "Bon chevalier" is reminiscent of the woman's voice in "Le reve fam ilier", and both come from that other world reality to which Verlaine escapes often and which Annensky likewise finds compelling. The otherworldliness of this poem's atmosphere and its evident death orientation make it seem, once translated, more like Annensky's than Verlaine's. Each of the Verlaine's poems selected for translation is traceable to a major interest in Annensky's personal oeuvre. The close connection between Annensky's work as a playwright and his work as a translator and scholar of Euripides has already been established.35 The convergence of his interests in drama and antiquity with his poetic translations is similarly manifested in the Verlaine poems where both thematically and structurally Annensky appears to be using these poems as a workshop for his personal development as poet or dramatist. In his original writings, although there are many features common in both poetry and drama, the theme of antiquity is 96 exlusive to the latter.36 In the Verlaine translations, however, Annensky's dramatic and poetic inclinations converge. A number of poems center on themes of antiquity, notably "Pensee de soir" in which the poetic persona is Ovid. This poem shares a number of motifs and images with "Langueur " to be discussed in detail below. Other poems share a dialogic quality, appealing to Annensky the playwright. In addition to "Colloque sentimentale" in which the prevalence of dialogue almost results in a play withing a poem, many Verlaine poems approximate dialogue and are characterized by rhetorical questions. Through Verlaine Annensky experiments with the longer narrative poems that converge on prose. The duality of the couplets (in "Colloque sentimentale", "Je devine . . .", "O triste. . .” and "J'ai lafureur. . .") emulates a conversational or dialogue style. The medieval motif of Verlaine s "Bon chevalier" and "Crimen amoris" is one factor responsible for the neglect to which they have been largely consigned. Curiously though, it is a feature that links the early Pasternak with the French symbolist movement. Pasternak made his publishing debut in the short-lived /Iupmca with contributions from his student verses. Later he would call them "trifles", and Christopher Barnes agrees that they contained elements which in literary- historic terms were already obsolete. He mentions as an example one piece which "developed similes of rose-blossom 97 and medieval chivalry and used tonic % 'ers tibre of a type adapted from the French symbolists by Bryusov and Blok.'37 Considering Annensky’s interest in Verlaine's obscure medieval poems, it cannot be considered purely coincidental that Annensky’s influence on Pasternak has also been traced to these /iHPHKa poems. Furthermore, the poem "«f>eBpajib", one of the only three poems from this early effort that Pasternak salvaged for later anthologies, is the poem that most overtly establishes close ties between Pasternak and Verlaine to be explained in the next chapter. It probably caused Konstantin Loks, to whom the poem is dedicated, to notice the kinship between Annensky and Pasternak. 38 Furthermore, Dale Plank's analysis of the poem includes his notation that several lines "suggest the dependence of Pasternak's poem on Annensky's "MepHaa BecHa." 39 Verlaine, Annensky and Pasternak thus form a triangular construct of influence. Elements in common with Verlaine, Pasternak's intonation, imagery, and vocabulary are also traceable to Annensky. "Mh Haxo^HM y AHHeHcxoro, xota h b 6o;iee cjiaboit CTeneHH, tot ace CMflTeHHHH CHHTaKCHC, cxo^Hoe cjioBoynoTpeb;ieHHe, ry ace c;ioacHyio, He cpa3y cxaaThmaeMyio obpa3HocTb, to ace cnjieTeHHe HecxojibKHX TeM. . . .'40 Despite the depth of the triadic influence, only two poems coincide among the Pasternak and Annensky translations. First is the untitled poem ”1 1 pleure dans mon coeur" which 98 Annensky called "riecHji 6e3 cjiob', a facsimile of the name of the whole collection of poems, Romances sans paroles. By means of this extrapolation, Annensky applies the concept more to the sentiment at issue in this poem than to the broader concept that poetry is an expression without words, that is to say, 'De la musique avant toute chose." Annensky's experiments with Verlaine s themes extend well beyond the translations or even the "variations". In order to explain what transpires in "T lecH Ji Ee3 C jiob” it is necessary to examine two of the original poems that form "Tphjihcthhk flo»cfleBOH" - "OKTflfipbCKHH mh$" and "PoMaHC 6e3 My3MKH . Together they comment on Annensky's variation of "II pleure dans mon coeur” and suggest that he is interested primarily in the themes rather than in the poetic experiment that makes "il pleure" the memorable poem that it is. The intertextual links between these Annensky poems and the Verlaine opus also include another album poem, "La chanson d automne". To begin with, a common set of items, objects, phenomena, words, images, building blocks compose the Verlaine poems and the two written by Annensky. Manifesting the same traits of the Verlaine poems, the Annensky poems draw on the stock metaphors of autumn to reflect a psychological state. Rather than anthropomorphizing nature in her dying season, both poets rely on metonymical connections of the environmental phenomena. The 99 temperamental Verlaine, the prototype, suggests that autumn s song is the cause of his langueur monotone'; then a clock s chimes induce a mournful nostalgic state, and in the end he offers as much resistance as a fallen leaf to the wind’s inexorable force. The same hierarchy determines "II pleure dans mon coeur'; nature moves right inside the human heart in a metonymy that only just comes short of fusion. Once again it is nature s "chanson" - "0 bruit doux de lapluie/O le chant de la pluie" that is the inspiration for the theme as well as the prosodic structure and development of the poem. Turning to Annensky's "OKTabphCKHH m h| ‘ and "PoMaHC 6e3 My3hiKn', we encounter Annensky as Symbolist who transfigured Verlaine's impressionistic representation of nature's stormy forces into the mysterious blind man. But the passivity that characterizes "Chanson d'automne" is echoed in "OKTiibpBCKHH mh$ ‘ where the suffering of the poet is fully projected onto the apocryphal blind man on the roof, and the poet-persona is overcome and impotent - "Mite tockahbo. MHe HeBMO^b.” Time too plays a role here as it did in "Chanson"; this is not a timeless dark night of the soul. As in the Verlaine poem, the poet is aware of the hour: "H b r^yxon no/iHOMHbiH qac" . The title of the poem bears no apparent relationship to the text; there are no specifically autumnal qualities to the setting to identify with the wind and fallen leaves of Chanson 100 d'automne'. The title of this poem derives its identity only within the context of the trilogy. The first poem, not discussed here, is Vfoac.uHK’ ' and the Verlaine themes are broken up among the three. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle they can be reassembled to construct the overarching Verlaine pattern. All the ingredients are present - the rain whose identity is indistinct from the tears, the song, and the autumn. Annensky's insignificant poem 'PoMaHC 6e3 My3HKH', dull in its repetitive lines and unimaginative rhymes, is really of interest only for its Verlainian subtext. The poem shares the autumn motif and other thematic oppositions common to Verlaine such as "orHH/xojioaHHe, BMecTe/o^ hh. Along with its title, a reversal of "Romances sans paroles" ironic in its actualization of itself, it is indeed a poem without musicality. Although as I shall explain, Annensky ultimately poses a question quite different from Verlaine s "Quelle est cette langueur . . .?" and from Pasternak's also different "OTKy.n.a ace 3to Taxafl xaHflpa?” the poetic devices and structure of his translation reflect his intention to produce a poem that is a mimetic shadow of "II pleure dans mon coeur ....'" The translation evidences the depth of Annensky's understanding of how "II pleure" functions. In Annensky’s poem we find an elemental structure that parallels the sound interplay of the original. Annensky chooses the onomatopoetic "inyM" as the cornerstone of his poem. The word itself does not 101 appear until line 6, where it is highlighted by the accompanying and semantically and phonetically complementary "mejiecTb" and 5*cyp<iaHbfl\ But the sybillants and hushers function overture-like in the preceeding lines to create a sound textured poem closely allied to its Verlaine prototype. In Verlaine s poem, the plosives of "pleure" and "pleut" set up the pattern of repetition and interchange and then culminate in the final "peine" and ' pourquoi" to complete a micro representation of the major themes of the poem. The phonetic bond between "pleut" and "pleure" is a fortuitous incidence in the French language that allows Verlaine to make music of the metaphor upon which the poem is constructed. Rain, the cliched expression of an anthropomorphized nature s sorrow, coexists with the poet’s tears as a coincidental occurrence both in the original poem and in Annensky's. Of course there is more than just "paronymous attraction" between "pleut" and "pleure", but it is this attraction which heightens the semantic effect of their juxtapostion, an effect not replicable in Russian. 41 In Annensky's poem the sounds "c, in, ac, 3" are important, occurring in clusters beginning with "c" and gradually increasing in intensity. What he makes explicit in the second stanza, '/IbioTCfl M ejio,zi,HeH HOTbi/ZIbioTCii ^tOyK/t^iHBbie hotm he builds into the fabric of the poem. First "cep^,u,e, c;ie3aMH, cjiobho, chbmh then 102 "mejiecTa, rnyMa, acypMaHbfl” and "»cH3Hbio, H3M6H, fl3BHTb'' climax with "Pa3Be He xyace" which frames and dominates the last stanza, by then fully vibrating with the sound, "rayM" . By thus emphasizing the sound structure of the poem, Annensky dim inishes the semantic value of the words to carry out his Verlaine experiment, to produce a TlecHJi 6e3 cjiob". Even though he annotated his translation ‘ TlecHfl 6e3 cjiob" as a variation, Annensky follows the construction of "II pleure ..." very closely. He meticulously reproduces the ABA A schema of each quatrain and even includes the duplication of the end words in two of the "B" lines, although he shifts the position from lines 6 and 11 to lines 2 and 8. However, his "Ty^a" fulfills the same function as "toits", extending the poem s vista vertically and fortifying the visual aspect of the rain imagery to complement the auditory. Notably, Annensky's repeated rhymes in every first and fourth line replicate Verlaine’s pattern, but Annensky goes beyond Verlaine by repeating not just the final rhyme word but the entire line. Broadening the parameters of this poem to include the concept of Verlaine s "Romances sans paroles", Annensky uses this repetition like a refrain of a song. Verlaine's repeated rhyme words are coeur, pluie, raison, peine." Their already strong position is fortified by their repetition, and Verlaine concretizes his major themes in these four cornerstones of the poem. Annensky substitutes "cjiesaMH, h o t m , t o m h m o , My^eHMH", 103 different but within the spirit of the original, or in the case of "h o t h " the spirit of the Verlaine oeuvre. The most important deviation occurs in the omission of a corollary to "raison," because Verlaine s "pourquoi" is the most anguished utterance of the poem. Annensky poses two very different questions from Verlaine s "Quelle est cette langueur" and "Quoi! Nulle trahison?", and these, in the final analysis, clarify why he justly considered his poem a variation and not a translation. In the second half of the poem, he shifts attention from physical manifestations of the crisis to an assertion of knowledge of cause. He elevates the poem to a metaphysical level, and dispensing with Verlaine s querulous "Quoi! Nulle trahison?" he reveals that he is suffering neither from grief nor betrayal, but from existential angst: ”c 5KH3Hhio HacKyqa." He compares "MyqeHHfl" with TocKa" ( 'Pa3Be He xyace Myi t ieHHH/3T0 TOCKa 6e3 Ha3BaHba?“) not out of concern for their cause, which he professes fully to understand, but to deepen the impact and credibility of the purely rhetorical question with which he conludes the poem: "XHTb 6e3 6opb6bi h B;ie<ieHHH, Pa3Be He xyiKe MyqeHHH?" For Annensky the answer is obvious, since the existence of poetry and poets alike derives from the volatile course of human emotions. Annensky's philosophy of poetry, that "there are combinations of sounds which can transform real ugliness into poetic 104 b e a u t y . " 42 i s r e f l e c t e d h i s i n a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s s u f f e r i n g i n 'T le cH fl E e 3 Cjio b. ” Annensky poses his two questions at the conclusion of the poem. Even though they are rhetorical questions, they open the poem as it were to include the reader. It thus becomes at least in spirit dialogic. But the Verlaine poem, by ending decisively, precludes both difference and alliance and remains within the sole purview of its persona. Despite this distinction, however, Annensky preserves the poem's decidedly limited focus on the individual emotional sphere, situating his "My'teHHe’ ’ somewhere central on an axis of which "bopbti" and "BJieqeHHe" occupy opposite poles. The other poem translated by both Annensky and Pasternak is "Langueur" a poem strongly connected to "II pleure" whose the topical mood is identically named "langueur". The Russian poets reserved TOMJieHHe", the direct translation of langueur", for the historically referenced poem, where, and Steinberg s remarks on Pasternak apply equally well to Annensky, the lyrical "I" is assocated with the fall of Rome : "oh n c n o jib s o B a ji c t h j i h c t h h c c k h BHCOKoe cjiobo T O M JieH H e'. ” 43 The classical setting of the poem makes it readily accessible to Annensky's poetic imagination. And yet, the deviations in his translations entail not only embellishments of the theme that dominated his life’s work, but also curious excisions. In lieu of Verlaine s less detailed and more suggestive portrayal of 105 antiquity, Annensky elaborates with specific details of Verlaine s "longs combats sanglants". His poem builds on focal points ("Tpybu", " b c h o k ', “h a ”, "jiaHiteT") that externalize "TOMJieHHe , writing it into the poem where it can be transcended. He colorizes the poem with " n y p n y p H o r o 3aKaTa” and "cKyxa xcejiTan'' dramatizing the contrast between the persona bjieAHHH p h m j i h h h h " and the setting. The morosity of the poem's message is countered, in keeping with Annensky's philosophy, by the beauty that the poem itself injects. Annensky's belief in the supremacy of the poetic world over the dark forces of life is also responsible for the removal of Bathylle from Verlaine's poem, at first glance curious since the concretizing of the classical world through the presence of a real individual seems so concordant with Annensky's professional immersion in the classical era. He chooses instead the nameless but more descriptive "napa3HT neqajihHHH" to intone posthumous laudations "penbio norpebajihHOH" and allow for the ultimate triumph of poetry, ie. speech, whereas in Verlaine's poem the emphasis is on the aphasia of depression, " langueur" . Although the personae of the Verlaine and Pasternak poems most often reflect strong similarity if not symbiosis with their real selves, Annensky's poetic "I" is very different from his human one. The poem "TOMJieHHe" with its bold "fl* 106 demonstrates the radical opposition between Annensky the man with his incurable morosity, and Annensky's poetic incarnation. In the original poem, the I' is immediately dehumanized, becoming the empire not a person, and it never appears again. As the following chapter will explain, Pasternak's persona merges even more completely with the abyss of history than Verlaine's. But Annensky's poem, despite all the colorful manifestations of the background, is firmly governed by a very human persona. His "JT - bjie^HMH pHMJiflHHH' - not only incorporates the "barbares blancs' who are "other in Verlaine s poem, but also maintains continued control of the poem by initiating three lines in both the octave and the sestet. In addition, there are five other first person references: "m o h ' in line 2, MHe in line 9, "Hac" in line 11, and "m hoio" in line 13. The permanence and durability of this poetic persona is not ultimately threatened either by latent frailty in its own nature or by the perils of historic events. In fact, juxtaposed with threats to itself, it defines and dramatizes itself as Fedorov recognized: BHyTpeHHHH m h p JinpHMecKoro r e p o a AHHeHCKoro - apaM aTH neH , h ,npaMaTH3M e r o BU3BaH H e neCCHMHCTH<ieCKHMH nepeacHBaHHflaMH KaK TaxoBHMH, xotb ohh h npoxoA flT <iepe3 M Horne c t h x h , He m h c jia m h o CMepTH h CBS3aHHMMH c Hew o6pa3aMH, He TeMOH 6e3pa^ocTHOH ;iro6BH, a 1 07 Hanpa^ceHHOCTbio Toro cooTHouieHHa, K O TO poe B 03H H K aeT M 6 * a y B H yT p eH H H M M HpOM S H MHpOM BHeUIHHM, TO eC Th M HpOM JIIO.fl.eH H M HpOM n p H p O ^ h l, M H pO M B e m e H B UIHPOKOM CMUCJie. 44 A n n e n s k y ' s p o e m t r a n s c e n d s t h e d e p r e s s e d p a r a l y s i s o f t h e V e r l a i n e a n d P a s t e r n a k p o e m s . H i s "5T i s t h a t o f t h e "new p o e t r y " h e e n v i s i o n e d , "He to a , K O T o p o e n p o T H B o n o c T a B a a a o c e fifl u,eaoMy M H p y , O y^T O 6 u e r o H e noHHBineMy, a to s , K O T o p o e >Ka,HHO HIU,eT BIIHTaTb B c e b fl 3 T 0 T M H p H C T aT b HM, A e a a f l e r o co b o io ." 45 In conclusion, although Verlaine is an obvious and consistent "ancestor" for Annensky, his translations are distant from the original poems. The differences result certainly from the limits of adaptability between French and Russian, but equally and even more radically from the resistance of each translator s idiom, the poetic diction that defines him. Zelinsky's conclusions on the subjectivity of Annensky's Euripides translations sum up this analysis as well: A h h ch ck h h BOBce He nepeBO^^HK b obuKHOBeHHOM cMHcae caoBa, He To;iMa<i, cTapaiom,HHca ToahKo cbohm h caoBaMH n ep eaaT b HenoHflTHyio & n si ero cpe^bi pe*ib no^aHHHHKa. Ebphiih,h a j i s Hero - uacTh ero cobcTBeHHOH 5KH3HH, cymecTBO, po,ncTBeHHOe eMy caMOMy, h npHTOM po/tCTBeHHoe KaK CXOXCHMH, TaK H KOHTpaCTHpyiOIItHMH uepTaMH cBoero ecTecTBa. Ero oh BocnpHH«a, b Hero oh B^yBCTBOBaacfi Bceio CBoeio fly m o ii; ycBoeHHoro hm EBpHim.ua oh n ep e^ aeT cbohm HHTaTeaaM.46 108 The next poet-translator under consideration is Fyodor Sologub, a writer who lived by translation. Verlaine figured as one of his most loved poets and one of the most manifest objects of influence in his original work as well as a subject for translation. Like Annensky, Sologub, in spite of the strong and immediately evident compatibility with Verlaine s poetics, manifests the anxiety of influence syndrome by overriding Verlaine s voice and subjugating it to his own. Like Annensky, Sologub has in common with Verlaine a predilection for an almost cultlike morosity. But, where Annensky found escape from the ugliness of real life in the beauty of literature, and Verlaine wavered between bouts of love and despair, Sologub escaped from reality into the even darker, more horrifying world of his imagination. Annensky created for himself an at least partially optimistic philosophy of the aesthetic. For Sologub, however, art never managed to depict paradise on earth ". In his view, even Realists are "forced to depict primarily the negative sides of existence." 47 Sologub wavered between two equally pessimistic philoshophies, a Gnostic dichotomy of an evil earth and a distant ideal, and a Schopenhaurian monism - an endless and aimless cruel cycle of deaths and resurrections. All of Sologub’s thinking and writing reflect the dichotomous tendency of those two philosophies. He moved between the real and the illusory and in his critical writing identified a bipolar model for poetry. He believed that 109 artistic creation is channeled in two directions, toward irony, investigative of reality and removing illusion, and toward lyricism which idealizes fantasy and rejects reality. This opposition is at the root of Sologub's admiration of Verlaine as he explains in his preface to the translations: " fl nepeBo.a.HJi BepjieHa noTOMy, bto jnobaio ero. A jnohaio a b HeM to , hto npeflCTaBJiaeTCfl MHe b HeM Hanbojiee ^hctmm npoflBaeHHeM mhcthmbckoh hpohhh." 48 He explains how he perceives the dichotomy of inclinations in poetic creation, that for the lyrical poet as for Don Quixote, there is no Aldonsa but only a Dulcinea. For the ironic poet, on the other hand, as for Sancho Panza, there is no Dulcinea, but only Aldonsa. But Verlaine, says Sologub, incorporates both in his vision. CaMMH pe^KHH yKJIOH, - H 3T0 - ytUIOH noafl Bep/ieHa, - xor/ta npuHflTa AahAOHca, xax no^aHHHaa Ajih,noHca h no,mmHHafl .ZfyahitHHea: Kaac^oe ee nepeacHBaHHe om,ym,aeTca b ero pokobwx npoTHBope<max, bc« HeB03M02KH0CTh yTBepac^taeTca, x a x HeobxoAHMOCTt, 3a necTpoio 3aBecoio cayaaHHOcTeH obpeTeH Be^HUH mhp cBobo^w. B K a x A O M 3eMH0M h rpyboM ynoeHHH TanHCTBeHHO BBaeHhi KpacoTa h BOCTopr. M pOHHB CTaHOBHTCB M H CTH BeCK O K J. Here in the prologue is the first evidence of Sologub's deliberate misreading of Verlaine. Bloom s theory is that a poet performs "an arbitrary act of reading " , "falsifies" his precursor "because every strong reading in sists that the meaning it finds is exclusive and accurate." 50 According to 1 10 Maximilian Voloshin, Sologub's theory of irony, ascribed to Verlaine, is in fact, strictly his own: "B npeAHcaoBHH k nepeBo^aM BepjieHa, Coaoryb BwcKa3hiBaeT pa# Mwc^efi o jinpH'mecKOH no33HH, KOTopwe, BnpoqeM, em,e bojibine AaioT K^ioqeH k TBop^ecTBy Co^oryba, qeM BepjieHa.” 51 At issue here is the kind of "illusio" in which, according to Bloom, the "intolerable presence (the precursor's poem) has been voided, and the new poem starts." 52 What Sologub has identified is, in Bloomean terms "the trope of rhetorical irony" or "clinamen". 53 Sologub's thinking reflects Nietzsche's, that "we have Art that we may not perish from Truth," 54 but Sologub makes it clear in his discussion of Verlaine, that even if art provides an escape from that Truth, the evil as well as the good must be taken into account. Although an adherent of a solipsistic philosophy, Sologub wanted like Don Quixote to preserve ideals in a world of vulgarity and stupidity. This existential angst is the agent provocateur of his writing. The motif of "cTpaxa nepea acH3Hbio‘ ' dominates Sologub's writing beginning with the first volume of his poetry, and the most appropriate epigraph to Sologub's work would be his lines “3 th bojibHhie TOM;ieHHfl/ IlepeA beAoio! 55 Life as Sologub views and depicts it is full of horror, so much so that, it is more to be feared than death. "/KH3Hb be3CMHc;ieHHafl - CTpanma, CTpaumee caMOH CMepTH.” 56 But, the death to which Sologub escapes in his writing is rendered 111 beautiful because it is his creation. In the world of his own making, he is in control. Besides, it is not actual death he finds attractive, but the death of reality. This is what constitutes peace for a solipsist. O^HHO^ecTBO He CTpaumo, h6o a bo BceM h Bee bo MH6. " 57 jn Sologub’s view, life is without apparent meaning, and if there is meaning it is hidden and man is without the capacity to find it. The question then becomes, " 3 a q e M M H 5KHBeM, H CTOHT JIH B TaKOM C J iy q a e SKHTb? 5 8 N o t finding an answer to this question either, the only recourse is to live out life somehow unafraid, by becoming master of an imaginary world. Si - Bor TaHHCTBeHHoro M iip a , Becb MHp b oahhx mohx MeqTax .... There hh^to He CTpainHo--,a,ajKe MHpoBoe 3ao, ^aace JiioacKHe CTpaAaHHfl, flaace 6e3CMbic;iHua ;kh3hh. ..." 59 Verlaine s poetic universe was limited to an interior life, beautiful and harmonious, offsetting the tawdry life he led in reality. If his mood is universally tragic, hope always lies just underneath the surface and is nurtured by the faith of his childhood. But Sologub s kinship with Verlaine does not derive from any concordance on this matter. As Ivanov-Razumnik makes clear, Sologub found no refuge in any belief system. "McKaTb cMbic/i h qe^b > kh3hh qe;iOBeKa h JK H 3H H qe/ioBeMecTBa r^e-TO Bnepe^H, B03^araTb H afle^H Ha 6e3CMepTHe ,n,yxa hjih 6e3CMepTHe qe;iOBeqecTBa, Ha .najieicoe 1 12 rpfl^ymee-fle^o pe;iHrH03H0H Bepu. EflaaceH kto BepHT; 4*. Co;ioryb He BepHT." 60 Although he was affected by Verlaine's experiments with prosody and evocation of moods, Sologub more resembles Poe, or Hawthorne whom he also translated, undoubtedly drawn by their puritanical obsession with morality and sin. From the early melancholic verses, he turned to what one critic has called "florescent" Decadence, and he is called, not Russia's Verlaine, but the Russian Baudelaire. 61 Liudmila Klayman identifies their common pursuits: "E;iH30CTb Eofljiepa h Cojioryba CKa3tiBaeTca, HanpHMep, b tom, *ito jxrs. oboHX nncaTeneH B a^fC H U iiohckh hoboto: mhpob, 3eMJiH, Hebec." 62 Pointing to the nightmares ( Taace^He chm"), and Sologub's favored metaphors of spiders, worms, and vampires, Klayman agrees with Donchin that he is a direct descendent of Baudelaire. Tepon Co;ioryba beryT ot 3eMJiH 3a rpaHb B03Mo>KHoro, b npe,ne;iH TaitH h chob ." 63 And yet, if the images and symbols of his poetry are descended from "Les fleurs du m al', the language he uses to construct them is, like Annensky's, Parnassian in its clarity, precision, and economy. 64 Accordingly, Sologub turned to the language rather than to the content of Verlaine's verses. In a case similar to Pasternak s, Sologub's final volume of verse is generally acknowledged to have attained a new simplicity, an obverse reflection of the complexity of personal traumas that beseiged 113 him at the time. Although stylistic change in his writing is apparent, there is no corresponding philosophical evolution in Sologub. Although his characters may swing from rejection to acceptance of life's horrors", Sologub "was using decadence, revolt and submission only as different masks in an elaborate dance of words." 6 5 Verlaine offered Sologub more than one new step for his dance. Besides the simplicity, Verlaine models an intimacy most appropriate for the expression of the private world of escape. Verlaine is the one poet, according to Voloshin, who spoke "AeTCKH-qHCTHM to^ocom" . When Sologub states that he translated Verlaine simply because he loved him, according to Voloshin this intimacy is what he loved: "Mbi ;iio6hm ero coBceM He 3a to, * ito tobopht oh, h He 3a to, KaK oh tobopht, a 3a tot HeH3iiSCHHMHH ottchok roaoca, kotopmh 3acTaB;iHeT TpeneTaTh Harne cep^ite." 66 In this context it becomes understandable why children number prominently among the characters of Sologub s prose. They are usually tainted with the evil impulses that flower and manifest themselves in adulthood, and only remain innocent if they die, as in Sologub's stories they often do, in childhood. Paradoxically, many of his poems are in the form of lullabies, reflecting Sologub's longing for the intimacy and innocence that he would find and love in Verlaine. And when one speaks of his most favored verses, the little songs of eight to twelve lines, 1 14 one recognizes traits that are traceable to Verlaine, 3ByKOBoe o q a p o B a H H e , HeyjioBHMyK) n e B y ^ iec T b . 67 Reflecting the predilection for small poems that characterizes his original work, Sologub’s Verlaine translations focused on the short lyrical poems and excluded the longer, narrative poems of interest to Annensky. His first edition of Verlaine translations appeared in 1908 and included thirty- seven poems, of which five were given in two or three translations each. The second expanded edition, published in 1923, consisted of fifty-three poems, two of which have two versions, and Sologub s variations on sixteen poems. In a notable coincidence with Pasternak s biography, Sologub's original works were found unsuitable for publication after the October Revolution. They have seldom been republished in the Soviet Union, explains Edward Brown, "because their idealistic philosophy and fantasies run counter to Socialist Realism. "68 As a result Sologub was forced for the last ten years of his life to live by translation. In the multi-layered network of influences, it happens that Annensky has written an essay about Sologub as writer and as translator. His reflections are indices not only to Sologub's poetics but also to his own, and thus provide a schema for observing some differences between the two as translators of Verlaine. Annensky describes Sologub as unshakably idiosyncratic, beyond influence as it were. As a 115 p o e t , h e a s s e r t s , "oh MoaceT ztb im a T b T O JibK O b CBoeH a T M O c $ e p e ." 69 I t i s a n i g h t w o r l d h i s p o e t r y i n h a b i t s , a n d A n n e n s k y d e p i c t s i t i n t e r r a s o f '<ito-to r ; iy n o - K o n iM a p H O - Ahko', w h e r e e v e n w h a t e v e r t e n d e r n e s s a p p e a r s i s " c T p a r a H a a " . 70 '/Iiob oB b C o j io r y b a n o x o T J iH B a h H e x H a , ho b H e ii H y B C T B y e T c a <ito-to r n e H b e , ^ to -to iio<ith K a p a M a 3 0 B C K o e. ..." 71 He g i v e s h i s v e r s e s ,HH,nHBH1 n> y a ;ib H H H k o Ji o p H T " a c c o r d i n g to A n n e n s k y , a n d s t u f f s t h e m w i t h " c;io B a - thkh" . C o / i o r y b 3 J io y n o T p b ;ifle T c jio s a M H : bojibHOH h 3^oh. Bee y H e r o b o ;ib H o e . . . 72 N a t u r e i n S o l o g u b s p o e t i c w o r l d h a s b e e n d e s c r i b e d a s " B c e r fla H O ^H aa, c w p a a h a c y T K a a , b o a o T H a a , p e a H a a ." I t c o u l d n o t b e m o r e d i s t a n t f r o m V e r l a i n e s . 73 Annensky's writings emphasize Sologub's intellectuality and "paccy^oaHOCTb", but they also recognize him as an emotional and even sensual poet. Although his sensuality is "ocjiojiceHa h xaK bhi .aa^Ke npwrHeTeHa ero M HCTHM ecKOH MeaTOH,'74 in Verlaine Sologub could appreciate the genuinely tender and the uncomplicated sentiments expressed in an intimate and simple language. Not surprisingly, since such a judgment could apply equally to himself as to Sologub, Annensky believes that a poet can cease to be a poet to become a translator: ’3to aeJiaeT He Co;ioryb-no3T, a apyroH - BHHMaTejibHHH h HCKycHbiH nepeBOja,aHK." ?5 Such high praise notwithstanding, he concludes that Sologub translated 1 16 Verlaine s poem "Je devine, a travers un murmure" badly (and himself admittedly shamefully). But more relevant is the extent to which just this one Verlaine poem directly influenced Sologub's original work. Annensky identifies its intertextual role in Sologub's play "M epTOBbi Ka^e^H," which he claims Sologub winnowed straight from that poem. The critical point in Annensky's discussion is his realization that despite the unarguable origin of the play, Sologub takes Verlaine s usual theme of love and death and injects it with all his own customary devils. He concludes, as would Harold Bloom, that Sologub was deliberately misreading Verlaine, making a "willing error.”76 "HeT Cojioryfi - He nepeBo/tqHK. Oh cjihiiikom caM b cbohx, hm ace caMHM h co3jo,aHHW X npeBpameHHax. A raaBHoe - ero aasKe h He;ih3a OTpaBHTb qy^HM, noTOMy ^ to O H Myn,PO HMMyHHpOBa^CJI."77 Only one Verlaine poem, "II pleure", was translated by each of the Russian poets under consideration here. This poem figures prominently in Sologub's collection, appearing as a translation and then in two versions among the "BapHaHTbi". His uncommon interest in this particular poem is thus documented. In each of the three variants, Sologub adheres to Verlaine's rhyme scheme, and none of them deviates from the content of the original. The versions represent Sologub's experimentation with the lexicon and with the length and complexity of the line. In each, Sologub seems to pursue the 1 17 same approach to the sound structure as did Annensky before him. Attempting to reflect the fundamentally irreplicable linkage between "pleure/pleut/coeur" he establishes the available connection between "cep,^^e/cJIe3bI/,^02K,z^b, and develops the lexicon of the poem accordingly. Thus, in the translation, voiced and unvoiced sybillants, "/tyma/aMma/3eMae/3^He/' to mention but a few examples, are found in all but one line. In the first variation, although the three major theme words again assume a dominant place in the opening two verses, the major alliterative function in the translation shifts to assonance. A wailing tone resonates through the major rhyme words "MoeM/oKHOM, BHeM/iK)/3eMJiio, noHMy/^eMy, MyqeHba/npe3peHhH". The second variation also relies on the trinitarian central image, but here Sologub deconstructs the subtle and seductive metonymy of "II pleure dans mon coeur/ Comme il pleut sur la ville." By lifting the tears out of the heart or soul and having them "rain" on the heart as it rains on the street he externalizes and thereby weakens the effect. The tender intimacy of the Verlaine poem is also disrupted by Sologub's distortions in this poem. In its matter- of-factness it is less touching; the cold objectivity of "Ha cepflu,e c^e3bi yna/iH” , the actions "ynaflH" and especially "bopojiocb" and "cnopji" upset the melancholy stillness of Verlaine s poem, and the weighty Russian constructions such as 1 18 "C HenocTOflHCTBOM cyAfiHHti" and "He npHMHpaacb' overwhelm Verlaine's simplicity. Sologub gives Verlaine more torment, but less suffering. As a symbolist perhaps he objectivizes and distances the human condition, but he cannot mollify it. The Russian language has many available names for suffering, and Sologub experiments with many of them in these variations; naming too has away of concretizing and distancing pain. "TocKa" and "MyKa" are the choices in the translation; "ycTa^ocTb," "TocKa" and "My^eHHe" in the first variation, and "cKyKa" and "rope" in the second. One can surmise that diagnosing the cause, of primal concern in Verlaine's poem, is supplanted in Sologub's work by an obsession with naming the ailment. The naming is almost aesthetically anaesthetic. But, nowhere among all the possibilities appears "spleen"/"xaHApa" the dominant word in the Pasternak version. Sologub has two other translations in common with Pasternak: Dans l'interminable/Ennui de laplaine", which he too left without title, and "Green", rendered as "MypaBa”. The overt dark outlook of the former and the menace below the surface of "Green" need no adaptation to find a comfortable niche among Sologub’s own works. These components belong to Sologub's fictive and poetic scenery as well as to Verlaine's. The world of the poem "Dans l’interminable ..." is a night world in which Sologub feels quite at home. In his translation, a nightmarish scenario is developed in which 1 19 "bopoh jKaflHHH" and 'TomnH bo^k ' are obvious counterparts to his own fearsome animal characters. The substitution of 'cHer HeHa^e^cHHH" for "neige incertaine' helps to create the more desperte mood of his translation. The insertion of alternating masculine verse increases tension as it disturbs the languishing quality that derives from Verlaine’s (and Pasternak s) unbroken feminine lines. Similarly, when Sologub replaces "Comme des nuees/Flottent gris les chenes” with \HpoacaT, xax cnbflHa” human disorder and dysfunction intrude upon nature's rectitude. Even the meter of Sologub’s translation has dire consequences. The tempo of Verlaine's short lines, composed predominantly of monosyllabic and bisyllabic words, creates a harmonious lulling effect. Pasternak, making a determined effort to reproduce Verlaine s musicality, writes his translation in amphibrachic dimeter, a popular nineteenth century ternary verse which "appeared in works meant to be accompanied by music. . . .” 78 Sologub, on the contrary, resorted to iambic dimeter whose rhythmic variety is limited, and therefore poets have an understandable tendency to avoid it.79 As for "Green', Sologub wrote a translation as well as a variation. Both are written, as is Pasternak’s translation, in iambic hexameter, reflecting the alexandrine of the original poem. The two versions adhere very faithfully to their model; Sologub’s poems thus differ in much the same way as 120 Verlaine's from Pasternak s "3e;ieHh'. Pasternak s poem, as we shall see, acquires much of its sense of passion and immediacy from its grammar of intimacy, its BceM bueHbeM", "TOJibKo < it o \ "^yTb-qyTb", “noKa" , and the comfortable assumptions "yna/ty" , “cocHy a that replace the infinitives of Sologub's poems and the Taissez" of Verlaine s. The intimate vocal exchange in Verlaine's poem is punctuated in the final line where Verlaine opposes the fear of "Ne le dechirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches" with the surrender of Et que je dorme un peu puisque vous reposez." Verlaine enlivens the lover through direct address. Pasternak does the same. But "the other" in Sologub's two poems never emerges from its quiescent state as the subject of his reverie. In the first poem "b Bamew THiuHHe" and in the second "eaniHM chom" Sologub remains essentially a solipsist. If the dream motif of this poem makes it ideal for adoption by Sologub, even more so does the threat of the broken heart. Verlaine provides Sologub with a menacing innovation on this cliched theme. "Ne le dechirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches" insinuates physical violence and confuses the broken heart" figure of speech with a broken neck, suggesting a love that kills. Verlaine supports Sologub's sad conviction that, as one essayist paraphrased it, "Bca bo j i x k 2K H 3H H npeTBopeHa b Me^TH, Becb mhp -MeHTa, ohMaH, h TOJibKO CMepTh He obMaHeT. Ho Ha.no jKHTb ....HyacHO acHTb b 121 MHpe, ho CBo6o.ua - TOJihKo b OAHHoqecTBe." 80 This aspect of "Green" also supplies Sologub with support for his self- reflective theory regarding Verlaine's "mystical irony". The dream-like lover is indeed a Dulcinea, but has a shadow of Aldonsa as her other self: "Kaac,u;oe ee nepeacuBaHHe o iu y m a e T C H B e r o P ° k o b h x n p o T H B o p e q u flx . ..." 81 Thus, Sologub’s representation of Verlaine is an aberrant composite not solely resulting from interlingual translations barriers or from erroneous misinterpretations on Sologub's part. Sologub swerves from Verlaine to interject his own portrayal not just of Verlaine but, more importantly, of the poetic reality itself. However, and this is the root complexity of the translation process, Sologub comingles his vision with Verlaine's. It is true that he refracts the latter, but at the same time he of necessity conjures a revised vision of his own. When he finds in "Green" substantiation of his ironic vision, he also aligns himself with the Verlaine who emerges independently and perhaps in spite of Sologub. In this act of revisioning, in Bloom's terms, occurs Sologub's "kenosis, his metonymic undoing of his own vision." 82 Along with Fyodor Sologub and Innokenty Annensky, Valery Bryusov numbers among the so-called "new poets ', and one main feature of their poetics, prosaic expression, has its roots in French symbolism. 83 A distinguishing feature in 1 22 Pasternak too, this prosaism in part defines a common genealogy between Verlaine and his Russian voices. Like Annensky, Bryusov is closely connected to Pasternak. Indeed, Pasternak's poem "Bajrepnio 5lKOBJieBHM y EpjocoBy" recited on the occasion of the celebration of his fiftieth birthday, meditates on their relationship. As Joan Grossman explains, "Pasternak s opening lines firmly announce the filial posture": no3,npaB;iJiio Bac, xax a 0TU,a/ri03,npaBH;i , 6h npu toh sice obcTaHOBKe." 84 In the last years of his life Bryusov was profoundly taken with Pasternak s poetry and with the possibilities it opened. According to his critical writings of that time, Bryusov made a sharp turn away from Symbolism and toward the new poetry of the time, including that of Pasternak. This chronology points to a critical distinction in the role Verlaine influence played in the two poets' original work. In Pasternak's case, Verlaine's influence is carved most deeply in the later verse. Bryusov, on the other hand, identified Verlaine as a strong influence in his "Juvenilia". His late poetry, by contrast, is influenced by the early, more obscure, pre-Verlaine period Pasternak. 85 As a translator as well as a poet, Bryusov is radically different from each of the others. For Pasternak, as Lydia Ginzburg declares, all theories and movements were subordinated to his poetic calling: TlacTepHaK He cobHpajic# orpaHHqHTbca 3KcnepHMeHTaMH. Mnp ero cthxob 123 HacTOflTeflbHO T p e b o B a ;i yica3aHHH Ha hctomhhk C B o e r o no3TH^ecKoro cmhcm.' 86 But Bryusov set out to translate Verlaine not really as poet but as a theorist. His dream was to make a name for himself as the literary figure who brought Verlaine to Russia. SI CHHTaJi 6h CBoe .neJio HcnoaHeHHbiM, ec;iH 6h mh6 y,na^ocb .naTb pyccKHM qHTaTe;iaM xoTfl 6hi no.a.obHe T ex cthxob BepaeHa, KOTopHe sceryta npoH3BO^,H^H Ha MeHfl CH^bHeiimee BneqaTaeHHe chjioh CBoen H C KJIIOmiTeJIbHOH HCKpeHHOCTH H nopa3HTe^hHHM oqapoBaHHeM CBoeH My3bIKaJIbHOH $OpMbl. 87 He published a separate edition of Romances sans paroles in 1894, and the dream, according to the Bloom model no doubt contrary to his real hopes and expectations, was realized . "B 3t h x onbiTax bbiao 6o;ibnie ycep^Ha h BOCTopra nepea no33HeH Bep^eHa, qeM .neHCTBHTejibHo Bocco3flaHHa ero cthxob Ha pyccKOM 3i3UKe.” 88 Even this ostensible act of service to the profession, the only apparently "self-humbling" act of "kenosis', is an expression of the anxiety of influence which is actually part of the larger process of "canon-formation which is ultimately a society's choices of texts for perpetuation and study." 89 For the next seventeen years of his life, Bryusov continued to study the works of Verlaine and ultimately produced his complete translation. Sologub's translation 124 evidently became known to him only after he completed his own work; as for Annensky s, although I have found no record of Bruysov s acquaintance with them, one can safely assume it.90 Fedorov compared the Annensky and Bryusov translations and concluded that Annensky was "H cm uoM H TejihH O H e n o x o x : H a S p i o c o B a , K O T o p o r o OTJiH*iaeT H ayqH O -ofi'beK T H B H W H n o ^ x o f l k o p n r H H a j iy , H e K O T o p a a cyxocTb MaHepH.'91 Fedorov s muted criticism of Bryusov is corroborated by the poet-translator's own testimony. His scientific approach required that he produce the strictest possible replications of Verlaine s poems, and his orthodox view necessitated his annotation of any aspects that in his view limit such accuracy. But, ironically, his subsequent intrusions into the text, even though identified as such, are evidence of his ' improving" on Verlaine, the inevitable "clinamen" in Bloom's terms. 92 Bryusov is not, after all, restricting himself to dubbing Verlaine in Russian. Where he concludes that Verlaine s theory is inapplicable in Russian, he alters it. The most notable and critical instance occurs in his translation of "Art poetique" titled like Pasternak s, "M cKyccTBO no33nn". Here he justifies his "swerve" from Verlaine's doctrine of the "impair". riepBaa CTpo^a Mor^a bbiTb nepeBe^eHa TOflbKO npH6jiH3HTe;ibHO. . . . ynoMHHaHHe o He'tieTe' HMeeT c m u c^ TO/ibKo if>pamty3CKHx cthxob h 6bmo bu coBepmeHHO HeyMecTHO no-pyccKH no othoiuchhio k Ham eM y CTHXocaoaceHHio; noaTOMy b n ep eB oae npHiuaoch Been CTpoiJie npH^aTb xapaKTep bojiee obm,HH.93 Accordingly, the first quatrain reads: 0 M y 3 M K e H a nep B O M M e c T e ! n p e a n o n H T a H p a 3 M e p tbkoh , M t O 3hl6oK, paCTBOpHM, h BMecTe He .naBHT CTporoH noaHOTOH. While Bryusov clearly adapted Verlaine's mandate regarding meter, he was a disciple of Art poetique "s urging to experiment with traditional rhyme, at least for a period; "He o n e H b pmJiMOH AopoacH."' Scherr has identified several notable innovations in Bryusov's rhyming. First, Bryusov is one of the few Russian poets other than Balmont who used internal rhyme throughout entire works.94 Then, along with Balmont and Blok, he introduced "innovative linked stanzas (where the two lines of a given rhyme set appear in different stanzas)' . 95 Bryusov also emphasized rhyme enrichment ( "compensation for the lack of identity after the stressed vowel by increasing the similarity to the left of it") in his own work and identified it as a key feature for twentieth century poets, including Pasternak. 96 Finally, Scherr explains that Bryusov and Blok were the forerunners of new rhyme, although, ' [Bryusov's) unusual rhymes are confined to relatively few works. His experiments in rhyme, like those involving meter and rhythm, seem to have been part of his conscious efforts to test the possibilities of 126 verse; the modern rhyme never became an integral part of his poetic practices." 97 The "conscious efforts" that characterize Bruysov's rather academic approach to poetic experimentation correspond to Fedorov s label "HayHHO-ofi’ beKTHBHhiH"' applied to his translation. Bryusov was a "self-made poet" rather than a poet "by the grace of God" who thought of inspiration as a "faithful ox" 98 and of symbolism strictly as a "literary method." 99 As a craftsman and as an aesthetic, he belongs more to the French symbolist movement than to the Russians. While the latter "sought an integrated world view", Brysov was, like Verlaine, Laforgue, and Mallarme, "primarily concerned with evolving a new form of poetic expression. "10° In contrast to Verlaine as well as to Pasternak, Bryusov was neither religious nor metaphysical and "his whole philosophy boils down to juxtapositions, the correspondences' beloved by Symbolists, to contrasts and polarities."1 0 1 In Verlaine s case, emphasis on form is never extraneous to the content of his verses. Inspiration is not summoned but rather summons him, and each of his books of poetry can be identified with a phase of his life. But the sublimity of his poetry is owed to that fact that "combining lyricism with exquisite craftmanship, he transfigured his personal experience into new forms." 102 In an interesting reversal of influence study, however, examination of Bryusov's impersonal traits 127 shed some light on Verlaine as well. Khodasevich saw in Bryusov's poems a certain monologic narcissism, evident in the fact that "all the women in Bryusov's poems are as identical as two drops of water: that is because he did not love any of them, did not distinguish any of them, did not know them. It is possible that he really loved only love." 103 In Verlaine's case too, the subjects of his poems do not inform them or characterize them in any distinct way. They are always "transformed" because the music of the poetry is the preeminent thing, and because the music comes not from the "other" or the "subject" but from within himself. For example, the judgment of E. Lepelletier, who knew Verlaine well, disputes that of Bornecque who emphasizes the personal quality in the Poemes saturniens. Lepelletier "maintained that the poems were entirely impersonal, modeled after poets Verlaine admired for their perfection of form and mastery of word and structure." 104 Returning to "Mon reve familier" (1866) we can see that the poem defines love in anonymous and egocentric terms. Je fais souvent ce reve etrange et penetrant D une femme inconnue, et que j’aime, et qui m'aime Et qui n est chaque fois, ni tout a fait la meme Ni tout a fait une autre, et m'aime et me comprend. Two stanzas later the poet asks "Est-elle brune, blonde ou rousse? Jelignore." Even in a poem published in 189 1, just 128 five years before his death, Verlaine reiterates the earlier verse: "Es-tu brune ou blonde?/ Je n'en sais rien. ..." In spite of this congruity between Bryusov and Verlaine, there nonetheless remains the clinical detachment, the scientific approach that Bryusov injects in the translation. Bryusov, it seems, lacks the tenderness that makes Verlaine so touching, and his translation of "II pleure dans mon coeur", quite possibly the most exact of the translations, elucidates this point. No matter that Bryusov set out to bring Verlaine into the Russian sphere, it was inevitable that his Verlaine be a hybrid of himself. Bryusov's translation evidences his theoretical grasp of the particular magic of this poem. The assonance responsible for much of the music of Verlaine s poem is not replicable in Russian, but Bryusov exploits instead the alliterative capabilites of his language to emphasize and expand the union of "pleure'7 "pleut'/ 'pluie'. "Pleure" appears twice; 'pleut'' once; and "pluie" also twice. Other "p" words are "penetre", "par ", "pour ", pire", "pourquoi" and "peine" (twice) for a total of twelve. By fortunate linguistic congruity, the Russian "iuia^eT " nicely echoes the French model. In various forms it appears six times. A ripple effect of the same sound combination is produced by ";ieneT'" (twice), ' a e n e q e i u h ' , 'n e q a ;ih '' (twice); and other "n“ and " j i “ words are: "aacKOBHH" (twice) and "npn*tHH" (twice). For Bryusov, the 129 total is fourteen, an almost perfect reproduction according to scientific norms. The unique musicality of this poem is owed also to its uncommon rhyme scheme. The random internal rhyme interacts with the end rhymes to produce a syncopated rhythm whose sophistication should have appealed to Bryusov, who, as noted above, experimented with rhyme in his own work. However, in this translation, apparently setting fidelity to content above form, he renders the poem in traditional alternating verse. Verlaine s poem also relies on anaphora to produce the fully realized metaphor. But the device, unifying the two halves of the poem, is restricted in its most overt manifestation to the "II pleure" which initiate lines one and nine, and the reduced anaphoric "O" in lines five and eight. The music they produce is subtle. Bryusov's fondness for anaphora as a unifying device is reflected in the repetition of "n/ia<ieT" considerably in excess of the original poem. 105 By taking the alliterated codeword of the poem, repeating it, and especially by extending its role through the device of anaphora, Bryusov hyperbolizes the metaphor, and unfortunately thereby effectively diminishes the poem. What makes Verlaine s poem so touching is the combination of suggestion and understatement. In the end, Bryusov produces a largely 130 sterilized version of II pleure dans mon coeur" that reveals the hand of the experimenter more than the heart of the poet. What Bloom calls "the shadow cast by the precursors" 106 is a long shadow in Verlaine s case, recast in differing configurations depending upon the historical and literary contexts, the purposes, and the singularity of each of the poet- translators who gave him a Russian voice. Even though Annensky, Sologub, and Bryusov can trace their ancestry straight to Verlaine, even there where the affinity is the closest and most transparent, the comingling of cultures and the conflict of talents predetermine infidelity regardless of authorial intent. In each of these three cases, the original poems were compatible with the work of the translators, and the translations remain within the spirit of the original poems. But the translators nonetheless overlaid their translations with their own poetic and human identities, as Bloom s theory would insist. In Pasternak's case, where the shadow cast is not only temporally longer but also substantively more distant, the interface with Verlaine encodes more conundrical misreadings as the ensuing chapter will attempt to demonstrate. 131 Notes: Chapter Three iD ale Plank, Pasternak's Lvric: a Study of Sound and Imagery (The Hague: Mouton, 1966) 65- 2Edward Brown, "Innokenty Fyodorovich Annensky" in Handbook of Russian Literature , ed. Victor Terras (New Haven, Conn.: Yale U niversity Press, 1985) 22. 3Brown 62. 4Janet G. Tucker, "Innokenty Annensky As Critic" RLT Vol. 11 Winter 1975, 388. ^According to Georgette Donchin, he asserted that the "musical p oten tiality of the word is necessary...in order to provoke a creative mood in the reader." in Janet G. Tucker, Innokentii A nnenskii and the A cm eist Doctrine (Columbus. Ohio: Slavica Publishers, Inc., 1986) 21. 6in his introduction to The Cypress Chest ix. 7in his introduction to The Cvoress Chest ix. 8from his critical essay "0 tfiopMax $aHTacTH*iecKoro y roroflfl'1 in A. Fydorov's preface to 'TlHpHKa". ^Tucker, "Critic" 384. 10Tucker, Doctrine 69. 1 in tro d u ctio n to Lirika' x. 12Vsevolod Setchkarev, Studies in the Life and Work of Innokentii A nneskii (The Hague: Mouton, 1963) 228. 1 3Setchkarev 211. ,4 /I. R. rHH36vor. O JiHPHKe ./IeHHHroaii: C o b b t c k h h nncaTejib, 1964) 318. ^ S etch karev 210. 1 6 /I. R. THH36ypr 359. 17M . AHHeHCKHH. H36oaHHoe (MocxBa: ripaaaaH 1987) 430. ISA. 4»e^,OpOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH. /iHHHOCTb H TBOOM eCTBO (/IeHHHrpafl: XyaoacecTBeHHaa JlHTepaTypaH, 1984) 151. l^A. 4>e^,opoB M ckvcctbq neoeBQiia h xH3Hb BHTeoaTVPU: onepKH (/leHHHrpaa: CoBpeMeHHWH nncaTeab, 1983) 200. Fyodorov cites as one exam ple Verlaine s poem "Crimen Amoris", a genre A nnensky did not w rite him self. This poem is discussed below. 20AHHeHCKHH, "O COBpeMeHHOM flHpH3Me", AlIOilJIOH 22. 2 lAHHeHCKHH, '7lHpH3Me" 22. 224>eAOpOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH 103. 234»eaopOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH 102 24Bloom 18. 25 4>e^,opoB, M c k v c c t b q n e n e B O j a 202. 28in4>e^opoB, M ckvcctbq n e o e B Q iia 201-2. 132 27P. V erlaine, Oeuvres ooetiaues com pletes. Ed. Y. G. Le Dantec (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1962) 58. 28m. AHHeHCKHH, "/lHpH3Me" 4 1. 2 9 a . <3>eAOpOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH 163. 3 °It appears in "OceHb" and "Pace". 3 !in Verlaine, Oeuvres ooetiaues completes 403. 32in P. Verlaine, Oeuvres ooetiaues completes 1165. 33Y. G . Le Dantec in P. Verlaine Oeuvres ooetiaues com pletes 1962. 34Le Dantec 236. 3 5 «J>eAOpOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH 221. 3 6 4>eAOpOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH 2 2 6 - 7 . 37C. Barnes, Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography Volume I 1 8 90-1928 (Cambridge: Cambridge U niversity Press, 1989) 154. 38Barnes 154. 39piank 65- 40/1. HepTKOB, "K Bonpocy o JiH T e p a ry p H O H r e H e a a o r H H I la c T e p H a K a " in Boris Pasternak Collogue de Cerisv-La-Salle (Paris: Institut D'Etudes Slaves, 1979) 59-60. 41 Barry Scherr, Russian Poetry: Meter. Rhvthm. and Rhyme (Los Angeles: U niversity of California Press, 1986) 269. Scherr credits V.P. Grigor'ev with the name of the phenomenon as w ell as with the first attempt to explore it in Russian literature and cites "Paronimicheskaia attraktsiia v russkoi poezii XX v .” 42Setchkarev 56. 43 Setchkarev, 147. 444»eAOpOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH. 111. 45AHHeHCKHH, "9 t o TaKoe no33HH?", M36naHHoe 430. 4 8«J>eAOpOB, MHHOKeHTHH AHHeHCKHH 2 2 4 . 47in Bristol, p. 15- 4S Coaory6, f1ojib BeoaeH: Cthxh (rieTporpan;: KHHroH3.aaTe;ibCTBO IleTporpaA, 1923) 5- 49Coaory6 6. 5° Bloom 69- 51 MaKCHMHJiHaH Bojioihhh, TIojib BepaeH" in A. HeboTapeBCKaa, O . Coflorvfie (Ann Arbor: A rd is.1983) 195- 52eioom 71. 5 3B loom 71. 54Murl. G. Barker, introduction to Kiss of the Unborn (Knoxville: U niversity of Tennessee Press, 1977) x x iii. 55MBaHOB-Pa3yMHHK, O CMhicae 2CH3HH (Letchworth, England: Bradda Books Ltd., ) 21. 56nBaHOB-Pa3yM HHK 21. 133 57HBaH0B-Pa3yM HHK 21. 58MBaHOB-Pa3yMHHK 27. 59HBaHOB-Pa3yMHHK 62. ^°HBaH0B-Pa3yMHHK 75- 81 Bristol 35- 82/I. KjieiiMaH, PaHHgg noo3a frenopa Cojiorvba (Ann Arbor: Hermitage, 1983) 27. 88KgeHMaH 28. 84Barker x x iii. 6 5 jn MBaH0 B - P a 3yM HHK v i . 66MaKCHMH^HaH Bojioihhh, FloJib Bep^en' in A. MeboTapeBCKag, 0. <l>ejxope CoaoryBe: KpHTHKa (Ann Arbor: A rdis, Inc., 1983) 195- 87 Bojioihhh 214. 88Edward Brown, Fyodor Kuzmich Sologub" Handbook of Russian L iterature . ed. Victor Terras (New Haven, Conn.: Yale U niversity Press, 1985)434. 6^AHHeHCKHH, '7lHpH3Me' 33. 70AHHeHCKHH, ‘ 7lHpH3Me'' 38. 71 A H H eH C K H H , V l H p H 3 M e 3 6 . 72AHHeHCKHH, 7lHpH3Me" 39. 7 8 P o c M e p , V ln p H K a C ogoryfia", A. 4 e 6 oT apeB C K ag 0 4>e.aope C o jio r v b e : KpHTHKa (Ann Arbor: Ardis, Inc., 1983) 210 7^PocMep 36. 75pocMep 40. 78Bloom 93. 77 AHHeHCKHH, ”/lHpH3Me' 42. 78 Scherr 95- 7^Scherr110. S0PocMep 214. 81Cogory6, BepjieH 6. 82Bloom 1 96. 8 3see 71. rHH3bypr, 0 mpHKe 298. 8^Joan Delaney Grossman, "Variation on the Theme of Pushkin in Pasternak and Brjusov" Boris Pasternak and His Times: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Pasternak, ed. Lazar Fleishm an (Berkeley: Berkeley Slavic Specialities, 1989) 124. 85Danylo Struk, The Great Escape: Principal Themes in Valerij Brjusov's Poetry." Slavic and East European lournal. 12 (1968) 414. 88HepTKOB 151. 8 7 i n t h e n o t e s t o B. B p io c o B , C T H x o T B o o e H H g h n o a M U ( / I e H H H r p a a , CoBeTCKHH nncaTegb, 196) 8 4 2 . 8 8 in the notes to B. EpwcoB, CTHXOTBOpeHHg h noaMU 84 2. 8^Bloom 200. 134 90in the notes to B. EpiocoB, CTHXOTBQoeHHa h n o 3 M h i 8 4 4 . Bryusov discovered that first lines of his translation of "La saison qui s'avance..." were identical to Sologub's. "Tate teate moh nepeBo# 6hji ncno^HeH paHbiue, ieM x no3HaKOMH^ca c nepeBO^OM Coaoryba, x He Harney H y jK H U M H 3 M e H flT b 3TH CTHXH. 914>eflopoB, M ckvcctbq nepeBona 202. 92Bloom 69-71. " i n the notes to B. EpiocoB, CTHXQTBOpeHHa h no3Mbi 844. " S c h e r r 197. " S c h e r r 228. 96Scherr 200, 216. 9?Scherr 215- 9801eg A. Maslenikov The Frenzied Poets: Andrev B ielv and the Russian S ym b olists. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952) 104. " M a slen ik o v 104. 1 " M a rtin P.Rice V alery Briusov and the Rise of Russian Symbolism. (Ann Arbor, Ardis, Inc., 1975) 70. 101Struk 409. 102Gourevitch 1. 103Struk 416. Gourevitch 5- 1Q5for a discussion of this see B. 3KHpMyHCKHH, TeopHa CTHxa. 4 7 2 -4 7 4 . 1 " B loom 11. 135 Chapter Four Pasternak's Verlaine Translations The formation of Pasternak the poet is traceable to political as well as artistic influences. The historic forces shaping Russia during his lifetime cannot but have affected him and his writing. A notorious incidence of direct political influence occurred in 1936 when Pasternak published two poems that evidently were written at the behest of Bukharin. The poems " 5 1 iio h jiji: Bee » chbo . . . " and "Xy/toacHHK' "are taken to express the author's acceptance of Soviet reality and praise of Stalin" and are thus considered expressions of duplicity, betrayal of the poet's ideas, moral fall, servility, etc. "1 If the poet was so seduced as to make what he later called "a sincere attempt . . . to live with the thoughts of and in tune with the times, " 2 then his translations of the Verlaine poems display changes in his state of mind and developments in his style and technique resulting from his subsequent disillusionment and grasp of the horrible reality that occurred in place of the anticipated and hoped for era of democratization. Pasternak puzzled over the relationship between art and politics. Although he concluded that "the proposition that there is always a one-to-one correspondence between life and politics is an unsubstantiated exaggeration of I 36 political columnists,' he also acknowledged that "it is true in periods of catastrophic events." 3 Pasternak’s equivocal position in the annals of the Russian political scene remains an arcane and controversial issue. At his boldest, he risked only innuendos, and during the periods of greatest risk he kept silent. Whether he was being altogether honest with himself is impossible to know or judge, but he justified this silence to himself as the lesser of two evils. Referring specifically to Dmitri Shostakovich, he repugned other members of the intelligentsia for their servility, saying: "Oh Lord, if only they knew how to keep silent at least. Even that would be an act of courage."4 Pasternak s gradual disillusionment with Russian revolutionary fervor and later his ambiguous, shifting attitude toward and relationship with Stalin have been carefully documented. A review of a few critical incidents will support the point of view that Pasternak encoded his dangerous state of mind in his translations and that Verlaine in particular, though an odd choice at first glance, was an ideal alter ego for Pasternak to work out this process. The decade of the twenties marked the inception of his ambiguity. With characteristic optimism, Pasternak at first believed in the revolution. In the mid 20's he submitted poems to Mayakovsky s journal Lef: the one accepted, "May Day" was a profession of loyalty to the new 137 regime. 5 During the winter of 1924-25 Pasternak had his famous meeting with Stalin after which he seemed to regard Stalin as "a true leader".6 It is also in 1925, however, that Pasternak took a stand against the Party. When the Decree on Literature was issued, he was the lone dissenter, writing a sarcastic message. Nonetheless, between 1923 and 1931 evidently aiming to adapt to the preferred style of the regime and abandoning the more personal lyric poetry, he wrote and published his four long poems. Despite his intentions, he proved unable to offer an unreservedly positive revolutionary message. 7 According to Ronald Hingley, each of the poems "projected, however obscurely and indirectly, what was in effect a politically subversive message. " 8 Pasternak's consciously made decisions seem to have come into conflict with his creative unconscious. OxoaHHas rnaMQTa was published during this same period, and cryptic indications of Pasternak's dissatisfaction with the prevailing political trends have been pointed out by Hingley, who specifies the presence of Aesopian prose in this text. 9 The title itself hints at the author's anxiety and can be read as an indicator that if Pasternak were to express any hostility toward Stalin or Stalinism, it would only be hermetically. 10 The work contains a telling passage where Pasternak indicates how risk is opposed by his urgent craving for security. In one of his 138 typical lyrical divagations from the main story line, he indulges in a poetic study of nature in early spring. He depicts a storm as a wagon that hurtles itself with a loud rumble into the room where it becomes silent now that it was "safely home". It is a prophetic image, for from 1938 on Pasternak lived more or less in seclusion in Peredelkino, in his dacha which he considered an "oasis" , "an island of family continuity, independence, and stability in a sea of insecurity and anxiety." 1 1 The balance between hope and fear, the balance on the question of Stalinism ultimately tipped during the 30 s. The precipitating events of the first half of the decade upset Pasternak s equivocal stance and led to his withdrawal and determination to be inconspicuous in the second. Ambivalence would continue to characterize his behaviour,12 and in his writing he seemed determined upon ambiguity. Ironically, it was his half-heartedness that brought him under scrutiny as Fadeev's article in /iHTeoaTVPHaa ra3eTa on November 11, 1932 indicated. Again it is Lazar Fleishman who has identified this incident as a turning point for Pasternak, one which would ultimately lead him to cease submitting his own work for publication and limit himself to translation. Fadeev opposed Pasternak's duality to the preferred monolithic quality of Mayakovsky. Fadeev was writing in response to the collective obligatory condolence letter to Stalin upon the death of 139 Allilueva and referred specifically to Pasternak s singular footnote that has long remained a conundrum. According to Fleishman, her death coincided with the promulgation of socialist realist dogma, heralding an intensification of government meddling in literary affairs. Pasternak s words TjiyboKo h ynopHo £,yMa;i o CTajiHHe - Kax xy^oacHHK - B n ep B H e" indicated his intensifying realization that Stalin was expanding his totalitarian efforts to include literature, an invasion toward which Pasternak could no longer quite maintain his psychological distance. Pasternak s recession into silence increased in direct proportion to this awareness. The options ahead certainly included sharing the fate of the other writers destined for imprisonment and death. It is well documented that that when in April of 1934 Mandelstam read his Stalin poem to Pasternak, his reaction was an unequivocal ”5 1 boioch.'' By 1936 he determined upon a less risky route for himself, choosing an anxiety of influence over fear: 'It was actually in 1936, when all those terrible trials began (instead of the years of cruelty coming to an end, as I had believed in 1935). that everything snapped inside me, and my attempt to be at one with the age turned into opposition - which I did not conceal. I took refuge in translation.'13 The ensuing examination of the Verlaine translations will explore the ways Pasternak's two 140 anxieties came into play, with differing purposes and results, leading him to new directions in his own work when he would finally, though reluctantly, stare censorship in the face. Pasternak's Weltanschauung, his place in the poetic canon, and his controversial status in Russia's history all combine to distinguish him completely from his predecessors in the Verlaine lineage. When Lydia Ginzburg compared Annensky and Pasternak, for example, she noted how the young Pasternak inscribed health and meaning into the same world that is for Annensky tormented and sick. Kaic y AHHeHCKoro, y nacTepH axa HeaoBex TO)#ce cu.en.7ieH c BeiuaMH, h o conceM He 6o;ie3HeHHHo, He MynHTeabHo. IloTOMy * i t o UJin nacTepH axa b s t o h c b a 3 h ecTb c m h c j i (o KOTOpOM TOCKOBaa AHHeHCKHH), CMUCJI npHHau.Jie»CHOCTH neaoBeKa k o6m,eH 3KH3HH; oHa h ecTb HecoMHeHHaa ueHHOCTb. 14 Pasternak is thus generally taken to be at a far remove from the melancholic Verlaine, yet the more sinister of the selected translations indicate an older Pasternak who is somewhat less assured of the transcendent meaning of it all. In the bidirectional process of influence, Verlaine serves Pasternak s readiness to deal more openly with the "dark sister" lurking beneath the conscious surface and the "overall p o s itiv e n e s s o f his poetry. 141 "Art poetique" The most famous of the seven Verlaine poems translated by Pasternak is "Art poetique", the poem that immortalized the French poet. In Verlaine's case this is ironic since he never played a role as a critic, and after the notoriety attained through the publication of "Art poetique" he attempted to disabuse critics, readers, and fellow poets alike of its significance.16 In Pasternak s case, by comparison, at least half of his poetic output dealt directly with questions about the nature of art and poetry. Providing an opportunity to examine these metapoetic issues, "Art poetique" is an obvious choice for Pasternak. The ideal cohesion of the manifesto was noted by Pasternak's friend, the critic Durylin. B McKyccTBe' iio33h h’ 11. Bep^eHa nepeBeaeHHOH B. IlacTepHaKOM, ecTb MeTBepocTHiime: X p e d e T p u T o p H K e C BepH H . 0 , e c ; m 6 b b y H T e n p o T H B npaBHJi T m puiJiM aM c o B e c T H n p H d a B H a ! He to, - Kyaa 3aH,a,yT ohh? y BepjieHa 3TO-no:*ce;iaHHe, BucKa3aHoe no3Ty. y IlacTepHaKa sto - caMoe cymecTBo erO n 03 3 H H : HHKaKOH ’p HTOPHKH’, HHKaKOH ^ H T e p a T y p u ’ h r a y d o K a a , T p e d o B a T e j ib H a a ’cO B eC T b’ BO BCeM: B CJIOBe, B MhlCJIH, B no3TH^ecKOM /tuxaHHH - b yxe, kotophm cjihihht noaT ro;ioca ;* ch3h h , bo ABope, KOTOPHM B H flH T OH e e JIHIja H H 142 x o w r y B H ^ e T b noa^ H H H H H n p e K p a c H H H jih k 6 b i t h a.17 In his essay on Verlaine as well as in his translations Pasternak differs from other critical opinion and offers an idiosyncratic interpretation of the French poet s work. Verlaine is usually apprehended as a mystic and a decadent, but for Pasternak he is a realist, grounded in history. Pasternak ascribes to Verlaine what he himself prizes in poetry, what is "most successful in fostering the irruption of reality into the texture of art, without being primarily concerned with technical innovation.'18 He repudiates the commonly held understanding that Verlaine's emblematic ' de la musique avant toute chose advocated the dominance of technical prowess over the message. He refutes for Verlaine, as he had done for himself, the notion that musical effect was an independent goal of poetry. "His deceptive poetics," Pasternak wrote, "led to false conceptions." Pasternak believed that Verlaine did not sacrifice all in favor of the vocal and that like every great artist, he demanded not words but action," even from the art of the word, that is, he wanted poetry to contain what had already been experienced, to be an observer's witness and truth." 19 In Pasternak s understanding, musicality is distinctly different from Rene Wellek s conception, for example. Wellek concluded that in Verlaine "the attempts to achieve musical effects are largely attempts to suppress the meaning 143 structure of verse . . . ."20 Interpreted by Pasternak, "De la musique avant toute chose" is better understood as a facet of the same vision of poetry that produced "Prends l eloquence et tords-lui son cou." Musicality shuns rhetoric not meaning; it represents a conscious effort to delve into the unconscious, to unfetter reality. Music is the language that springs from the intuitive part of the brain, and it informs poetry autonomously. Words then self-select in the poetic imagination, making unfamiliar associations, because they are emanating from the unconscious. The musicality that Verlaine and then Pasternak excelled in is neither gratuitous nor serendipitous. It is consciously sought after as part of the process of articulation and serves, as Dale Plank suggests, "the descriptive, denotative purposes of language. "21 Pasternak attempted to explain Verlaine’s "deceptive poetics" as follows: "It might be thought that the scorn [Verlaine] proclaimed for stylistic considerations was prompted by his aspiration to his notorious "musicality", that he was sacrificing the semantic and graphic side of poetry in favor of the vocal. This is not true. Just the opposite is true." Pasternak later clarified the view through Yuri Zhivago: "5l3hIK, pOAHHa H BMeCTHJlHiqe KpaCOTH H CMHCJia, caM HaqunaeT ayM aTh h roBopHTb 3a *ie;ioBeKa h Bech CTaHOBHThCjl My3HKOH. " 22 144 Verlaine disavowed the rules and artifice of the Parnasse and the excesses of romanticism as alien to pure poetry. This spirit makes a perfect fit for Pasternak who could not conform to any tenets dictated by an external force, no matter how powerful or menacing. Although "Art Poetique’ can be dismissed by Verlaine and by his critics after him as being an anachronism among his other works, it seems clear that for Pasternak the poem had integrity in two senses. He held similar, if not identical convictions about the art of poetry, and through Verlaine he was able to state publicly and unequivocally that poetry must not be politically compromised. At a time when the state was indenturing art, Pasternak seized upon "Art Poetique" as an aesthetic prescription, a prophylactic for debunking Socialist Realism. An examination of what "H ccK ycT B O no33HH" has captured of "Art poetique" and, complementarily, what it has failed to capture will clarify the ways in which Verlaine served as Pasternak's alter ego.23 Based on Pasternak s own words about his Shakespeare translation, I will assume it as given that the intention here was never direct translation. The objective here, then, will not be to judge these efforts but to probe them for information. Since Pasternak openly declared that he considered himself to have genius equal to that of his models, his translations should evidence the collusion of the 145 two minds and bear the fruit of a felicitous and fecund anxiety of influence. "Art poetique" provides the framework for the study of the other six poems of the collaboration. Each of them derives its significance in the context of this paradoxical, doctrinaire poem. The most prominent feature of the poem makes its contradictory, ironic nature immediately evident. Standing out in textual bas-relief are ten capitalized words - "Impair", "Indecis", "Precis", "Nuance", "Couleur", "Point", "Esprit", "Rire", 'Azur ' , and "Rime - scattered among the stanzas. The homage paid to these poetic features stands in stark contrast to the romantic and lofty ideals such as "Beauty" and "Truth" and "Love" that were traditionally so italicized. Furthermore, there is a strongly emphatic, dogmatic quality to this unnatural diction that undermines the otherwise rather casual, homely speech of the rest of the poem, and it defies the core precept of "Art poetique", to eschew the blatant in favor of subtlety and Nuance. The acclaim of the chanson grise" in the second stanza further suggests a tongue-in-cheek Verlaine who presents an ostensibly serious metapoetic treatise but who seems unable to take himself seriously. The third stanza, in its sudden divergence from the musical-lexical framework to a hyper-romantic pastoral description, trivializes the poem. The emphatic nature of the 146 polysyndetic "C'est" undermines the precept to eliminate anything "qui pese ou qui pose." The entire poem is weighted with imperatives and proclamations that subvert the poet s declared belief that harmonious discretion is essential to poetry. In the ensuing stanzas, romantic phrases and images like "Qui font pleurer les yeux de l’Azur" abound. The entire penultimate stanza which portends to herald a new poetic movement is in fact anchored to an earlier age by its romantic cliches. There is even a comedic quality to the poem. Verlaine's recipe for "Art poetique" includes the famous "Fuis du plus loin la Pointe assasine" and its rhyming line "Et tout cet ail de basse cuisine!" The absurd and sudden lowering of the tone with a culinary motif is extended in the poem's penultimate verse. In the following stanza, Verlaine as if laughing at himself, cautions poets as to the risks involved with rhyme. Beware the excesses, he says, that crop up "en train d energie". "Et si Ton n'y veille, elle ira jusqu'ou?" Too much garlic can ruin the recipe. The major and minor motifs of "Art poetique" oppose one another, inviting the question, is the poet deliberately undermining his own formula? Is the poem a spoof of the Parnasse, and even of Verlaine himself, an expression of his 147 own insecurity and self-disdain, and finally a mockery of those following him in the chronology of French poetry who would apply these "doctrines" in justification of their own excesses? "Art poetique's statement is ambivalent, but the fact that Verlaine published it in Tad is et Naguere. his "cycle parodique", is telling. If Verlaine was not being altogether serious, as Pasternak revisioned the poem it became a genuine manifesto for the age. He did, nonetheless, do justice to Verlaine. His fundamental solidarity with Verlaine is evident first and foremost in the musicality of his poem, in its faithfulness to the rhythm and rhyme scheme. Even alliterations are preserved in place. A good example is found in the first stanza where Pasternak replicates Verlaine s extravagance of plosives. Pasternak's rhymes such as "nonyTOH" and "bacoH" for "encor" and "cor", "BHOBb" and "juoboBb" for "toujours" and "amour", are likewise successful replications. But aside from these most obvious fidelities, Pasternak penetrated Verlaine s work in a number of revealing ways. The conflict, in the Bloomian sense, for the poet-translator, and the conflict for Pasternak in the grips of Stalinism were both attended to in "H ccicycT B O iio 3 3 h h " . His first alteration is apparent even before reading the text. Elimination of the capitalized slogans works quickly to remove the suggestion of 148 irony from his poem. His commandments were tendered to his corrupted literary age in all urgency. This variation is particularly interesting since capitalization is asemiotic device in his original poetry. Lydia Ginzburg comented on it as a manifestation of his overall poetic stance. "B sto m nacTepHaKOBCKOM Mupe caMue odbiKHOBeHHue c/toBa MoryT AOpaCTH A O KOCMH^eCKOH rpaH^H03H0CTH, H nO T O M y, B odxofl bcskoh nepapxHH, - MoryT im caTbcs c 6o;ibiiioH dyKBU.' 24 In the context of Ginzburg s interpretation, Pasternak s omission of the capitals in "Art poetique" occurs in observance of his preference for heightening the importance of the simple objects of everyday life and not enhancing the status of abstract concepts. His reduction of the prominence of Verlaine's key points takes the poem into the post-Symbol ist twentieth century evidencing the imposition of his poetics over Verlaine s, and accordingly exemplifying Bloom s model in which the successor poet "improves" the forefather. Pasternak also disturbs Verlaine by imposing his cultural imprint on the poem, thereby meeting one of the most stringent requirements for making a foreign poet not only accessible but estimable in the second language.25 The majestic and energetic qualities that typify Pasternak's language26 identify McKyccTBO no33HH" as a Pasternak poem. Of particular note are "HedocBO^" in the third stanza, where 149 Pasternak, of more serious purpose, thinks on a more grandiose scale than Verlaine with his simple "ciel', and "noa XMejibKOM" (stanza 2), "K aK nona^o" (stanza 3) and "c pa3roHy" (stanza 8) where Pasternak s sudden movements contrast with a much more static Verlaine. Pasternak absorbs the poem into the Russian language. Although "nuance" is commonplace enough in Russian literary langauge, Pasternak rejects it. His "nojiyTOH" has the advantage of its exclusively musical connotation, and allows also for the Pasternakian interplay with its counterpart "ikm hhh t o h". The resulting internal rhyme accentuates the already rich rhyme of the fourth stanza, appealing to the Russian ear whereas it would exceed what the French ear would find palatable. Other words and phrases such as "HeMHo^Ko" "noa XMejihKOM "Bcy^HJi HaM nobpflxymeK aaph" nycT03B0H "BbidojiTaeT cxypy" and "BnoTbMax" incorporate the Russian vernacular into the poem and also stamp the poem with Pasternak s personal glossary. In the sixth stanza, Pasternak seizes the opportunity to adapt Verlaine s entreatu regarding rhyme to his own situation. Emphasizing the spiritual nature and the responsibility of the poet he replaces "rendre un peu la Rime assagie" with "Tbi pHiJjivraM coBecTH npwbaBH;!." 150 In the concluding stanza, Pasternak defines the alternative to the everything else that is literature as something far more earth shattering than "la bonne aventure" . Reflecting his personal proclivity, Pasternak overrides Verlaine s spoof of romanticism and rejects the specific earthy substances la menthe and le thym that oppose an escape "vers d’autres cieux". Pasternak's preference is for the decidedly romantic "qy^.oTBopa'" and "3apa",' he envisions a secret, miracle-working poetry, the antithesis of everything being published in the Soviet Union at that time. "McKyccTBO no33HH is like a declaration of independence for him, and it constitutes a turning point. In Verlaine s case "Art poetique" defined what preceded it, but the opposite is true for Pasternak. Caught in a predicament, knowing that if he wrote as he pleased he could not be published, and yet unable either to conform or openly defy, Pasternak chose at least for a while to succumb to the anxiety of influence rather than to the prevailing anxiety of incurring the direct wrath of the Stalinist forces. Even so, the spectre of imprisonment was always at hand. In 1942 he expressed his growing fears that he would soon end up after all in a prison camp because he could not go on not being himself. In a letter in 1948 he concluded: "Translating means estabishing myself in a secondary, 151 subordinate capacity . . . 27 But despite his defeatist selection of a cautious solution, Pasternak still provoked the ire of reviewers. In 1950 Now mir printed an attack on his translation of Faust, criticizing his distortion of the author's ideas "in order to defend the reactionary theory of pure art'," a criticism that could as easily have been directed at his translation of "Art poetique." Of the three poems that precede "McKyccTBO no33HH“ in Pasternak s translation, the first, "Effet de nuit/Ho^Hoe 3pejmme,'' sets the thematical framework for the series in historicity and in a sense serves as a preface for dividing the subsequent poems into two general categories: two that celebrate life and nature and three that are cathartic. Although so few in number, as Pasternak presents them they succeed in communicating the essence of Verlaine, that poetry has a force and truth through which misery and degeneracy can be sublimated. "L'art . . . c'est d'etre absolument soi-meme." Poetry as Verlaine believed in it, and as he created it, explains the extent of the affinity Pasternak felt for him. It explains why Pasternak turned to him habitually as mentor and muse, as Christopher Barnes recently verified by his discovery that he carried a verse of Verlaine's in his coat pocket as talisman.28 152 "Effet de nuit" "Effet de nuit", a poem from one of the early Verlaine collections Poemes Saturniens. provided Pasternak with a pertinent theme as well as with many prosodic elements essential to his own poetry. The forty-poem volume marked Verlaine s embarcation on the path he would remain committed to. "The exquisite sensitivity, the unquiet nature, the all-pervading nostalgia, the mixture of dream with reality, of vague with precise - the feel' for the musicality of words - all of these qualities, which were to become Verlaine's trademark are to be found in Poemes Saturniens." The direness of the poem's theme is mitigated by the contrapuntal nature of the poem, where the dreariness of the scene and the macabre subject are opposed by the poetic elements in the poem's structure: the typically playful coupling of homonyms which rendered Verlaine s idiom so "remote from standard literary French"30 and especially the abundance of assonance and "un veritable feu d'artifices d alliterations. “ 31 Pasternak strove to provide a just and appreciative interpretation of Verlaine. Structurally "Effet de nuit" and "HoMUHoe 3peJiH in,e" both reflect the classical tradition. Evoking a gothic scene, Verlaine apppropriately turned to the alexandrine, which he otherwise typically disdained. Pasternak, in turn, wrote in the similarly classical iambic 153 pentameter.32 It must be pointed out, however, that in dealing with the bold beginning images of the poem, "La nuit. La pluie." Pasternak had to choose either to adhere strictly to the metre of the poem, thus rejecting the dynamic forcefulness of the opening, or to preserve this bold quality and introduce the spondee, which of course he did. Pasternak meticulously preserved the alternating masculine and feminine couplets. As did Verlaine, he completed his poem in three sentences, and he preserved the pauses in lines 4 and 1 1, although he did diverge lexically as we shall see later. "Ho<moe spe/uime" and "Effet de nuit" follow the movement of an anonymous, telescopic eye, moving from the sky to earth, from background to foreground, from setting to characters in a medieval mini-drama, poignant with menace and horror. Pasternak faithfully reproduced each element on the set, filling in the backdrop with the requisite thorny foliage. Because of the nature of the Russian language, the slow rhythm of "Effet de nuit" produced by the strings of prepositional phrases and articles becomes accelerated in the more laconic "Ho<iHoe 3pe^Hm,e". Pasternak, whom Liubimov called "a virtuoso of rhythm", transposed the poem in a new tempo. His is rhythmically dancing, complementing the image of the macabre jig. The poem is replete with punctuating 154 monosyllabic words sounding a military beat which links the gallows dance to the march at the conclusion of the poem. In the lexicon of the Pasternak version several startling contrasts with the original invite a reading of the poem as a response or reaction to the ghastly events of that period of Soviet history. Verlaine, known for making the language of the day the language of poetry, maintained a purely gothic ambience in "Effet de nuit". His vocabulary recalls a past era and makes this poem a period piece. Pasternak also incorporated obsolete, erudite words into his version; note " t p h y3HHKa" in line 1 1 and "bepAHineH" in line 12. Some pertinent variations, however, testify to the fact that Pasternak contemporized this poem. Instead of the notably rare "rabougris" in line 4, Pasternak chose the simple yet eery "TeHH MepTBeitoB". Similarly, where Verlaine suggests the vulture like behavior of the crows "le bee avide" and euphemistically depicts "la pature des loups in line 7, Pasternak attenuates the devouring motif with " kjiioiot" and "rpw3yT". Above all it is the colloquial "6e3 yroMOHy", line 5, which disturbs the historicity of this poem. "C HajieTy", the internal rhyme of the following line, recalls a typical Pasternakian motif, the "sudden intrusion"33 and signals a jarring, warning note not found in Verlaine. 155 Also absent in Verlaine is any narrative presence. This authorial submission to the power of nature, to the autonomy of poetic power forms the strongest tie to Pasternakian poetics. Pasternak ‘s humble stance before the world and before poetry itself is amply catalogued. Repeatedly he himself asserted that the image speaks while man is silent. Jean-Paul Richard identified an homologous humility in Verlaine: "He remains immobile and tranquil, content to cultivate virtues of porosity." 34These lines recall the celebrated phrase of Pasternak's where he uses the identical image to describe his artistic vision. "Contemporary trends have imagined that art is like a fountain, while it is like a sponge." In his apostrophe to poetry, in the poem "BecHa" he commands, TIo33Hfl! TpeuecKOH rybkOH b npncocKax/By^b t m . . . ." Effet de nuit" and "HoqHoe 3pejrain,e“ exemplify this concept of a reticent poet who substitutes multifarious environmental voices for his own. With its careful omission of a human witness, with only the outlines of buildings and bushes to underscore the cutting, biting horror, this poem indeed lets the images speak. The poem is founded upon a metonymic principle, the principle at the heart of the Pasternakian universe as well. We find in Verlaine's poem the same phenomenon observable in Pasternak where each individual detail is thrown into relief. Indeed it is poem carved in relief, a poem painted in bold 156 outlines reminiscent of a Cezanne landscape. Notice, for example, "dechiquette", "silhouette" , "un gibet", and the lines where the painterly identification is openly and clearly established: Quelques buissons d'epine epars, et quelques houx Dressant 1 horreur de leur feuillage a droite, a gauche Sur le fuliginieux fouillis d un fond d ebauche. and the reversal of direction back towards the heavens in the final "et leurs fers droits, comme des fers de herse/Luisent a contre-sens des lances de I'averse." Pasternak p reserves th is jagged, lin ear q u a lity w ith "3wbHT/Pa3BOAW kphiiii h fiameHHbix 3y6ii,oB", "Koe-r.a.e TepHOBhiH KycT, h TaM h TyT", "ocTpojiHCTa", and the fin al "/Ke;ie30 iihk b »ce;ie3HOH ceTKe jihbh# ." Indeed th e o u tlin e s are if anyth ing more dram atic in Pasternak than in V erlaine, perhaps because th ese pattern s formed by nature and by man serve Pasternak s m essage even more than V erlain e s. In "Effet de nuit" the most vivid structural components are the three foci of the poem. The asyndetic "La nuit. La Pluie." and La plaine" provide the background against which Verlaine's sinister scene is carved three dimensionally. This riveting device is germane to Verlainian poetics, contributing to what Philip Stephan has identified as his "highly personalized 157 idiom." 55 Nor are syn d eta alien to Pasternak's p oetics. 56 We can r ec a ll, for exam ple, "4>eBpa;ib. .HocTaTh qepHiui h miaKaTb." or, Topo,n. 3HMHee Hebo. ThMa. IlpojieThi b o p o t . " w here th is d evice fu n ction s w ith the same dram atic effect. And, of course, there is " 1905" which is replete with this staccato rhythm. In "Ho'iHoe 3pejiHin,e", translating "La nuit. La Pluie" in Russian, Pasternak was able to offer the full impact of the French, with "Ho^h. ifoac^b." providing the same internal rhyme, and adding to Verlaine s plaintive assonance a clipped and brittle alliteration. Of equal significance, however, is the fact that he omitted the final panel in the tryptich, "Laplaine." He begins his fourth line with "Ha BHcejmite" and moves quickly from the background to the macabre central point of perspective. Color is also important in this landscape poem as in much of Verlaine s work. In accordance with the poetic stance that nature should speak, the oppressive, dismal aura of horror emanates from the scene itself - the dark, the rain, the utter absence of emotional or pigmental color. Verlaine applies shades appropriate to the grim scene: "blafard", "gris , "noir" "fuliginieux" and "livides,” all reinforce the gothic ambience. Pasternak s version too is devoid of color; somberness is crucial, the only appropriate ambiance here. The dimness of the Verlaine landscape blurs Pasternak's as well: "HeacHWH", 158 ,'^oaca^HBOM,,> '^epHOM”, M r^iHCTOH . But to these, Pasternak has contributed some even darker, more sinister elements which in the end dominate the poem and evoke its stronger message. Concluding with "CMHKaiomeH ein,e jiH iiih H e H 3 6 b iB H e H /2 K e jie 3 0 iih k 6 * ;e;ie3H O H ceTKe j i h b h s , he heightens the approaching doom and seals the prisoners' hopeless fate, substituting a clanging, closing net for Verlaine s shining visual imagery. Through the safely historical prism of Effet de nuit" Pasternak evokes the dread and danger that permeate his consciousness and dominate his land. But while its historicity can convince it is devoid of present day implications, the immediacy that the poetic image effects educates the reader to know that history's events are ineradicable and its consequences permanent. Pasternak, poet and teacher, delivers a cautionary message: Caveat cives! "Puisque l’aube grandit ..." "Puisque l'aube grandit ..." is a poem from one of Verlaine's early collections, La Bonne Chanson, and it bears the marks of a novice effort, a groping. The poem contains the seeds of what is to flower but is still primitive in form and content. As an embryonic work, this poem is especially useful as a trace of the author's evolution. 159 The first striking contrast between "Puisque l'aube grandit ..." and the subsequent poems is its length. The poem is wordy and, for a lyric poem, formulaic and overburdened with logic. It is a soliloquy in which the poet struggles for guiding principles and resolve. The first-word repetitions of "Puisque", "Cen est fait", "Arri&re", and "Je veux" characterize the poem as a sort of soul-searching exercise, a calisthenic of good intentions. The positive imagery is ciiched; "aube" and "aurore" recall an earlier, melodramatic era; "Etre de lumiere" is a vapid symbol of inspiration or hope; "la grace, le sourire et la bonte" are similarly banale. The negative images "mauvais reves", "breuvages execrees", and particularly "rocs et cailloux encombrent le chemin" are likewise trite. The poet is childlike and childish in his emphatic and simplistic determination to walk the straight and narrow, to paraphrase Verlaine paraphrasing a hackneyed expression. 37 Yet the gestating greatness is evident. The enjambments effectively disrupt the expected pattern of repetiton of these words and introduce a new syncopation to poetic rhythm. The shifting patterns of "puisque", "c en est fait” and "arriere" culminate with the dispersal of the "je veux" repetitons as the poem becomes less self-consciously structured and more reflective of an everyday speech pattern. 160 The logic that deadens this poem is at the same time a precursor of the tension of opposites that characterizes many of Verlaine s later and greater works. His poems are often lyrical syllogisms through which, by establishing the boundaries of possibility, he can attain some clear view or perception. This poem, as typical of any work at an experimental stage, is an exaggeration of the technique. What later demonstrates Verlaine s attainment of simplicity is worked out here ponderously and in detail. What becomes the touching, all- telling "sans amour et sans haine" in his masterpiece "II pleure . . . " is expressed here in a long series of opposing arguments. Like a windbag advocate, Verlaine works out his reasoning, gropes his way toward conviction. The entire poem is forced and lacks the simple honesty that eventually made Verlaine a sublime poet. An important achievement of this poem is Verlaine s use of visual impressions and gestures to accomplish a complete scenario. He relies heavily on the power of suggestion, and like his counterparts among the Impressionist painters, he applies the equivalent of splotches of color to conjure up a kaleidoscope of other related colors and shapes. He arranges focal points, allowing the reader to fill in the details. "Aube" and aurore", for example, by virtue of being cliches, are replete with encoded, universally significant information, 161 allowing Verlaine to bypass the details. The phonetic collaboration of these words presages Verlaine s later, revolutionary achievement of suggesting repetition through assonance and alliteration. Again, it is in "11 pleure ..." that this invention will reach its apogee. Other commonplace images enter Verlaine's poetry more effectively from life rather than out of the exhausted repertoire of poetic imagery. This quality is an especially meaningful model for Pasternak's quiet but obdurate refusal to subscribe to a mandated catalog of subjects and heroic characteristics. A succinct power derives from the easy accessibility of Verlaine's portraiture. His famous artless impressions rely on the impact of a certain gesture or mannerism to concretize an abstraction. At this early stage, however, he still feels impelled to strive for certainty. He dares not rely on the accuracy and power of his suggestions and, alas, diminishes the artistry of "levres pinces" with the explanatory Tironie", of "les poings crispes" with "lacolere', of "le sourire" with "la bonte", of "flammes douces", with "beaux yeux". In the final stanza of the poem Verlaine continues with his bent for demystification. He explains his purpose as well as his strategy for achieving it. His paradise consists of being able to write his poems and being rewarded by a receptive hearing 162 from his beloved. He explains how he writes to "bercer les lenteurs de la route" as he has already demonstrated by the form itself of the poem. He leaves no subtlety unturned. "Bercer" is bountifully suggestive and desribes exactly what Verlaine has just represented iconically. The motion is inscribed in the first stanza: "Puisque, apres m'avoir fui longtemps / L'espoir veut bien revoler devers moi." The poem is about hope that ebbs and flows, subject to the vicissitudes of life. It goes on to describe how the poet is pushing away all the negative forces in his life, "C en est fait; "Arriere". The forward motion is indicated by his desires, "Je veux". The repetitions are soothing and convincing, having a psalm-like effect, and the enjambments contribute further to the sense of motion, rocking from line to line. This poem in effect already is doing what Verlaine envisions only for the future. "Pour bercer les lenteurs de la route / Je chanterai des airs ingenus." He has already fused form with meaning. Here in these penultimate lines are the two key mandates of "Art poetique", musicality and an end to lofty speech. True, Verlaine includes a wish, "Qu'elle m’ecoutera sans deplaisir," but this is a dream of paradise. Poetry is his reality. Like "Art poetique" , "Puisque l'aube grandit ..." is about poetry, not a how to but a why. "Puisque l'aube grandit ..." is about being a poet; it is also about being Paul Verlaine, the sometimes saint and often 1 63 dissipate who plunges into despair despite his best intentions. The poem resonates with confidence, strength, and optimism, as Verlaine writes himself into "gais combats” and emerges victorious. In his poetic vision he can accomplish anything. But it is impossible to ignore all the dark forces that he has brought with him in the creation of this utopian poem. The reader in the end cannot be convinced that poor Verlaine has mended his life. "Bercer” is too gentle an effort to combat the powerful enemies that subvert him. Although the poem is bracketed by the hopeful first and final stanzas, each intervening stanza is haunted. In one stanza alone the dark forces crowd: "mauvais reves", "la rancune abominable", "ma nuit profonde", "rocs et cailloux", and "violence, remords, envie". It isn t possible to doubt the sincerity of the poet, but one must doubt the reality. Denial, a serious indicator of this, is implied in the concluding ' Je ne veux pas d'autre Paradis." As Jacques Robichez realized, "Sa joie sans reserve sonne faux. C'est l'illusion d un homme qui se croit sauve et ce poeme de soleil recele tous les orages."38 In Pasternak's "Tax xax bpessKHT ^eHb . . ." the opposing forces are different, and the battle to overcome them is more vigorous and more successful. Pasternak s optimism has been thoroughly discussed and established in decades of scholarship; but inscribed in this poem, given safe conduct in the process of 1 64 translation, is the process he engaged in to safeguard that optimism in the face of the traumas of the 30 s. Pasternak’s personal philosophy takes hold of Verlaine’s titleless poem with its opening line, reinforced by reiteration as a title. Verlaine repeats four times "puisque " , finding reasons to feel confident that his sorry past was behind him. For Pasternak, life is simply good and full of promise. This is guaranteed by the single fact of the rising sun: "Tax xax 6pe3acHT /teHb . . . . But unlike Verlaine, Pasternak also has faith in himself and in the future. "3to c^iacTbe 6y.neT Bee b mohx pyKax." The translation's forward looking tone develops in the second and third stanzas. Verlaine concentrates on the past with his repetitions of ' C en est fait" and ' Arriere". Pasternak substitutes 'HaBcer.ua" for the former, and in the latter case shifts the emphasis away from a dramatic but empty resolve to a more resolute cause and effect with his three times repeated '*i t o 6h " . Good results are hoped for as the possible result of his good efforts. This positive look toward the future is underscored with his firm and final "Bnpent • Other changes wrought by Pasternak raise the poem to a moral, universal plain. In the third stanza, the most radically divergent part of the poem, Pasternak replaces col ere " and "rancune" with "3Jio6a" and "3;ia", calling to mind graver 165 matters than Verlaine's human foibles. Evil and good are the opposing forces in Pasternak's poem and are the rationale both for his struggle and his determination. To be sure, Verlaine does include "bonte" in his poem, but he couches it in a string of platitudes. Pasternak empowers goodness making "ztobpbix c h ji" the opponent of "3^a". Pasternak s strength is further felt in the changes he makes to the wistful "Je veux” in the four final stanzas. In the fourth stanza Verlaine begins to reveal what he wants. But the wish is interrupted by a full stanza of reasons why he should dare hope for anything. It isn't until the next stanza that he completes the longwinded thought, by then having to repeat "je veux." By the third line of stanza four, Pasternak has identified an additional object of his desire as "BBepHTCba jiio6 b h ". In stanzas five and six where Verlaine rather unconvincingly says "je veux marcher droit", Pasternak's poem reads "a noi-tny" and "a nponay - 39 The energy of personal responsibility and control is further developed as he speaks of his destiny saying, "3 ee npnMy." Although he is aware that "MHoro by^eT BCTpe^E, h CTwqeK, h 3aca,n", realistic counterforces that are missing in Verlaine's more fantastical vision of the future, this perception strengthens his determination and reinforces his acknowledgement that it is all in his own hands. 166 "Green" Three of the Verlaine poems translated by Pasternak, including the one that follows "Puisque l'aube grandit come from the collection Romances sans paroles. Comprised of twenty-one poems written after Verlaine left France for England with Rimbaud, it was printed in 1874. This book, observed Gourevitch, "brings to fruition all of the elements which Verlaine was to put later in the 'Art poetique ." 40 Although the poems do not appear together in Pasternak's translation some general information about the collection informs the analysis of the poems that follows. Robichez s study of the Romances sans oaroles offers several perspectives for placing these poems within the whole Verlaine oeuvre and for interpreting them as part of Pasternak's. First, he identifies their polemical nature. "Ce recueil si mince est cependant riche de contradictions. La desinvolture, lespoir, la tendresse y cotoient la melancolie, l'angoisse, la haine. L'aveu lyrique s offre parfois et parfois se derobe." 41 Here are opposed not only a range of positive and negative emotions but the broader and more important question, whether poetry should be personal or strictly an exercise in form and structure. More is at stake in the debate in Pasternak s case where there is an added political dimension. 167 Robichez sees in this book of poems a "refus de la poesie subjective', c'est a dire de 1'analyse psychologique, de la confidence romantique, du pittoresque parnassien organise par l'homme et autour de l'homme." Instead, he finds that these poems are exemplary of "exigeance de la poesie objective' qui, a 1'ecart de tout logique, accede par le moyen d un langage neuf et createur aux realites inouis ou l'homme est dechu d une suprematie usurpee. " 42 Robichez speaks of these poems as a palimpsest of Verlaine's poetic evolution, particularly vis-a-vis Rimbaud. The Romances sans paroles largely consist of an attempt at what Rimbaud wanted from Verlaine in poetry. However, In what can be seen in the context of this Bloom- based study as a battle of "anxiety of influence" as Verlaine attempts to "translate" Rimbaud, Verlaine s originality is manifested by the limits of his docility. "II serait naif de supposer qu'un vrai poete peut se plier a ecouter servilement la legon d un autre poete, fut-il Rimbaud, " 43 or, in Pasternak s case, Verlaine. Pasternak's choice of Verlaine as "influence" or alter ego can be at least in part explained by the Romances sans oaroles. The teleological issues that Verlaine deals with here are those that Pasternak repeatedly confronted, heatedly at first, then in silence, and decisively, at least insofar as he was concerned ,in Doctor Zhivago. In his translations of these Verlaine poems, 168 Pasternak pursues his examination of the question "what is poetry" . Pasternak subscribed to the viewpoint that poetry is the expression of a single, individual reality. As Verlaine could not subjugate his poetry to that of Rimbaud, Pasternak could not serve the mandates of government. The Romances sans paroles express those ' realites inouies" of the higher sphere of existence where the poet must dwell to preserve his integrity as a poet, lest he become a rhetorician, a propagandist. "Green" belongs to the "Aquarelles", a small collection of poems within the Romances sans paroles. Many of them, like "Green", bear English titles to coincide with the author s stay in England. The poem was originally dedicated to Rimbaud, for whom Verlaine had left his wife. Conflicting emotions, the result of his complicated and bohemian life, lie under the surface here, and as is often the case with Verlaine, the real and the imaginary are confused. As Jacques Borel desribed it, "c'est, non point la realite qui devient imaginaire, mais l'imaginaire qui apparait comme seule realite." A composite of verisimilitude and reverie, this poem blurs the boundaries between the real world and that of the poetic imagination. The freshness and immediacy of the color and title "Green" dominate the poem in which Verlaine attempts to find rest and peace. The first line of the poem cooperates with the title to ensure that the physical reality, a very positive one, 1 69 takes precedence over any emotional turmoil. The opening inventory of objects pictorially frame the inner sensations that are the real subject of the poem. Adding "mon coeur” to the list, Verlaine unifies man with nature but the "Et puis voici" simultaeously differentiates them. The introductory nature imagery is all tranquil, but the expectations that it sets up are false. The surface calm and freshness do not fully camouflage the fear that they will be disrupted. Calm and unrest are intermingled, and hints of violence threaten the supposed peace of the moment with potential or imagined danger. The heart that beats only for the beloved is in that lover's hands, hands he fears will destroy it. The morning wind is chilling, not a warm, gentle one as one would expect from the opening line. "La bonne tempete" with its double entendre nicely completes the poem by again unifying the human experience with nature, and the oxymoron underscores the uncertainty of the peace the brief sleep may bring. Although the poem tells a story of a tryst where love and passion are in evidence, it really is about a longing not for passion but for calm. This category of words is the largest in the poem, and within the category, most of these are verbs; the movement of the poem is for peace not passion: "fatigue", "reposee", "delasseront", “rouler ma tete", "s'apaiser", dorme", "reposez". The peace of the poem is more longed for than achieved. The poet expresses 170 his need in imperatives, "Ne le dechirez pas", "Souffrez", "Laissez-la", and plaintive subjunctives, "Que . . . l’humble present soit doux," "Et que je dorme un peu." There is no fulfillment of these wishes, but the focus on the moment, on these "chers instants", supresses dark thoughts 44 that can no longer be resrained in the poem that follows Green". The rhyming titles shout out their complementarity, and in Spleen" Verlaine openly admits: "Je crains toujours, - ce qu est d attendre! - / Quelque fuite atroce de vous." "Green" is a simple, compact poem, and this quality too is announced by its title. The densely packed images of fruits" “fleurs" and "feuilles" are emphasized by the combined alliteration and assonance. After the heavy impact of this line, the remainder of the poem relies predominantly on assonance for its poeticality, bringing to fruition the musicality of "Art poetique". The phonetic resonance of "coeur", "couvert", "encore", "chers", "sonore", "encore" - shift the attention away from the end rhymes, which are not especially memorable and, therefore, contribute to the dominating effect of the internal music, shielding this rather simple piece from banality. This achievement reaches its apogee in "II pleure dans mon coeur . . " and is discussed in greater detail later in this chapter. Dealing with emotions that were for Verlaine never calm or simple with poetic harmony, elegance, and restraint, "Green" 171 typifies the "Romances sans paroles". It counters content with form, and the latter achieves preeminence. It is form liberated of all restraining elements, and the end result is a piece that has been set to music many times, by Claude Debussy (1888), Gabriel Faure (1889), and Reynaldo Hahn (1895), among others. "3eneHb“ fits well into the Pasternak oeuvre. The close bond between nature and human feeling, the fusion of the indoor and outdoor settings, the understated but powerful sense of passion, all are as common to Pasternak s own poetry as to this translation of Verlaine. In terms of the "text" of the poem, Pasternak follows the original very closely. Only a few deviations merit close examination. He makes his own imprint immediately by Russifying the title. By doing so he incorporates the poem more thoroughly into his own traditon while sidestepping the biographical element that would restrict the poem to Verlaine. "3e;ieHb', with its dual reference to produce as well as color, is utterly Pasternakian in its domesticity. The overdose of alliteration in Verlaine's poem is refined in Pasternak's, and he also extends the metonymic relationship between the overlay of nature and the deeper meanings contained in the poem. Pasternak had to choose between safeguarding the string of still life images or selecting other components with alliterative capability. He chose to stress the fertility motif that is established by the growth 172 pattern, from leaves, to flowers, to fruit. Embellishing the effect by his "H a BeTKe cne/iHH" he stresses the fertility motif and bonds the passion of life in nature with human passion in "cep.a.qe BceM 6neHbeM.” This intertwining and unity are at the heart of the Pasternak universe , and the interweaving of the cycles in this poem prefigures a number of the features of the Zhivago cycle to be considered in the concluding chapter. The humility of the poet in the face of the mysteries of life and love manifests itself in the fourth line of both poems, but Pasternak makes a subtle yet significant shift from "que . . . l'humble present soit doux" to "oK aacH T e qecTb npocTWM m o h m j o,apaM" by expressing his wish in the more vigorous imperative form and assserting a claim to honor. Pasternak's language reveals a more confident poet than Verlaine, a stronger man. Nonetheless, self-deprecation, whether altogether sincere or not, is a recurrent theme for both Verlaine and Pasternak. This line virtually replicates the sentiment of Puisque l'aube grandit" - "Je chanterai des airs ingenus / necHeio-,fl.pyroio cnyTHHu,e nojibmy". "H cep^u,e BceM bHeHbeM" in the first stanza is the first of several phrases that make the sensations in Pasternak's poem more immediate than Verlaine s. His "qui ne bat que pour vous" is more factual and removed; it states but does not resonate, and the staccato effect of the short words further 173 denies it a feeling of intense passion. In the only direct reference to his love life, Verlaine leaves the timing ambiguous, rather as if it would be indelicate for it to be too immediate. "Toute sonore encore de vos derniers baisers" is nostalgic; the lover seems to come to his beloved for rest not excitement and describes kisses of some earlier meeting. These are kisses of remembrance, and passion is more fantasy than reality. By contrast, Pasternak s lover s heart is still pounding; he erases the ambiguity of time. The lover, although he seeks the comfort of his beloved, finds his rest after a passionate interlude. He will lay down his head to rest "Bcio b Baumx noqejiyflx, ornyiiiHBiiiHX c;iyx.” The concluding " h bh nepeBe,n,HTe ayx" leaves no doubt that this is the rest of afterglow, but Verlaine s "puisque vous reposez" is devoid of this unambigous spent passion. Pasternak's greater intensity is coupled with a distinct flavor of mastery that also constitutes an addition to the Verlaine poem. For "Laissez-la" and "Et que je dorme" where the tryst concludes, Pasternak gives a much more controlling, decisive, emphatic "H 3HaeTe" and \na h b h ". Two final disparities combine to result in Pasternak s more future oriented and expectant poem, while Verlaine's is wistful. In line eight, Verlaine s "Revedes chers instants" connects to derniers baisers" in line 10 to connote past pleasures, but Pasternak's "0 npeACToameM cnacTbe" fixes the 174 lover's hopes on those to come. He develops a sense of control over this eventuality by adding the active "cobepy " . Beneath the benign surface of this simple love tale, menace lurks. In Verlaine s poem there is only the one indication mentioned above, "Ne le dechirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches." But in Pasternak's the motif of imminent danger is accentuated. In line nine his ”b noKoe" concretizes and makes more important the counterpoint theme of refuge. But any notion that the longed-for peace can be attained is distilled by the " q y T b - q y T b ", which injects a fleetingness not present in the Verlaine poem. The verdant freshness of "Green" represents for Pasternak the purity of poetry as described and prescribed in "Art Poetique ". Both in content and in form it corresponds to the new poetics Verlaine initiated and that would permeate Pasternak s own later works. What Zimmermann describes as "les images un peu vieillottes, echos du passe" ^5 is supremely compatible with what Pasternak might have had in mind as an antidote to the bastardizations of socialist realism. The overall impression created by "Green" is simplicity, simplicity of feeling and elimination of belles lettres. The succinct word- pictures succeed in artlessly conveying a wealth of emotion, and Pasternak learns in this hands-on workshop to move closer to his own goal. 175 "Langueur” "Langueur" is one of a trilogy of melancholic poems in the Pasternak collection. Like "Art poetique" it is from lad is et Naeuere and along with "Art poetique" it placed Verlaine at the vanguard of contemporary poetry. First published in Le chat noir on May 26, 1883, it is one of his most decadent poems, and as such, its inclusion by Pasternak has special significance. Decadence as a poetic movement involved two basic concentrations or emphases. First, it consisted of a fascination with what one loathed. It was a "lusty Barbarian poetry" which served as vehicle "for the exhausted, rueful sensibility of a corrupt world."46 The sonnet "Langueur" identifies itself in the very first line with this spirit of destruction and ruin. The poem's primary referrent is an era when "tout est bu, tout est mange! Plus rien a dire!" According to J.P. Richard, "la langueur verlainienne epuise l'etre; elle semble vouloir le pousser a bout, le forcer a se dissoudre." 47 This languour of Verlaine s is not limited to an individual emotional and psychological condition. This is the depression of an entire age. A travers la langueur s ’opere en somme la destruction de toutes les caracteristiques individuelles, et l emergence a un mode nouveau de la sensibilite ou chaque ________ evenement ne soit plus rapporte a aucune_____________ 176 experience particuliere, mais revecu anonymement, dans l'impersonnalite d un pur sentir. 48 The appropriateness of such a view and such a poetic message for Pasternak s Russia of the 1930 s is evident. The corruption of the era Verlaine depicts and the consuming personal despair in the midst of it could be identical for Pasternak. The prevailing mood of destruction, ruin, loss of individual sensibility, and the motifs of malady, melancholy, apathy, and indolence all would be applicable. This poem s pertinence derives from its combining and giving equal weight to the disintegration of an age and an individual. The second distinguishing characteristic of decadence is a preoccupation with words for their own sake. This resulted in an enlargement of the poetic vocabulary, a further extension of the trend begun by Victor Hugo who put the famous "bonnet rouge au vieux dictionnaire." There is an inherent paradox contained in the decadent movement, a paradox that increased "Langueur ' s suitability for Pasternak. At the same time that it revels in the decline and fall of an age and the resulting human despair, the inventiveness of its poetry gives evidence of hope, and especially of the powerful weapon against corruption that is creativity. In "Langueur" Verlaine recreates a historical era with two dramatic images at the beginning of the poem. The 177 identification of the poem's persona with a particular period of history is an ideal device for uniting past and present, for capturing history in a present moment. Through the reification and the historification of the "I" , authorship transfers to the age of decadence and thus from the individual to the universal, from the present through the past to the timeless instant. It is in the state of languor, a timeless state of suspension, that the momentaneity of experience is most intense. The verb tenses in "Langueur contribute to creating the apparently immutable condition which reinforces and intensifies the ennui inspiring the poem. The falling empire is depicted in the same time frame as that of the poet, in the present tense. The present participles heighten this immediacy, and the preponderance of infinitives fix the time in perpetuity. Repetitive sentence patterns take over and dominate lines 7-14, becoming progressively more uniform. There is at first a faint aural and visual similarity between "L ame" and Ta-b as "0 n'y pouvoir" is followed by "0 n'y vouloir". The latter is then duplicated as the first line of the following stanza, having the effect of tightening the ties between the two stanzas and between the two parts of the sonnet. "Ah tout est bu" is repeated with the fourth stanza, and the polysyndetic "Seul" in the concluding stanza brings the pattern to a climax. In these final lines the repetitive motif is 178 extended within each line by the identical compound sentence pattern and culminates in the final rhyming couplet. In spite of the accumulation of exclamatory statements in the second half of the poem, the dominant sensation is nonetheless ennui. The tension created by the opposition between the hightened emotionality and the requiem-like repetitions, succeeds in representing the anguish of the spirit in the grips of overwhelming melancholy. Although the factors traditionally associated with the fall of Rome "longs combats sanglants", "tout est bu", "esclaves" etc. constitute the surface theme and the governing metaphor of the poem, the poet’s real intent is, once again, his writing. After he states, " Je suis l'empire a la fin de la decadence," he quickly reverses the reification of the poet, replacing this trope with the personification of the empire as writer. The poet is the empire, the empire is poet, and the symbiotic collapse of both is accomplished. In the first stanza the empire meets the end of its golden age by composing its "acrostiches indolents ". Acrostics evidently entered the French literary tradition with Francois Villon, an especially important influence on Verlaine. The appearance of the word "acrostiche" in "Langueur" summons Villon to mind with all the resulting inferences, just as the "grands Barbares blanes" certify the influence of Rimbaud, for whom Villon, as "le mauvais 179 garqon" of an earlier age was also a literary ancestor. His poetics of melancholy and above all his emphasis on simplicity, harmony, and rhythm in preference to focus on the subtleties of versification and form identify Villon as a major influence on Verlaine. "A k p o c t h x h " l i t e r a l l y t r a n s l a t e s " a c r o s t i c h e s , " a w o r d t h a t draws attention to poetry s puzzling attribute. Pasternak used the word in TIo33HJi" (1922) a poem that "looks forward to the post-1940 Pasternak, but [ . . . ] does so in a sequence of conceits in the complex manner of his y o u t h . ’ 50 in that poem Pasternak expresses his conviction that "poetry is the essence of simplicity," but although the poetry writes itself, in response to Pasternak's command "cTpyHCb!", it does so in acrostics: O t p o c t k h j ih b h h r p j i3 H y T b r p o 3 A t > « x M .noaro, AOflro, ,no 3apH KponaiOT c x p o B e a b c b o h aKpocTHX, riycKaa b pmJiMy ny3Hpn. In "ToMaeHHe", "A k p o c t h x h " presages the eventual despairing "Hh c j io B a !', indicating that this depression supposedly of unknown cause is in fact the result of fear of ever being able to write. By the final stanza, there is reportedly nothing left but the "worthless poem" and the inexplicable and incurable ennui. This recurrent theme of devaluing his poetry reflects a poet's cliched anxiety, the expectation of rejection. But it is, after all, the "poeme un peu 180 niais" that endures after all has been drunk, eaten, and even said. The poetry remains alongside the ennui, and that is the source of rebirth. In Pasternak’s hands "Langueur" is unchanged in sp irit and faithful in most details. The changes curiously fall into two seemingly contradictory categories. In Pasternak s lexicon, the poem is on the one hand even more melancholic than Verlaine's. Verlaines’ glossary includes: "langueur (twice), "seulette", "ennui" (twice), “ mal aucoeur", and afflige" in the category of suffering, and an extensive number of words and expressions that fall under the broad category of passivity or lethargy, including: indolents" "faible", and lents". The two groups combine and are assisted by the breathless, exclamatory syntax in producing a poem that iconically represents its subject. Pasternak translates the title as "ToMJieHHe”, but unlike Verlaine he does not repeat the word in the actual text of the poem. Pasternak takes advantage of a richer variety of substantives to name this condition: "co CKyKH", "ra/tKo", "rpycTb". He is more incapacitated by his suffering, as indicated in lines 7 and 8. Verlaine explains why, in line 7, he cannot, nor has he any will to "fleurir un peu cette existance". But Pasternak leaves the explanation to the content of the rest of the poem. Instead, he can neither "cjiOMHTb 1S1 jieTa cboh" nor "npoacemb hx 6e3 ocTaTKa". Pasternak's verbs outclass Verlaine s "fleurir” with their dramatic desperation. At the conclusion of the poem, Verlaine emphasizes that his "langueur" is induced by outside forces. His "qui vous neglige", qui vous afflige" describe a vicious circle in which the sufferer is perceived as victim not perpetrator of this disorder. Pasternak, having eliminated Verlaine s verbs "rire" and "dire" concluding the ninth and tenth lines, removes all verbs from the final stanza, with a cumulative result that his paralysis is even more overwhelming. By eliminating Verlaine's "vous", furthermore, Pasternak protects the identification of the poetic persona with "phmckhh m h p " and intensifies his isolation. By not diluting the historicity of the poem, he condemns the sufferer to Rome's fate. No matter that he avers his suffering is of no known cause, "6e3 obTjBCHeHbJi h npefle^a”; the poem's emphasis on history belies this assertion of ignorance. For Pasternak poetry is a crucible of historic events. 'TIeTa h ^nu;a. Mhcjih. KaacawH c^yqaH./KoTopbiH b npomjioM MoaceT cnaceH/H b 6y,nynieM H 3 pyic cy^bbbi no^y^eH. "5i Both the Verlaine and Pasternak poems conclude with the thrice-uttered "seul"/"nnmb", reflecting the stasis, the indeterminate, stultifying moment, in which the subject is trapped. By contrast, the Annensky translation reverses the loneliness and despair and excises the continuum established 182 by the repetition. Annensky injects a note of jaundiced irony with the personified "cKyica ace^Taa c ycMeniKOH HH^iepHajibHOH” and insists, " 5 1 ace ^HeoflHH." [italics mine] Annensky’s poem and poetics are even more differentiated from Pasternak's poem than from Verlaine's where seul" at least includes the persona among its possible referents. Pasternak s "aminT is limited in application only to the subjects other than the oersona. i.e. "c t h x ", "pad", "rpycTb”, and the "I" remains as it has been throughout the poem, in Jakobsons terms, a "patiens ". 52 Or as Victor Erlich described it, "The I" in Pasternak s poetry. . . is not the pivot of a lyrical narrative, the principal point of reference. The self exists here, as it were, on a par with all other elements of the heterogeneous uni verse. . 53 in the translation "ToM^eHHe"' Pasternak erases the boundaries that Jakobson associates with lyrical vs. epic poetry, and the I" is actually “ the lyrical past [which] introduces itself as a remembered subject." 54 Jakobson s study of the grammar of the pronoun makes it clear: "The agens is excluded from [Pasternak's] thematics." In Pasternak's poem despair is mitigated by the strength and self-confidence derived not from his individual self but from his identity as a poet. His belief in himself and in art is far less fragile than Verlaine s. In lines 12 and 13 Pasternak replicates the repetition "un peu, un peu" in form, but he alters 183 the content. Verlaine's poem goes into the fire and his muse ignores him, but Pasternak stops the action short, "iiomth, noM TH." Although the sadness looks interminable, it is clear that he believes his writing will perdure. "ToMJieHHe" reveals several indicators in support of a reading of the Verlaine translations as vehicles for Pasternak s self expression. The poem's linkage of personal melancholia with historical forces are suggestive of the pathology in Russia at that time. The two definitions of Decadence work well as a subtext for Russia of the Stalin era. It applies to the Roman Empire in the most corrupt phase before its fall, and in literary terms, it was the pessimistic era preceding Symbolism. The images in "ToM^eHHe" of "nepHOfl ynaflKa', "BapBapu", "c,naBiiiero nopH^Ka", "Ha pybeacax 6 oh" all accurately depict this dark era of Russia's history. This poem, combining three critical factors, personal angst, historical decadence, and literary decadence, is one of the key works in Pasternak's small representation of Verlaine. It links the meta-poetic purpose of “ Art poetique", the overt historical motif of "Effet de n u it" , and the personal melancholy of II pleure dans mon coeur. . . and thereby lends unity to the collection. 184 "Dans 1’interminable ..." The poem that begins "Dans l'interminable ennui de la plaine ..." is untitled, appearing simply as VIII, a reflection of Verlaine s goal for this collection. Romances sans oaroles. It is one of his most impressionistic poems, discreet and highly suggestive, and it is one of Verlaine s most relentlessly depressing poems relying on visual effects that are uniformly dire in their menacing monotony. The balanced design of the poem, in which the first quatrain brackets it by reoccurring as its last, and the second repeats as the fourth, by contrast intensifies the emotional and psychic disarray of the content. Although it is a color poem, it does not number among the "Aquarelles", lighter in color and in tone. The dominant shades are copper and grey, specifically the copper of the sky and grey of the oaks. In each case the color functions in an unexpected way. The copper is unnatural, devoid of the warmth and metallic glow usually associated with it. The sky is "sans lueur aucune" because the moon has lived a short life, leaving a tarnished afterglow, and died. This moon is strikingly concordant in color and in sensation with the dark sun of melancholy that Julia Kristeva has identified as a key trope in the poetry of depression. The strange dimness of this moon explains the lines of the first stanza - "La neige incertaine/Luit 135 comme du sable" - that is, like sand, the snowflakes absorb the light and do not shine. In the third stanza the forest scene consists solely of grey oaks. In the dim light, any verdant freshness is eclipsed. This greyness is eery, prefiguring the presence of the wolves two stanzas later, whose greyness is not mentioned at all. The poem is a chiaroscuro in which Verlaine overturns the expected images of light on a landscape. Although the poem is rich in words that suggest illumination, what actually prevails is a menacing shadow effect. Light motifs include: neige, luit, ciel, cuivre, lueur, lune, all of which appear in the repeating stanzas. But the solar force of this poem is not an Apollonian sun, a positive figure of clarity; the moon goddess reigns here, inconstant and uncertain. In the singular stanzas, shadow and dark are emphasized: nuees, gris, chenes, corneille, loups. But in the repeated stanzas the expected outcome of this tension of opposites in which the dominant light motifs triumph over darkness is subverted. Instead, it is the unnerving penultimate stanza with its devouring images that holds the rest of the poem in its sway. The unrelieved, disillusioning aridity of La neige incertaine luit comme du sable. " in the opening stanza is emphatically reproduced in the conclusion. Thus succinctly but summarily invoked in this 186 poem are the archetypal oppositions cold and hot, summer and winter, night and day, light and dark, sun and moon. The poem is replete with conundra and antinomies. Ennui is countered by the menace of wolves and is actually a red herring. The somnolent rhythm of the poem perpetrates the feeling of ennui, but it is a numbness, a retreat from fear that explains the lassitude. Doubt assails the reader as "la neige incertaine" inserts a tremor into the "interminable ennui"; the presence or absence of light is ambiguous, and most of all the question of authorial voice is unresolved. The exterior focus of the poem is fractured by the unexpected question, "Quoi done vous arrive?" posed in a childish familiar form. Whoever is speaking has the courage to address the creatures of the night but, as the form of the question reveals, is experiencing the fright of a child left alone in the dark. It is a small trace of Verlaine's tenderness and vulnerability. At the same time as the crow and the wolves are traditionally predatory figures, they are also depicted as kindred sufferers with the speaker. "Poussive" and maigres classify them as victims of the harsh landscape, and the question "Quoi done vous arrive?" points to a certain sympathy and solidarity on the part of the interrogator. Whether they are friend or foe turns out to be irrelevant. They are word pictures that effectively complement the rest of the landscape. They create 18 7 an impression, and rationality is not the point here. All of nature serves as a receptacle for human emotion; the dark landscape reflects a dark mood, provoked by unknown forces. In this impressionist sketch, causes and explanations are superfluous. This is a poem of unrelenting bleakness, a winter without any promise of spring. Pasternak s treatment of this poem preserves and even enlarges upon its sinister and hopeless elements. Rhythmically the Russian is even more effective, able to condense the short lines into still shorter drumbeats. Pasternak s "To KaHeT 6ecc^e^Ho/Bo Mray HOBo;iyHbe" reverberates with some inexpressable fear at the same time that it very satisfactorily pictures the cycles of the moon. His " 3 a H e b o j u i h b h , an important image in Doctor Zhivago, is an alteration, and the image inserts a feminine/sexual presence that is, significantly, devouring and primogenitary. All together this quatrain highlights the lunar theme of the previous stanza which is less- developed in Verlaine. The translation of this poem is the most faithful of the seven, indicating the greatest degree of harmony between the two poets. It underscores the importance of "Effet de nuit" which it strongly resembles in its psychological and physical components. But whereas "Effet d e n u it” establishes the historicity important to Pasternak in his transubstantiation of 188 Verlaine, this poem takes the historical context and contemporizes its macabre theme, writing it in personal terms. "II pleure dans man coeur" If "Art poetique'V’HcKyccTBO no33HH" may be said to expound the principles of poetics shared by Verlaine and Pasternak, "II pleure" and "XaHApa" similarly contain the broad categories of their experiences of melancholia. Together these two poems provide the table of contents for the Verlaine/Pasternak collaboration. "II pleure dans mon coeur ..." is the third poem of the cycle "Ariettes Oubliees" in the Romances sans paroles. It is one of Verlaine's briefest and most simple poems, without a single original image or metaphor. Its language is commonplace; its message is straightforward. This is a very different work from "Langueur" which was judged obscure and incoherent by the critics. And yet, because of its disarming simplicity it has attracted discussion from nearly all pundits of French literature and is one of Verlaine's most well known album poems. Few could resist having a go at explaining the secret of the remarkable harmony of this little poem. Although it was evidently written in England, its success appears to spring from the unique characteristics of the French language. This is only one of the poem's paradoxes. 189 The epigraph, ”1 1 pleut doucement sur la ville," is perplexing. The original epigraph to the poem, crossed out, was from Longfellow's "The rainy day": "It rains, and the wind is never weary," which would have strongly linked the poem to the English tradition. Longfellow was extremely popular in Europe at that time, and his works were readily available in translation. Verlaine, however, was quite competent in English and admittedly an admirer of the language that he considered "soft, homely, and musical." 55 if Longfellow served as the original inspiration for the poem, it is possible that the work began in a more positive, optimistic mood, for although often wistful, melancholy, and tinged with longing for the past, Longfellow's verses were peaceful and serene. And therein lies another confusing element. A shift to Rimbaud signals chaos and derangement. However, even this is not clear and unequivocal; there is no such line in any known work of Rimbaud. Furthermore and contradictorily, the Longfellow line describes a turbulent state, where the Rimbaud uncharacteristically is tranquil. The epigraph, whose history resonates with a profusion and confusion of anxiety of influence, nonetheless makes clear two points, that Verlaine wished to pay homage to Rimbaud, but simultaneously that he subverted that influence by attributing to Rimbaud what was probably Verlaine s own phrase. The reference to Rimbaud 190 also supports the hypothesis discussed below, that Verlaine is not being altogether honest in insisting that his depression comes from no known cause. The epigraph establishes the visual setting of the poem, "la ville" and identifies rain as the governing metaphor of the poem. In the body of this short poem rain appears three more times. In addition to having a canonical emotional value, rain plays a visual role and most importantly an auditory one. With the additon of "doucement" before the actual poem begins, Verlaine has established a predisposition to the effects of a gentle rain. In this, too, the poem proves to be antithetical. "Doucement reverberates within the text of the poem as "0 bruit doux de la pluie" and 0 le chant de la pluie", but by virtue of the painful state in which these lines are embedded, the result is the antithesis of the model. From among the definitions of "doucement", the appropriate one for this poem is "ecoeurant" not "caressant." "II pleure dans mon coeur ..." apparently uncomplicated in style and content, has been subjected to exhaustive exegesis. What is most a marvel about it is that despite its uninventive rhyme, a rather trite collection of poetic images, and and an almost puerile simplicity, it is saved from a fall to bathos. Exactly how Verlaine accomplished this is critical for 191 understanding how Pasternak would train himself through Verlaine eventually to attain his own greatness in simplicity. A. E. Carter identified two techniques that underpin the poem s stature. Evocation replaces repetition, he explains, as Verlaine explores new poetic horizons. If we have the sense that "II pleure dans mon coeur" is a refrain which we hear repeatedly even though it, in fact, appears only twice, it is because of the pervasive alliteration and assonance. Verlaine employs the open ' eu", striking both because of its uncommonality and because of its length, as the dominant note. It appears twice in the first line and then is intensified by appearing three times as the rhyming sound. It is modulated by "pleut" in the second line. After that it suffices for Verlaine to repeate the word "coeur" in a similar affective context - which he does at least once in each stanza - for the entire "sentimental halo" of the first line to be evoked. Carter calls the second technique "echo". In each stanza Verlaine uses the same word to rhyme the first and last lines. But the two lines are never identical; instead, they "echo" one another: "O bruit doux de la pluie", "0 le chant de la pluie." 56 it becomes apparent that instead of what at first seems to be unimaginative repetiton of cliches, Verlaine has ingeniously fooled us. Not he, but we the reader, succumb to cliche. 192 In still another way, Verlaine s sounds and images function with innovation rather than convention. The mundaneity is in fact a prime modus operandi for accomplishing the desired effect. The poem reproduces Verlaine s desperate state of mind. From his psychological and emotional abyss there seems to be no exit, and the poem iconically represents this. The strictly auditory quality of the rain locks reality within the poet's mind. He hears but does not see. The rain, in effect, is an unreality; it is only a metaphor for his own ceaseless weeping. The repetiton of sounds and words, the short lines like cries of pain, the brevity of the poem, all work to depict a completely internalized reality. The desperation is punctuated by the oppositions, extremes expressing loss of choice and hope. The poet asks, Quelle est cette langueur . . . ?" but never identifies an answer. His reality remains "sans raison ", "sans amour" and "sans haine", recalling ' On'y pouvoir, 0 n’y vouloir" from "Langueur ". All of these qualities mitigate banality, but redemption actually occurs in the very first line of the poem. Its subtlety allows one to pass over it, acceptingly. The epigraph has served its purpose well. Its "II pleut prepares the way, allowing the reader to accept the neologism "II pleure" that counteracts all the cliches that are to follow. The equivalency of "il pleut"/“il pleure" saves the poem from bathos. 193 We can turn to Michael Riffaterre for an explanation of how this transference works. He distinguishes two stages of reading. Decoding a poem consists of a first heu ristic reading in which the reader's linguistic and literary compentences are both involved. Based on an assumption that "language is referential," decoding at this stage allows the reader "to perceive incompatibilites between words . . . that is, to recognize that a word or phrase does not make literal sense, that it makes sense only if he . . . performs a semantic transfer, only if he reads that word or phrase as a metaphor, for example, or as a metonymy. This reader input occurs only because the text is ungrammatical." At the second stage of retroactive or herm eneutic reading, the reader "modifies his understanding" and ultimately realizes "that successive and differing statements, first noticed as ungrammaticalities, are in fact equivalent, for they now appear as variants of the same structural matrix. Riffaterre concludes that the ungrammaticality that is first perceived as "the obstacle that threatens meaning . . . is also the guideline to semiosis."5? Thus, the semantic transfer of "II pleut" to "11 pleure" is a shortcut that encodes at the same time that it tightens the fusion between man and nature, with rain serving as a pretext and a cover up for shed ears. The transfer enables Verlaine to translate his own sadness with immediacy and to evoke a kind 194 of cosmic sorrow that pervades nature and man alike. This linkage in large part explains the importance of this poem for Pasternak. "II pleure ..." translated by Pasternak as 'XaH,a,pa," provides keys to two different aspects of Pasternak s life and work, certifying the close relationship between him and Verlaine as man and as poet. In its form, the poem delineates a critical developmental stage in Pasternak s progression towards more translucent writing; in its content it discloses his shadow self. Although "XaH/tpa" diverges substantially in form and content from the original, it succeeds in capturing Verlaine while simultaneously it speaks for Pasternak. By affixing the title of one poem to the text of another, Pasternak deliberately misreads Verlaine. What Verlaine called Spleen" is a poem that describes a particular episode in his complicated lovelife. Mathilde had just filed divorce proceedings, and Rimbaud had left him in disgust. Specificity is the major distinction between the two poems. Otherwise they have many commonalities, most notably the affinity between the poet s state of mind and his physicial environment. In "Spleen", for example, as in "II pleure ...,"' nature is too intense: "Le ciel etait trop bleu, trop tendre/La mer trop verte et l air trap doux." [italics mine] Although the epigraph to "II pleure ..." immortalizes Verlaine's debt of influence to 195 Rimbaud, in its content it is the lament of the chronically depressed, depressed in nature and not by immediate cause. This is a clinical, more acute depression than the love sickness of "Spleen"; and yet "spleen,” a word so dramatic in its combined emotional and physical senses would seem to be appropriate to the content of the titleless "II pleure Spleen is defined as a state of melancholy without apparent cause, characterized by a distaste for everything. When choosing which of the Verlaine poems to translate, Pasternak rejected "Spleen" in favor of ”1 1 pleure", obviously feeling greater kinship with it, but wanting the title. Two possible explanations present themselves. 58 First, the poignancy of the word "spleen”, appended to the more serious depression of "II pleure . . . ", best reflected his own condition that he was portraying through a Verlaine prism. For a second explanation, it is necessary to examine the intertextual references of "Spleen" and "XaHI fl;pa". For Verlaine "Spleen" is an obvious bow to Baudelaire, another of his poetic ancestors, who in his poem "Spleen" from Les f leurs du mal creates one of literature's most horrifying glimpses into a world of madness. The affliction he describes is corrosive and intense, of a far graver nature than a simple "ennui . Such an irrefutable reference to Baudelaire also signals Verlaine s interest in the mystery of human emotions 196 and their vast network of associations. The mystique of poetic images including transference between the human system and nature is derivative of an awareness of this interconnectedness between the individual and the cosmic. Pasternak russifies "Spleen as if wanting to purify the poem of its otherness. For the Russian reader, the intertextual referrent of "XaH^pa" is Pushkin’s EsreHHH OHerHH. That Pushkin preceeded Pasternak in preferring the Russian "xaHflpa” to the English word c ii^ ih h is explicit: He^yr, K O T o p o r o n p w ^ H H y ZlaBHO 6 t i OTHCKaTb n o p a, TIoja;o6HHH aH r^H H C K O M y c n ;iH H y , K o p o n e : p y c c x a a x a H ^ p a Mm OB;ia,fl,ejia n o H e M H o r y ; Oh 3acTpe^HTbca, cjiaBa dory, llo n p o b o B a T b He xoT e^i, Ho K JKH3HH BOBCe O X M f le ^ . In addition to emphasizing the Russiannness of the translations, linking the Verlaine poem to Pushkin may indicate as well a similar probing of the relationship between life and literature, a blurring of the boundaries between the author and the creation. Pasternak may be pointing to EBreHHH OHerHH to make the statement that literature offers no sanctuary from real life. The title "XaH^pa' has a function parallel to that of the epigraph in the Verlaine poem but with an inversion of meaning. Verlaine uses the epigraph to anticipate what he will 197 state clearly by the second stanza of the poem, that when he says "II pleure dans mon coeur" he is saying "II pleure doucem ent dans mon coeur." Pasternak eliminates this gentle qualifier; in his poem he describes a more serious condition. His provocative title functions both semantically and grammatically: the first verse must read, "XaHApa h b cep^he pacTpaBa." The second verse "H a o j k a h k c yTpa," is then a metonymical extension of the poet's tears in a completed chain of cause and effects. Nature has answered his summons - "0 4],o:kahk ace/raHHHH." In Verlaine s poem rain and tears are linked by simile. For Pasternak, however, rain and tears are not merely simultaneous outpourings. At first they are simply juxtaposed, two panels of a diptych. But by the second stanza, it is revealed that the rain was actively summoned and serves a purpose; for Pasternak, rain is "npea^or". The familiarity of the diminutive "floacflHK”, a familiarity absent from Verlaine s and Annensky's poems alike, implies a close, interdependent relationship in which man's wish is nature's command. When Pasternak writes " T b o h rnopox - npe,zyior' he begins to establish the duality that he completes in the next stanza with " X a t m p a 6e3 n p H ^ H H W ." Cause and effect, good and evil, are inserts and deliberate misreadings of the Verlaine text. In Pasternak the rain is result not coincidence; it is a deliberate pretext for him to shed his tears "no# myMOK." The elimination 198 of "doucement" derives greater significance when one takes note of two other changes in Pasternak’s poem. He introduces ■pacTpaBa” and "KpymaHa" making clear that this an old familiar condition, and his question "oTKy^a" can then be considered a rhetorical one. The reader too knows the answer, but just in case, a clue is provided in the final line which opposed "xy.ua" and "aobpa", a complete variation on the theme of Verlaine s poem. Pasternak s "XaHflpa" is not only familiar to him. Eliminating the I" he extends the purview of the poem to any "aynie becTaaaHHOH. As Plank explained, whereas Verlaine s poem is a "description of the poet's emotions" and "an embarrassingly Romantic poem,” Pasternak's becomes "a metaphysical piece." 59 Pasternak transcends the individual and reaches for the abstract, moral level. Selection of "XaH^pa", whose familiarity Ada Steinburg has pointed out, makes it clear that this low mood is a petty matter; that is precisely why it is "xaH^pa". 60 Capturing the irony of the poem, Pasternak opposes a trivial depression that arises "HeoTKy^ta" and is as common as the rain, with the deep melancholy which, he suggests, results from the ultimate moral conflict “ ot xy.ua' " ot .nobpa". The demarcation between "xaH,npa” and a true moral dilemma ot xy^a/oT .qobpa'' is concretized in the poem's parallel grammatical structures, the grammar of its poetry. The 199 opposition is underscored by the word play, the paronomastic suggestivity which, at the same time, almost fully conceals it beneath the dominating presence of the oft repeated "xaH.fl.pa' which is summoned even here by an interchange of sounds not unlike that which constitutes the poetic magic of "II pleure dans mon coeur." Far more than for its content, "II Pleure ..." is remarkable for its extraordinary simplicity. It is restrained especially in the economy of its lines as well as in its language. Most of the words are monosyllabic, and the classical alexandrine is bisected. Along with the unentangled syntax these factors all contribute to the poem's capacity to make an impact that is as instantaneous as it is enduring. The inflected Russian language of necessity produces longer and more complex words. But Pasternak's version is laconic particularly in contrast to Annensky's. His vocabulary seems carefully selected for density; most of the nouns are presented in their briefest possible form and are often juxtaposed syndetically and without verbs. The string of short, staccato sounds that comprise the last stanza fulfills the expectation that the laconic title initially and then repeatedly elicits. In lieu of Annensky's heavy verse in which the attention is weighted to the bracketing "Pa3Be He xyace MyfleHHH" , the last of a series of repetitions completely compatible with and representative of 2 00 his original poetry, Pasternak produces a stanza that is simpler by far. X aH A pa HHOTKyjta, Ha to h xaHjotpa, Kor^ta He ot x y ^ a M He ot a o fip a . Pasternak seems to be more attentive in general to the structural force of this poem than Annensky who extends Verlaine's six-syllable line. Annensky s dactyls, drawn out by the universally feminine lines (perhaps a throwback to the syllabic verse of seventeenth century Russia, an attempt to evoke the syllabic verse of French poetry) might be appropriate to the weight of depression that the poem speaks of, but Verlaine s poem opposes the sorrowful content with the lightness of his rhythm. In Pasternak s rendition, the punctuated rhythm of the brief lines, reinforced by the amphibrachs that conclude them, provide a contrast of light rhythm against the titular and recurring heavy initial beat of "xaH^tpa. ' Technically it appears that Pasternak makes a swerve against his customary poetics to access Verlaine, whereas Annensky remains within the parameters of his own comfortable poetic world. In the case of Annensky, his melancholic temperament was neither latent nor suppressed and this temperamental unanimity with Verlaine may be what 201 precludes his attaining a differentiation from his own poetics. The outcome is a poem vastly dissimilar in form from "II Pleure . . . ," although Annensky invests the strength of his emotions in equal measure to Verlaine.61 Pasternak evidently worked under the influence of Verlaine as early as 1913. Plank has pointed out the similarities between "<f>eBpajib" written in that year and "II pleure . . . ." He observed that Pasternak often used the Romantic correlation of rain with grief, but almost always with a redeeming virtuosity and strangeness."62 According to him, the Pasternak poem, which was revised several times, in the early 30 s and again in the early 40's, is ostensibly something like Verlaine's in theme. He also has identified the word play in Verlaine s with Pasternak s, noticing that "'weep' is substituted for the expected write', and then the reverse substitution is made in the second line.63 "<f>eBpa;ib. .ZfocTaTb qepHiM h miaKaTb! / nucaTb o (JeBpajie HaB3pH.ii, " "XaHflpa" can also be seen as a sequel to Pasternak's earler poem, a "njiaqyiu,HH caA' part two. Both poems deal with the not unusual rain metaphor in significantly different ways. As Olga Hughes pointed out, Pasternak gave new life to this metaphor in "TliiaMyinHH ca.n" by presenting it in a new guise, in the personification of the garden. In contrast with Verlaine's poem, the human act of weeping becomes nature s. In this 202 total convergence of identities, the garden is fully anthropomorphized and the symbiosis is fully realized. Conclusive evidence of this can be limited here to the second lines of the first and fourth stanzas: "Bee o h jih o ^ h h Ha CBeTe", "Bee a jih o ^ h h Ha CBeTe." Equivalency is extended by the fact that each of these is completed by the identical rhyming line "Han ecT h cBH^eTeab." The perfect parallels make it clear that the witness for the garden is the poet, and vice versa. These lines are also examples of the pathos with which " X a H A p a " and "n/iaqymHH caa" are imbued. In each case the poet has a sense of aloneness, uniqueness. Only he, as poet, is "roTOBMH HaB3pbi.ii, npH cjryqae." The reappearance of "HaB3pH,xi,” in "XaH flpa" cannot be viewed as coincidental. The 'Vtoac^tHK vicejiaHHiiH of "XaHflpa" is not the simultaneous and inseparable outburst of TIJiaqymHH ca^" nor is it the contiguous and separate occurrence of "II pleure". In the later representation of a similar though more acute depression Pasternak dissociates the weeping garden from the weeping poet and sets the human pain ahead of nature chronologically. In "XaH^pa" Pasternak removes the tears from the primary position they hold in "II pleure . . . and "n^aqymHH ca.n" alike, diminishing them to a mere "shed a tear". The later poem's elegant simplicity derives in large part from this reduced emotionality. Verlaine's poem, described by 203 Zimmermann as "debarrasse . . . de tout un fatras d'images contradictoires, allege grace a une technique si subtile qu'on ne la sent plus comme telle ',64 translates Pasternak's feeling and moves it toward clarity. The acute and chronic melancholia, "xaH^pa ", is beyond the release of tears; the restraint of this poem, plain in its images, light in its assonance and alliteration, stands in stark contrast to the emotion-laden lines full of tongue-twisting sound effects in 'TLnaqymHH ca.ii," like: Hh n p H 3 H a K a a r u , K p o M e acyT K H X Thotkob h n;iecKaHH« iii;ienaH i;ax, H B 3 A 0 X 0 B H c ^ e 3 b npoMeacyTKe. In contrast to the punctuated "pleut-pleure" interplay which in the Verlaine poem conveys more the sensation of weeping than of depression, Pasternak shifts the emphasis of the poem to the mood rather than the behavior. In a poem of so few lines and few words, "xaHupa" appears five times. It is like a drumbeat, dominating the poem in the title and in three of the four stanzas. Its insistent presence reflects and magnifies the poet s disturbed psychological state. ”X a H ,n p a " meditates on the starkly negative atmosphere of the times65 and is Pasternak's most memorable and most personal adoption of Verlaine's voice. 204 Notes: Chapter Four 1 Lazar Fleishman, "Pasternak and Bukharin in the 1930 s," Boris Pasternak and His Times ed. Lazar Fleishm an (Berkeley, Berkeley Slavic Specialties, 1989) 183. 2Fleishm an 183. ^Fleishman 171. 4 01ga Ivinskaya, A Captive of Time trans. Max Hayward (Garden City, New Yopk: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1978) 122. ^Ronald Hingley, Pasternak: A Biogranhv (New York: A lfred A. Knopf, 1983)77 ^Ivinskaya 72. 7Fleishm an observes that in Pasternak's works a revolutionary romantic struggles w ith a romantic reactionary. A t times one is victorious, at tim es another, and, he notes, th is very d u ality was dangerous. See E o p h c fla c T e o H a K b ToHiiiiaTue roim ( lerusalem : The Magnes Press, 1984) 91. s H ingley 92. ^Lev Loseff asserts that For Aesopian language in artistic texts, am bivalence is indispensable. He explains "that that portion of the text w hich carries out an Aesopian function has always a non-A esopian, sim p ly sty lis tic , role as well. On the Beneficence of Censorship: A esopian Language in Modern Russian L iterature trans. June Bobko (Munchen: Verlag Otto Sagner in Kommission, 1984) 36. Although D aniel Rancour-Laferriere argues against Loseff's use of the word "ambivalence", reasoning that Loseff analyzes the d u a lities of m eaning inherent in A esopian sem iotic system s, whereas am bivalence refers to d u a lities of feeling in affective system s, I maintain that the latter d u ality is appropriate in Pasternak s case at least. Even Laferriere concedes that "the A esopian writer may be of two m inds about his subject matter." 10 Referring esp ecially to the title, Michel A ucouturier defined OxoaHHaa rpaMQTa as Pasternak's attempt to defend art against the encroachm ents of an age of enslavement and to ensure its route to e te r n ity .” (Hingley 103) Angela Livingstone recen tly opened a debate on the fittin gn ess of the translation as Safe Conduct w hich concluded that it meant a document which guaranteed the safety of the person or the shipm ent and thus should remain unchanged. 1 lLazar Fleishm an, The Poet and His Politics (Cambridge. Harvard U niversity Press, 1990) 217. 12For exam ple, Pasternak participated in the Party-organized dem onstration at the time of the trial of Ramzin the technician_in_L93.1__ 205 in sp ite of the fact that he knew what was going on and was troubled by it. See L. Fleishman, Poet 29 and 37 for his revelations about Pilnyak s condem nation of Pasternak. 13in Ivinskaya 8 1. l ^Jl. rHH3bypr, 0 /IttPHKe 352-3*33. ^ A le x a n d e r Zholkovsky maintains that instead of leading to provocative moral ambivalence, it ["figurative evil"] is pure rhetoric" in Pasternak's poetry. See "The Sinister' in the Poetic World of Pasternak", IJSLP, Vol. XXIX, 1984, 109-131. 16A.E. Carter sim ila rly denigrates its importance, convinvced that it was a "specious theory” and that "like most theories they came after the event, and better d efine what he had already w ritten than what he was yet to write. Verlaine: A Study in Parallels (Toronto: U niveristy of Toronto Press, 1969) 63. 17C. ifypwaHH, "3 eM H O H npocTop" (/iHTeoaTVPHaa vaeba Ns6 , MocKBa, 1988) 110. l^Guy De Mallac, Boris Pasternak: His Life and A rt (Norman: U niversity of Oklahoma Press, 1981) 355- 19Boris Pasternak, "Paul-Marie Verlaine" Pasternak on A rt and C reativity ed. and trans. Angela Livingstone (Cambridge: Cambridge U niversity Press, 1985) 181. 20 R. W ellek and A. Warren (Theory of Literature: New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1956) 1 15- 2 *Dale Plank, Pasternak's Lvric: a Study of Sound and Imagery (The Hague: Mouton, 1966) 15- 2 2 E o p h c Ila c T e p H a K , ilo K T O o iK H B aro (MocKBa: K H H aotaa n a a a T a , 1 9 8 9 ) 3 2 8 . 23The texts of th is and all the Verlaine poems and translation s are printed in the appendix. 24/1haha fl, rnH36ypr, O jiHOHKe (/leHHHrpaa: CoBe-rcxHH imcaTeab, 1964)348. 2 5For exam ple, L. Tolstoy: Cea 3a nepeeo^t YpycoBa. HepoBeH. HacTo oqeHb Hexopouio. He 3Haio, t t o , t c k c t h a h nepeBoa,? BepoaTHee - TeKCT. Haao imcaTb, T.e. BHpaacaTb MMcaH TaK, a-robbi hbiao xoporno Ha Bcex fl3HK.ax." in A. Fedorov, H c k v c c t b o neoeBoaa h >K H 3H b aHTepaTypu: oaeoKH (ZleHHHrpaa, CoBeTCKHH nncaTeab, 1983) 9 2 . 26See A. Zholkovsky s article "JIwboBHaa aoaica, ynpaacb a a a Ileraca h noxopoHHaa KoabibeahiHaa" Mho aBTQoa h cTPYKTypa TexcTa. (Tenafly: Hermitage, 1986) 228-254. 27Ivinskaya 77. 28personal conversation, Los A ngeles 1988. 2 9 D oris-Jeanne Gourevitch, Paul Verlaine: Selected Verse (Waltham, M assachusetts: B laisdell Publishing Company, 1970) 33. 206 3 °Phi 1 ip Stephan, Pual Verlaine and the decadence 1 8 8 2 -9 0 (Manchester: Manchester U niversity Press, 1974)136. 31 Jacques-H enri Bornecque, Les Poemes Saturniens de Paul V erlaine (Paris: Librairie Nizet, 1952)169. 32Pasternak had been gradually rehabilitating the sin ce "CecTpa m o b - 5 KH3Hb" according to M. Gasparov. (unpublished paper 3 b o j h o i{h & cTHxa B. riacTepHaKa ) 33 A^eKcaH^P /Kobkobckhh, "Ha 3anHC0K no no33HH rpaMMaTHKH ’ Russian L inguistics 9 (1985) 379. 34 Jean-Pierre Richard, Poesie et Profondeur (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1955)166. 3 5stephan 133. 3^in the Russian poetical tradition Pasternak s use of them is traceable to Blok and Fet. 37Jacques Borel observes the lack of originality in th is poem and exp lains it as follows: "En un mot, non pas tant le gout que la volonte du conform ism e. D un conformisme vu comme un exorcism e: non pas 'planche de slaut', mais le salut meme." Paul Verlaine, Oeuvres poetiau es com pletes (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1962) 137. 38Jacques Robichez ed. Oeuvres poetiaues de V erlaine (Paris: Editions Garnier Freres) 1 15- 39The emphatic repetition is sim ilarly found in the second stanza of P a stern a k s "MHe xoMeTca . h o m o h ..." the third poem in the cycle Bojihm" . 40Gourevitch 101. 41Robichez 139. 42Robichez 139. 43Robichez 146. 4 4 BoreI 179. 4 5Eleonore M. Zimmermann, Magies de Verlaine: Etude de revolution p oetiaue de Paul V erlaine (Geneve: Slatkine, 1981) 83. ^6Carter 9 2 . 47Richard 175- 48Richard 175. 4 9 cf. ' Mauvais Sang", les Blancs debarquent!" 5°Ronald H ingley, N ightingale Fever (New York: A lfred A. Knopf, 1981)102. 51from ' JlioSKa" (1927) 5 2in Plank 77. 53piank 77. 54 Plank 77. 55Gourevitch 16. 207 5&Carter 5 2-53. 57 M. Riffaterre, Semiotics of Poetry (Bloomington: Indiana U n iv eristy Press, 1978) 5-6. 5 s A nother explanation is offered by Ada Steinberg in her article "B./l. IflacTepHaK - nepeBOAMHK n. BepjieHa.' Russian L iterature and H istory ed. B.W. Moskovich (Jerusalem: The Soviet Jewry Museum Foundation, 1989) 'npeAnoHHTaa t o m j i c h h i o npu nepeBOAe 11 pleure dans mon coeur c j i o b o xaHApa', FlacTepHaK c^HTaa yMecTHwit /mpHqecKoe a' CBH3bIBaTb C COBpeMeHHOCTbM IIOCpeACTBOM $aM H /IbJIpH O rO CJIOBa 'xaHApa' . . . " 59piank 66. 6 0 A. UlTeHHbepr, "B./I. IlacTepHaK - nepeBOA'tHK n. Bep^eHa" R u ssia n L iterature and History. Ed. B.W. Moskovich. (Jerusalem: The Soviet Jewry Museum Foundation, 1989) 99. 6 ! "It is d ifficu lt to compare the two poems. But A nnensky's com bination of melody and oratoric passion is remarkable." Setchkarev 147. 6 2Plank 6 6 . 63piank 66. 6 ^Zimmermann 53. 65steinberg 99. Ada Steinburg cites the work of A.P. Zhuravlev to point out the negative connotation of the sound "x" in "xaHApa”. "3ByK MoaceT oxpacHTh caoBo, a b chjibhoh no3Hii,HH MoaceT aaace npnaaTb c^oBy n o a o a c H T e a b H y i o hji h O T p n i t a T e a b H y i o K O H H a T a 3 H io . F l o A a B f l f l i o m e e KoaHMecTBo caoB Ha 'x' . . . HecyT OTpHitaTeabHyio KOHHaTaitmo." 208 Chapter Five Pasternak s Evolution: Intertexts and Auto-intertexts Application of the paradigms of Harold Bloom s theory to translation makes it possible to evaluate the influence of Pasternak s translations on his original writing from a new vantage point. Bloom's perspective allows us to consider that a translator in a sense predetermines the influence of the selected foreign writer on his developing proclivities. In the Pasternak-Verlaine case, those traits are poetic transparency, melancholia (itself a consequence of poetic influence and "an anxiety principle"1 ) and the religious response to that condition. Pasternak is known to have translated only those writers whom he had always loved. Selecting them for translation, the poet unambiguously identified the major foreign writers who were influencing him. The changes that occur in his writing during the decades after his imposed silence are, therefore, in the light of the principle of anxiety of influence, logical outcomes of the course he was already pursuing at the time he embarked on the translations. In turn, the translations are signposts of those developments, and the selections and the juxtaposition of the alterations and the fidelities in them function to indicate Pasternak s focus. As we have observed, the translated texts are "maps of misreading," maps that assist exegesis of both authors' works. When we 209 transfer to translation Bloom’s conclusion that a strong poet is interested in the ancestral poet only to the extent that |he] reveals to him the condition of his own countenance,"2 we must acknowledge that Pasternak had more in common with Verlaine than is readily apparent. Thus, Pasternak identified with Verlaine - sensitive, transparent, melancholic, and religious - and once he passed through the most manifest expression of influence, translation, those common traits became more prominent in his original writing. When Harold Bloom amplifies his theory of the anxiety of influence in The Breaking of the Vessels he tackles a series of related questions all of which, as he puts it, verge upon a single question: what is a poet's stance . . . as he writes his poem?" Bloom is exclusively interested in "the notion of a poet as poet [which) attempts to locate a crucial element in poetry that we have been too little able to discuss. The figure that a poet makes, not so much in or by his poem, but as his poem relates to other poems, is the figure [Bloom seeks] to isolate, define, and describe. ..." 3 This attempt to define the relationship between Pasternak and Verlaine concludes with a bipartite intertextual analysis, one part again between Pasternak and Verlaine, and an "auto-intertextual" section that demonstrates the post- Verlaine Pasternak's evolution. In other words, it aims to identify Pasternak s stance as he wrote his later poems and 2 10 novel. We shall see in the fact that he describes his predecessor in terms that really apply to himself, evidence of the symbiosis that had developed between them in the process of Pasternak s acquistion or revisioning of Verlaine. Much of what he says about Verlaine's poetics is equally applicable to himself. Much has been said about the fact that Pasternak's language became simpler and more transparent, in a progession manifest even in his correspondence,4 and that he had "achieved that naturalness of the live Russian language which he had sought to emulatefinVerlaine.]"5 The Verlaine connection is paradoxical in that it at one and the same time represents clarity and obfuscation, clarity through rejection of complex tropes, but opaqueness in that the translations serve to veil his position in the identity of the poet ancestor. Pasternak's movement in the direction of simplicity was in fact a progression that allowed him to incorporate into his poetic reality a more complex self understanding and a more puzzling complex world. 6 In Pasternak's new lyrical poetry the measure of poetic mastery had shifted from innovation and the complexity of stylistic devices to ’bareness,' laconic precision, coupled with density of word meaning, as Fleishman explains.7 Pasternak s correspondence reveals that he was fully conscious of his intention to reject tropes and all the other special devices of poetic language, thereby achieving such a freedom of expression that even dull, colorless, and 211 simple words would turn into music in his poetry." 8 This new style he was aiming for is rooted in Verlaine's "de la musique avant toute chose." It has been established that Pasternak s concern for order and clarity' manifests itself in his conception of art beginning with the 1930 s. 9 Fleishman unambiguously attaches political motives as well as poetical ones to Pasternak's determined turn away from elusivity. He states categorically that "Pasternak s quest for a different literary style originated in his new desire to be accessible to the widest possible circle of readers." His sense of belonging to "a superfluous generation" led him to anew conception of "the poet's unity with the people ". This idea, declares Fleishman, "was prompted by oppositional political motives' and was derivative of the poet's "increased interest in the heritage of the Russian Slavophiles of the nineteenth century, who had frequently been a bastion of antigovernmental opposition." 10 Pasternak became less obscure; but first he limited himself to a safer conduct of his thoughts through translation of Verlaine’s and others' texts. It seems likely that Pasternak's movement towards simplicity was motivated for content as well as for form, and that at least in part by absorbing Verlaine poetics into his original writing, he was able to acknowledge and reveal as his bequest to Russian literature his personal truth which included Russia's historical and political truth. 2 1 2 A final, summary examination of the role of the Verlaine poetics and a comparison of the two complementary and most celebrated Pasternak works will conclude this study. This chapter will demonstrate how Doctor Zhivago revisions Mv Sister Life through the prism of political and literary influences, especially Verlaine's, and through the psychological insight gained by Pasternak over the course of the intervening years. Certain aspects of the Pasternak-Verlaine partnership can be explained in the light of Pasternak s later work where their shared psychological state becomes most apparent - as if Verlaine gave him the words to come to grips with this heretofore shrouded side of himself. Pasternak wrote the essay Paul-Marie Verlaine” in 1944 on the one hundredth anniversary of the poet's birth. It is a very brief and curious piece that reveals much more about Pasternak than about Verlaine. In fact, the entire first half of the essay is devoted to a discourse on history and reality in which Verlaine is mentioned only in passing, but, importantly, within an historical context. Pasternak is preoccupied in this essay with what he calls "the new artists' angle of vision" required by the "new urban reality" of the nineteenth century with "its financial tempests and its society of victims and spoilt children. ..." 1 1 He defines the era, the era that spawned Verlaine, as one of transition between the traditional past and a future that was as yet undefined. Reality, he states, "was a 213 rushing whirlpool of conventions, between two absolutes, one left behind, one not yet attained, a distant presentiment of the most important matter of the age - socialism and the event that would give it a face, the Russian revolution." 12 Revealing his preoccupation with the most consequential event of his own history, with hindsight he transfers it as a prefiguring force onto French literature and hints at what use he would find for a Verlaine ingredient in his own voice. He finds primary in Verlaine s writings a factor typically overlooked by other Verlaine scholars, that he left a vivid record of things seen and experienced. ..." 13 It is in this context that Pasternak makes his most emphatic judgment that Verlaine is a realist, and that his fate was in large part historically determined by the Insurrection of 1870 and his taking part in the activities of the Commune, biographical facts that play but an incidental part in any other study of Verlaine. Whether in fact Verlaine was so profoundly affected by these events is really irrelevant. Pasternak s judgment of Verlaine that "he assigned the main role to the historical time and circumstances in which his falls and repentances took their course" may be a transference of his self-awareness, that he was determined by the political events of his time.14 Sinyavsky describes a similar function of history in Pasternak's writing. Pasternak has, he says, "a keen eye for the signs of time scattered everywhere and lending each object a special significance. History penetrates all the 214 pores of life, transforming the pettiest detail of the setting into its own likeness.'*5 It is against that specific and unorthodox context that Pasternak turns, in the second half of the essay, to Verlaine s poetry. His laconic but impassioned homage to Verlaine includes several points obviously pertinent for Pasternak as he looked upon himself against his historical setting. He included himself in his broad meta-poetic statement: "Like every great artist, [Verlaine] demanded not words but action", even from the art of the word, that is, he wanted poetry to contain what had already been experienced, to be an observer s witness and truth." 16 When he celebrates the "boundless freedom" that Verlaine gave the French language because he "had a splendid knowledge of what he had to do and what French poetry needed to convey the new whirlwind in the soul and in the town" he reveals his own major concerns for his poetry. 17 Olga Hughes points to Verlaine when she examines Pasternak's progression toward a "simple and unadorned style." She discovers that in his later verse there can be found many expressions and phrases of spoken language without any change in the normal word order" and notes that it was "this role of the spoken language" that Pasternak lauded in his Verlaine essay. 18 In its later stages, Verlaine scholarship categorically disclaims the previously commonly held view that the 215 poet's contribution to the poetic enterprise is restricted to his technical experiments and their subsequent effect on later writers. I believe however, that Pasternak rightly held the earlier position that Verlaine's language was the medium through which great evolutionary progress was made. Like a hypnotic therapeutic experience, it constituted an access into the previously unexplored, or unnamed regions of the psyche. A.E. Carter, for example, insisting that ' the experiments were means of self-expression, vehicles for his genius, but not the genius itself." typifies the failure of the critics to identify just what is Verlaine s poetic genius. 19 Carter overlooks the significance of Verlaine's response to the attack of Charles Morice. 20 Verlaine retorts: "Laissez-moi rever, si ga me plait, pleurer quand j'ai envie, chanter lorsque lidee me prend." 21 What Verlaine reveals here is that his poetic achievements were not conceived as just clever devices and defiant innovations. Instead, the novelty derives from his unwillingness to be restrained. His language is pure and natural, a language of the heart. As what P. Stephan called "a poet of mystery, dream, and interpersonal communication," Verlaine spoke a language that was new. 22 It was what Anna Balakian called a "sotto voce ", a language that helped Pasternak recreate his idiom in a similar spirit of intimacy, immediacy, relevance, and accessibiltiy. 23 216 Verlaine's impact on the literary tradition was manifold: "[He] supplied the form, the vocabulary, the themes, the major symbols, the specific sources of animism in nature; he set the mood of ennui and bittersweet melancholy; he suggested the need for an air of mystery in the poetic setting." 24 These are not unrelated factors, but rather, all are mutually interdependent and cannot be isolated or teleologically ordered. The form and the content produced each other simultaneously, and in the case of Pasternak the translator and literary descendant, they cannot be separated either. Although in the process of incorporating Verlaine, he adapted and transformed his work by imposing his own strong voice, a certain deep compatibility was a necessary prerequisite in order for the grafting to be successful. In the melancholic and religious Verlaine, Pasternak found in Verlaine both the key to articulation of those hidden sides of himself and the license to bring them to light. The eventual streamlining of Pasternak's language is connected to the course of events happening in his country, events so horrific that they engendered anew language, not unintelligible like "zaum" but in fact more transparent than ever before. Pasternak, wrote Sinyavsky, "is a receptive sponge . . . [who] absorbs the surrounding world, grows heavy with the omens of time." 25 In fact, the roots of many facets of Pasternak's work spring from history which can therefore be 217 designated an organizing force in Pasternak's writing. 26 Pasternak had no intention of compromising the purity of art to engage in any political polemics, but instead he placed history at the command of the lyric. 27 He was committed to resisting and even to polemicizing "against crude political directives demanding that poets and artists subordinate their individual esthetic and ideological values to those established by the political leaders fo the Revolution," as Jane Harris reminds. Harris notes that Pasternak believes in "the abstract idea of Revolution as a moral imperative for change," and that he "views history not as justification, but as revelation: the discovery of fundamental, essential values, in particular, the realization of the idea of the interconnectedness of all the phenomena in the universe.”28 Pasternak's life unfolded in an era of cataclysmic historical events and his writing no less than his life was not immune to this powerful influence. His fiction and non-fiction works alike trace his attitude toward Russia's contemporary history and evidence his steadfast loyalty to his country which did not prohibit him from voicing first his ambivalence, confusion, and disappointment, and ultimately shame. Fleishman offers some selections of Pasternak's wartime reporting that never made it to print because they point to "a kind of organic link between the Russian revolution and developments in Germany leading to the rise of fascism." 29 218 Fleishman indicates their "deep Aesopian subtext" which "allows us to detect . . . his later, even more ambivalent conception of Russia's historical path in Doctor Zhivago Pasternak s linkage of events in Russia with Hitler s Germany seems to have been a foreshadowing of a similar linkage in a key event in his own life. Observers were quick to note that before Pasternak only three Nobel laureates had ever declined the honor, all "in 1939 in Nazi Germany at the behest of Hitler s government." 30 This event provides the principal context for a poem from "Kor^a pasryjifleTCfl'' that allows Pasternak to reflect historical reality. And the poem "TpaBa h KaMHH is "a panegyric to two countries, Poland and Georgia. Their appearance in the same context springs from their special role at that time: Georgia inside the Soviet Union and Poland inside the socialist camp served as models of freethinking and independence." According to Fleishman, "outside these specific historical circumstances, it is impossible to understand Pasternak s poem."31 Pasternak s acknowledgement of the interconnectedness of art and history is at the heart of his definition of realism. In his "idiosyncratic" definition, states OlgaHughes, it is "absolute adequacy to the time when it was written."32 The fact that Verlaine is classified, also idiosyncratically, by Pasternak as a realist completes the chain of connections from art to history to realism to Verlaine's new language and its musicality. Each of 219 these components holds an essential position in Pasternak s later writing, oarticularv Doctor Zhivago as noted above. The clarity of articulation Pasternak had been working towards comes to fruition in the novel through the realization of this interdependence of all these essential factors. Pasternak remained dedicated to the end to the belief that Doctor Zhivago was his greatest, most important work. An explanation for this view can be found in Angela Livingstone's writing where she examines the relationship of art and reality in Pasternak's work. She believes that Pasternak's idea of art "developed as the conviction that art arises in response to suffering humanity . . . ."33 This conviction, Livingstone explains, extends from Safe Conduct to Doctor Zhivago in which art responds to Lara's "calling for help”. Strel'nikov's question to Yuri Zhivago 'And what did you do about it?', though unanswered in the dialogue, is tacitly answered by the twenty- five poems appended to the novel. Art is a response to suffering that is quite unlike, but related and parallel to, the political response." 34 Doctor Zhivago is a text of conscience in which, through the character of Zhivago, Pasternak comes "to grips with the problem of history." 35 By ascribing the main role to history, the poet relieves himself of the immeasurably difficult task of giving direct voice to the human complexities, particularly the pain and the guilt inevitable in the Stalin era. At the same time that this approach 2 2 0 links historical evidence intimately to the personal or human dimension, it protects the poetry from ever serving any political purpose. Pasternak's consistent and single theme is poetry itself and "the processes of the poetic imagination. This poetics put the poem as distant as possible from the utterances of opinion."36 By projecting the internal human condition onto the external, more objectifiable world the poet rejects confusion and excess, embraces subtlety and speaks in a more natural language. Pasternak aligns himself with what he indicated in his essay as most valuable in Verlaine, the language that other, less discerning literary figures dismissed as incidental: TlapHJKCKaH $pa3a bo Been ee HeTpoHyTOCTH h qapyromen m c tk o c th BJieTa^a c yjimthi h ;io:*CH;iacb b CTpomtcy u,ejiHKOM . . . ."37 Found here in Pasternak s laudation of Verlaine is an early indication of the "throat clearing" that Tsvetaeva recognized, after which in his own verses Russia is "once again speaking out freely.'3S Some time later, a passage appears in Yuri Zhivago's diary that strongly resembles Pasternak's tribute to Verlaine's fresh and novel idiom. Zhivago w rites: "B CTHXOTBopeHHe, to^ h o *iepe3 okho b KOMHaTy, BpbiBa^HCb c yjiHB,H CBeT h B03ayx, inyM x;h3hh, Beiu,H, cymHocTH.” 39 The indications are many that the poet Zhivago is, like Pasternak, a descendent of Verlaine. Although Pasternak's statement that few have understood Verlaine's "De la musique avant toute chose" is itself enigmatic, a passage 221 f r o m D o c t o r Z h i v a g o a n n o t a t e s h i s c r i t i c a l o b s e r v a t i o n . "M 3hk, po.fl.HHa h B M ecT H JiH m ,e K p a c o T U h CMticra, c a M H a ^ H H a eT A y M a T b h r o B o p H T b s a q e ^ o B e K a h B e c b C T aH O B H T ca M Y 3 M K 0 H . . . . ’40 The clarity characteristic of Verlaine's speech and of the later Pasternak s derives in no small measure from the reification of emotions discussed in Chapter Four. Verlaine is easily recognized as a kindred spirit for the master of metonymy Pasternak in his talent for insinuating "the throb of intimacy . . . by the vivid insertion of inanimate objects, trivial in themselves, but at the same time sginificant with derived emotions." 41 Verlaine s insistence upon simplicity and his focus on external reality are the necessary means as well as the manifestations, the cause and the consequence of his identified goal, insuring truth. For Verlaine, "the value of an emotion is not its depth, not even its intensity, but its truth." 42 Endowed with an extraordinary sensitivity to the physical world around him, Verlaine has been classified as "le moins philosophe, le moins penseur" of all French poets. 43 That is why his language was so new and startling. It was unmediated; it was the language of "le pur sentir" in touch with the more certain external reality. 44 The essential thing for Verlaine is to resist imposing, "to repel the intervention of the intellect which orders, and consequently falsifies and distorts," writes Antoine Adam. 45 The words so often used to represent Pasternak 2 2 2 come readily to mind: "man is silent, but the image speaks." The poet as receptacle is a concept equally a propos for Pasternak and for Verlaine, and J. P. Richard's insightful passage depicts the post-Verlaine Pasternak as accurately as the ancestor himself: En face des choses l'etre verlainen adopte spontanement une attitude de passivite, d'attente. Vers leur lointain inconnu il ne projette pas sa curiosite ni son desir, il ne tente meme pas de les devoiler, de les attirer a lui et de s en rendre maitre; il demeure immobile et tranquille, content de cultiver en lui les vertus de porosite qui lui permettront de mieux se laisser penetrer par elles quant elles auront daigne se manifester a lui. Repose, silence, detente, ouverture. L'oeuvre verlainienne illustrerait assez bien un certain quietisme du sentir: volonte de ne pas provoquer I'exterieur, art de faire en soi le vide, croyance en une activite emanatoir des choses - brises, souffles, vents venus d’ailleurs, - sur laquelle l'homme se reconnait sans pouvoir, attente de cette grace imprevisible, la sensation. Celle-ci lui est la messagere d un univers lointain, le signe physique d un objet emetteur qui l'envoie doucement s'imprimer sur la mollesse de l'esprit. 46 The language of these ■things" is the language of primitve and primeval vision, and Verlaine's music, therefore, is a language that he created to express those realities that rational language is powerless to define. It leads the spirit to unknown realms; it is in touch with the subconscious, more real reality. 223 Rene Wellek concluded that in Verlaine "the attempts to achieve musical effects are largely attempts to suppress the meaning structure of verse, to avoid logical constructions, to stress connotations rather than denotations." 47 However, it must be emphasized that the musical effects themselves are semiotic. Verlaine's musicality actualizes his deliberate effort to shun the rhetorical and represents his delving into the unconscious to unfetter spontaneity. Verlaine's musicality is a language that comes from the non-linear, intuitive part of the brain. As will be discussed later in this chapter, it is the poetic language that psycho-linguist Julia Kristeva refers to, that constitutes the poet's self-healing efforts. Through the musicality that Verlaine inaugurated and that Pasternak excelled in, the deep meaning of their poems captures the mysteries of the unconscious, and their poetic language expresses the inexpressible. The invention of such language is the genius of Verlaine and Pasternak alike. Mapping the Influence In both form and content Doctor Zhivago represents Pasternak s revisioning of his earlier work, and thus it is the ideal work in which to examine several facets of his evolution. It is an example of auto-intertextuality and auto-anxiety of influence, influenced by Verlaine and by the changes in himself as a result of all he had experienced and all the experiences he 224 observed as a witness to history. In turn, Doctor Zhivago lends support to the earlier discussion of the role of politics in the Verlaine translations, a justification for seeing Aesopian features in those poems. Doctor Zhivaeo . an "auto-intertextual" work, is a transcript of Pasternak s creative and biographical histories. From the outset, the Zhivago text has ellicited extensive critical response on the subject of influence. The novel is a rich mine of intertextuality, notably, with Pasternak himself. 48 In Neil Cornwell's summary of the vast syllabus of intertextual work two entries are of relevance in this discussion. First, Dale Plank comments that "Zhivago . . . offers a concise formulation of the most striking principle of the poetics of Mv Sister Life ..." and notes the existence of the main themes of the novel in the earlier work. 49 Secondly, Angela Livingstone goes so far as to declare that "in many places Doctor Zhivaeo even appears to be A Safe Conduct rewritten." 50 in his most recent biographical study, Lazar Fleishman finds that "an analagous conception of the magical power of art and the poetic text lay at the foundation of Pasternak's work on Doctor Zhivaeo and on Mv Sister. Life . " 51 Eventually settling on the name Zhivago (sharing the common root "jk h b' " with CecToa - m o a >KH3Hh/Mv Sister Life) for his hero and for the title , Pasternak riveted the attention of any future reader on the "auto-intertextuality" of the novel. The fact that Doctor Zhivaeo and its prototype Mv 225 Sister Life share many common traits and are mirror opposites of one another is readily discernable. Mv Sister Life is subtitled "The Summer of 1917 "; the revolution is also the timeframe and primus agens for Doctor Zhivago. In both works a love affair is juxtaposed with the revolution, setting up a symbiotic relationship between the two. Another similarity is found in the architecture of the two works. Mv Sister Life is a book of poems, divided like a prose work into chapters or cycles; Doctor Zhivaeo is a novel, but a novel whose final chapter, and indeed whose purpose and culmination is poetry. The collection Mv Sister Life contains a poem which is a reductionist version of the whole entity. The Zhivago poems perform a similar function in the novel. The novel is structured according to poetic logic, that is to say, the plan of the novel is outlined by the poems that accompany it. Conversely, the poems of Mv Sister Life are clustered in chapters and the work can, as Katherine O'Connor has argued, be read as narrative. Studies of the individual poems have discerned in them the confluence of the themes of the prose text of the novel. As the title poem of Mv Sister Life is a metonymy of the entire work, so to a great extent are the Zhivago poems the poetic condensation of the major themes and religio-philosophical stance of the prose Zhivago. O'Connor's study emphasizes the distinctly Pasternakian notion of cycles of poems in Mv Sister Life, that is to say they are 226 cycles that "do not always consist of poems contiguous to one another". 52 This disruption of contiguity is a counter- metonymical structure that is similarly prevalent in the Zhivago poems discussesd below, and it contrasts and offsets the highly metonymical nature of the poems themselves. 53 The cyclic nature of the text reflects Pasternak s vision of the eternity of individual life and history. It represents what Josephine Pasternak perceives as his "faith in everlasting life both in the memory of loving men and women and in the essence of history, itself the continuation of earthly existence in others." 54 Religion: Revision and Redemption The Zhivago text, in accordance with Lotman s theory discussed earlier, is at once more simple and more complex than Mv Sister Life. Pasternak s faith expressed in the novel has been tested and has endured. It is a changed faith, no longer restricted to a personal optimism, but now universalized by a deeper contact with the Judeo-Christian tradition. His beliefs and his work are seasoned by the "essence of history," not only contemporary Russian history, and Russian orthodoxy, but by all of biblical history. Pasternak s historic perspective is one of the forces that drew him inexorably back to Mv Sister Life to then funnel that text through this perspective. 2 2 7 Life is viewed by Pasternak in many guises in his work, often undergoing several identity changes even within a single poem. But only twice did he so clearly, unequivocally express it as metaphor, in both cases identifying it in close relationship with himself, approximating, but with respectful restraint, Christ s absolute equation. Life appears first as sibling, and importantly, as a feminine entity, the customary representation of the giver and nurturer of life. O'Connor observes that "by virtue of being named the poet's siste r , life is at least being downscaled from one point of view if not, according to Pasternak s aesthetic, undervalued. It is, moreover, a kinship that is imposed by creative fiat, that is born from words and thus elevates the brother by claiming his equality with the sister. " 55 When he writes Doctor Zhivaeo. the poet reveals that he has not, as O'Connor believes, freed life "from his metaphor". Rather, he has incorporated it more fully into his own identity, transgressing the reverential distance or mediation of "sister". When Pasternak allows life to assume a masculine nature, it is brother to his sister, that is to say, himself, and therefore poet. And furthermore, the much scarred older Pasternak projects his alter ego as healer. Whereas the female is the 1 ife- giver and nurturer, the archetypal healer and redeemer, the Christ figure, is of course, male. The healing profession and the poetic calling merge in the identity of Zhivago, and accomplish 228 the personal salvation and redemption that Pasternak required at this critical era of his own history and Russia's that are as intertwined in reality as in the novel. TaM;ieT", a major and the best known of the Zhivago poems, also is prefigured in Mv Sister Life. In "ypoKH aHrjiHHCKoro", along with other Shakespearean references particularly Desdemona, Ophelia plays a major part in the development of the poem in which Pasternak revisions the tragic death of the heroine as a death that "transcends human mortality."5& Pasternak turned to the feminine character in Mv Sister Life in accordance with the overarching feminine motif of the book, as complementarily in Doctor Zhivago he emphasizes the masculine. Immortalizing anew Shakespeare's tragic hero, Pasternak's poem contemplates Hamlet contemplating death, and recognizes that "nothing can avert the final curtain s call". But in fact, although a poem entitled Hamlet automatically invokes inexorable death, this poem is more concerned with life. Concluding with "To live life to the end is not a childish task", the persona, a complex construction of Hamlet/Christ/poet/universal man, emphasizes the nobility of that task - to live, to live fully to the end. This poem is the culmination of Pasternak’s long meditation on life that began with Mv Sister Life. 57 Causally linking two themes that dominate his final works, Pasternak counters the negative manifestations of 2 2 9 history with the positive force of religion. The evolving role of Christianity in Pasternak s poetics further elucidates his interest in Verlaine. Fleishman writes of the Zhivago poems that "It is not an accident that their authorship is ascribed to [their] protagonist 58 He is referring to Pasternak s most open, "monologic" or "straighforward" expression of his Christian views that could not have been voiced openly as his own. Comparing the religious elements in their works, one finds both cohesion and distinction. Pasternak, for example, approached religion more as teleology than theology, whereas for Verlaine, a baptized Christian, religion had palliative powers he turned to when doing combat with the forces of evil that in his life were within. Verlaine wrote a pious and penitent preface to Sages se. the collection of mostly relgious poems which he wrote while in prison. The confessional posture of the poet finds appropriate expression as well as consolation in the Passion sequences of the New Testament, and these poems incorporate much of the same imagery as we find in the Zhivago poems -Calvary, thorns, repeated references to sin and pardon. The biographical connection in Verlaine s case indicates the possibility of a similar redemptive motive in Pasternak. Ironically however, while Verlaine s least remarkable poems are found in the religious verses "Sagesse" and "Liturgies Intimes", Pasternak achieves his greatest success 230 "precisely in religio-philosophical verse" according to Sinyavsky. 59 Sinyavsky believes that Pasternak has a view of the poet as a "sacrifical figure" and that this "fundamental belief of Pasternak [is] central to his novel as a whole and to the Zhivago poems in particular. ..." 60 Support for this approach to Pasternak is found in the poet's speech "On Modesty and Daring" (1936) where he declares: "Art is unthinkable without risk and spiritual self-sacrifice." 61 Accordingly, in the Zhivago poems, Pasternak's Hamlet speaks with the words of Christ at Gethsemane, because Pasternak revisions the play as a "drama of high destiny, of a life devoted and preordained to a heroic task." 62 In Pasternak’s novel Christian symbolism is not the paramount objective. It operates to represent rather than to explain; it provides a historic and symbolic plane against which Pasternak projects the mysteries of life, death, and creation. The religious elements, biblical and liturgical, serve as a frame of reference to represent man's spiritual longings, his higher nature. The religious imagery with its meaningful and hopeful worldview counterbalances the sordid backdrop of contemporary life with its frustrated and corrupted dreams, its meaningless commission of atrocity. Religion emanates from the universal human longing for meaning and order in a chaotic universe where life and death, the only certainties, resist explanation. Religion elevates the poet, for in metonymical 231 association he becomes, like a prophet or evangelist if not like God himself, the giver of meaning. Belief in the poetic power, like belief in the divine power, is an act of hope. Thus, according to Jane Harris, the novel "becomes Pasternak s artistic explanation of how Life. . . and the Creative Spirit or the Creator (through the images of Yury Zhivago and Christ) are related, or, in purely esthetic terms, of how the creative process is born. ..." 63 The potency of Pasternak s religious imagery finds a corollary in Verlaine s where objects, "even the least particle" , were imbued with spirituality. 64 And both poets drew the religious language as well as corresponding rhythms not just from biblical texts but also from the devotional language of national religious culture, Pasternak" source being the prayerbook of Russian Orthodoxy, and Verlaine's the Anglican hymnals he discovered during his lengthy British sojourn. If a primary affinity with Verlaine is religion, why then did Pasternak not translate "Sagesse"? One reason may be attributed to the inferiority of most of these poems. As one critic asserts, by this time Verlaine had largely lost his touch, had abandoned the "art subtil"" that constituted the ephemeral grace of his great poetry. 65 Another obvious possibility is that the religious nature of the collection would have prohibited their publication, and further, any attempt to publish them would precipitously have revealed Pasternak's interest in 232 religion. Furthermore and most obviously, these poems would certainly not have been officially commissioned as many of Pasternak's translations were. Religious motifs and sentiments are woven into Pasternak s writing prior to his collaboration with Verlaine; they permeate Mv Sister Life especially. But in Doctor Zhivaeo. we are "constantly reminded of religion." 66 Christian symbolism is fully realized in the novel. As Bodin demonstrated, the entire work is a defense of a uniform Christian tradition and categorically testifies to Pasternak's belief in the presence of the divine in the worldly. This is reinforced by the pivotal role that the Transfiguration plays in orthodox theology, in the Zhivago poems, and not coincidentally by the fact that the church Pasternak frequented in Peredelkino is the Church of the Transfiguration. 67 The continuity between Mv Sister Life and Doctor Zhivago is inscribed in their biblical diction and in the contrasting theologies that dominate them. O'Connor writes of the "biblical solemnity" 68 that inflates the ordinary events and diction in Mv Sister Life where "we are, in fact being carried back to the Beginning, the Old Testament and the Book of Genesis." 69 In Doctor Zhivago biblical history reaches its concluding chapters. When one scholar discusses the poem Hoqb" he discerns a unifying, hierarchical force in the religious motif: "history, love, and poetry receive their ultimate meaning in the 233 birth of Christ." 70 Then, juxtaposed with the liturgical calendar, the old and the new begin again and again in a never ending story that coincides with and emanates from "Pasternak's persisting sense of continuity and of an historical optimism . 71 Whereas Mv Sister Life is a testimony to memory in which Pasternak attends to the lay influences or ancestors who had inspired him, the Zhivago poems detail the Christian influences on life and literature in general as well as in personal terms for Pasternak. This view is supported in particular by the poem 'ZfypHbie ,H h h " which catalogs key events of Christ s life in nostalgic tones. And in Te$CHMaHCKHH Ca,n', the final poem, the poet s and Christ's voice become indistinguishable as do the cycles of time. Past events cease to bear meaning when their purpose is fulfilled, and the poet with Christ assumes the destiny he had sought to evade when he cried out "ABBa OT^e” in the first poem. Ho KHHra 3KH3HH no,zi;oiiiJia k cTparome, KoTopaa .nopoace Bcex CBflTbiHb, Cefniac aojdkho HanncaHHoe cbwTbca, riycicaH 3Ke c6yja,eTca oho. AMHHb. Lazar Fleishman traces Pasternak s conception of Christianity and the gradual solidifying of Christian influence in the Zhivago poems. Among the many interesting facts that he chronicles are several that update and revise some previous notions and that have direct bearing on this study. He 234 documents the second half of 1946 (six years after the publication of the Verlaine translations and two years after the essay) as the time when "the first symptoms" of Pasternak s new thinking began to appear in his works. The theme of immortality, for example, "an old obsession," was penetrated with New Testament influences and liturgical texts taken especially from the offices for the dead; Pasternak had begun to frequent the Russian Orthodox churches both in Moscow and Peredelkino. 72 The Scripture and most particulary the Gospels contained in Pasternak s view "an immediate and literal prescription for living." But Christ s message was not limited to turning the other cheek. "The conception of Christianity elaborated in Doctor Zhivaeo developed in response to political events in the Soviet Union." Hence, instead of espousing nonresistance, Pasternak's Christ, prevalent in the novel, is "an active fighter, triumphant and judging his time. ..." Fleishman appears to see Pasternak's turning to Christianity as a defiant, almost politically motivated act; "it is no accident," he says, that Pasternak drew close to the church precisely when the regime's unfavorable attitude toward it was becoming more and more pronounced." As the Stalinist regime launched a new wave of repression, the poet found Christianity's universal nature, its transcendence of government and politics, particularly attractive." 73 Since according to Alexander Gladkov, 235 "Pasternak called Stalin a giant of the pre-Christian era of human history, " only Christ himself could enter and bring that era to an end. 74 Vukanovich finds a parallel cause and effect relationship between the religious influence in Pasternak s later works and his strivings for simplicity of expression, bringing the Verlaine loop full circle: IlacTepHaK - noaT MHCJiHTe;ib h c k j i o h h o c t b K l|)H^OCO$CKHM peMHHHCB,eHU,HflM xapaKTepH3yeT bce ero TBopqecTBO. 3T a nepT a Hanafla pa3BHBaTbca y:*:e b ero paHHefi jinpHKe, x o t j i o h h 6hji 6o;ibiiie cocpe^toToqeH Ha BtipaboTKe $ o p m u . Ha no3,a,Hioio JiHpHKy no3Ta iio b ; ih 5 i;ih CTpeMJieHHe k npocTOTe h pejiHTH03HocTb: OHH H3MCHHJIH erO CTHJIb H OTpa3H/[HCb Ha ero M eTa^opax. 75 Melancholia: The Dark Sister As the religious motifs attain prominence in the Zhivago text so does the other puzzling Verlaine quality, melancholy. Daniel Rancour-Laferriere's work defends the psychoanalytic component of literary analysis and is helpful in attaining an understanding of the psychological dimension of the Verlaine- Pasternak relationship, in particular the influence of Verlaine on Doctor Zhivaeo. Laferriere treats the literary text as a body of psychoanalyzable data, as if it were in fact a transcript of authorial free-association or perhaps dream material. He bases 2 3 6 his approach on Kohut's conclusions that the analysand s stories and those found . . . in literary works of art contain intricate mixtures of revelation and concealment . 76 This "paradox of revelation and concealment" (not unlike Lotman s opposition of clarity and obfuscation) is essential in order for a work to qualify as literature, concludes Lafen iere, asserting that it is "much more intricate and perfectly simultaneous in successful literary discourse than in the patient s free associations." 77 It is this concept of "revelation and concealment" that is particulary helpful in understanding the importance of the Verlaine-Pasternak relationship and that sheds additional light on the relationship between My Sister Life and Doctor Zhivaeo. The paradigm of "revelation and concealment" provides a useful tool for examining the progression and conflict of these two tendencies in the Pasternak oeuvre. Debate is intense and unresolved as to Pasternak s stance during the Stalinist period. Even the works that were perceived as protest are ambiguous. In Doctor Zhivaeo Pasternak preserves a pluralistic stance, and even in the lyric poems, essentially "far more monologic than the novel," explains Fleishman, "one feels that Pasternak avoids a straightforward expression of his own point of view. 78 In the “ monologic" lyric form, Pasternak ascribes his most overt statement of Christian belief to his protagonist fellow poet, Zhivago. Even where he apparently reveals his intimate 237 reflections, he does so in the guise of a fictive character. This "concealment" is so successful that "in their basic qualities, [these poems] differ sharply from the rest of Pasternak s lyrical poetry: the trace of naive and archaic' elements reveals a tendency toward stylization and masking,' quite uncharacteristic of Pasternak."79 Christopher Barnes has expressed the view that "the close and permanent symbiosis of verse and prose is confirmed in Doctor Zhivago, where the two idioms are shown to combine."80 Indeed, the linkage between prose and poetry in the novel has psycho-poetical implications. Before delving any further into this topic, it is important to dispense with the issue of author-hero identity convergence. Lyric poetry often is an uncompromised expression of authorial view. In Pasternak s case, concludes Christopher Barnes, "a permanent essential [was] the autobiograpical imprint, in verse as well as in prose; writing of a purely fictitious sort was rare for him." 81 The novel form usually relies upon its polyphonic nature to refract obvious direct linkage between its fictive world and authorial biography. In the case of Zhivago, however, as Victor Erlich attests, "the kinship between the two is not easily overestimated," and he finds that it is most apparent in "Zhivago's religious reverence for life and love and in his challenge to the Marxist pieties. ..." 82 Lazar Fleishman also traces the "deeply autobiographical nature of Doctor Zhivago seeing it as having what he calls a "dual character: the 2 38 author has not only placed his hero perilously close to himself, but he tries to free himself from the predetermined fate of his hero." 83 A scan of the psychologically traumatic episodes in Pasternak s life substantiates the biographical base for the melancholia motif that links him to Verlaine and that permeates the text of Doctor Zhivaeo. Evidence of emotional disturbance appears in Pasternak's biographical data as early as 1909 when he first revealed his doubts over his musical prospects. Christopher Barnes cites Pasternak s revelation that "deficient technical support turned a gift of nature that could have been a source of joy into the subject of constant torment, which I was finally unable to bear.' Barnes wonders why Pasternak could not have been content with creating music and leaving its performance to someone else and believes that "the reason maybe lay in the character of his enthusiasm for music and for Scriabin, and it reflected deep-rooted psychological traits. ..." The young Pasternak suffered such terrible frustration whenever his efforts to achieve were stymied by inability that he would lapse into "sullen bouts concealing an injured self-esteem." 84 Barnes further comments that "the realization of his professional shortcomings which dawned on him at the age of nineteen might in others have led to suicide" points to a dangerous proclivity that in fact threatened Pasternak at intervals throughout his life. 2 3 9 "The predominantly sad and dark moods of [his] student verse were perhaps hallmarks of a young man’s emotional world. . . " concludes Barnes 85 These early outpourings, it is true, were supplanted by Pasternak's better known, vigorous life-affirming poetry, but they cannot be simply dismissed as typical and largely meaningless adolescent episodes. After his abortive romance with Ida Vysotskaya in 1912, Barnes reports that "Pasternak's behavior and correspondence . . . revealed that he was almost suicidal." Significantly, he turned to Verlaine to convey his mood to his friend Shura Stikh and to solicit his consolation. Although he does not identify it as such, Barnes refers to this almost verbatim quote from Verlaine, "0 triste, triste etait mon ame/A cause cause d une dame" as "some slightly affected sighing." 86 The evidence of future life- threatening situations, however, indicate that Pasternak's youthful clinical depressions were symptomatic. His instinctive use of Verlaine's poetry at this early stage to express this state of mind presages the more extensive role Verlaine later plays in enabling Pasternak to confront this troubled self. By 1928 Pasternak is besieged by financial troubles, family illnesses, and he succumbs to an increasingly despondent mood as "the relatively liberal and peaceful years of the New Economic Policy came to an end, and . . . terror and hysteria begun to grip the country." 87 In a letter to his sister Lydia, Pasternak reflects on his frustrations and tribulations, 240 indicating according to Barnes "increasing resignation and despair, not least with his own personality: "I have always had to consolidate all my qualities with all their darker sides according to my main proclivities, because it was not a question of altering them, but only of erecting some sort of structure on this given soil, quelle qu elle fut. " 88 In the spring ofl932 the clouds above Pasternak continued to darken [andl he became one of the chief targets of RAPP. "89 It became clear that he would be a victim of "systemic slander" and that no one could "shield him from persecution." A series of domestic crises compounded his problems, and again "all of this led Pasternak to attempt suicide." 90 In the summer of 1935 Pasternak "suffered an acute moral and psychological crisis" forcing him to spend time in a sanitorium. 91 Referring to this incident, Josephine Pasternak descibed the crisis as acute: "Nervous breakdowns usually are sign of inner revision, symptoms of coming to grips with reality. My brother s illness must have been of that kind."92 Finally, having been identified in a speech by Vladimir Semichastny as "traitor of the homeland" Pasternak was brought to the brink of despair one last time by the prospect of banishment and the splintering of the various groups in his family that would ensue from such an eventuality. Fleishman believes that "just at this moment, Pasternak proposed to Olga 241 [Ivinskaya] that they commit a double suicide. 93 it was as if he could not bear the consummate dashing of the hope and optimism that, in face of all odds, he had kept on renewing. During the mid-forties after the war Pasternak had anticipated dramatic changes for the better. Isaiah Berlin met with him in 1945 and recorded his conviction that all the tragedies of the thirties and the war years were 'a necessary prelude to some inevitable, unheard-of-victory of the spirit." 94 That "victory of the spirit" largely defines the novel Doctor Zhivaeo and Pasternak's alter-ego hero. It is in Doctor Zhivaeo that Pasternak therapeutically acknowledges his melancholia and writes it overtly into his work. Fleishman declares that "the death of Zhivago is . . . symbolically intertwined with the theme of the death of literature in Soviet Russia and with the literary biography of Pasternak himself." Fleishman further observes that "it is also remarkable that the death of this character resembles suicide to a certain extent," establishing a link to Safe Conduct, "which introduces the idea of the indistinguishability of death and suicide in the life of the poet." 95 Along with, and no less significant than sundry details of the novel identified by Fleishman, the suicide motif is drawn from autobiography. But as he had already done in a preliminary step through the Verlaine translations, Pasternak transcends despair in the world of his creative imagination. Yuri Zhivago is doctor as well as poet, a phenomenon that 242 originated, according to Fleishman, in Pasternak's "feeling of the relationship between medicine and literature and from a conception of the curative function of art." 96 The Verlaine influence is , admittedly, just one important component in Pasternak's literary formation, but it was instrumental in bringing to the foreground of Pasternak's writing the dark element that lurked even in the text of Mv Sister Life. "CecTpa moh - 5 KH3Hb h cero^Hii b pa3;iHBe . . . the title poem of the book, is "an exuberant celebration of life and of the poet's unique relationship with it," declares Katherine 0 Connor. 97 It is the reductionist expression of the work as a whole in which nostalgia and melancholy nonetheless occasionally surface to the conscious level of articulation, intimations of the dark side that receives full expression in the writing of the mature poet who by then had endured more real than imagined suffering. Insomnia, a classic ailment associated with severe depression, plagued Pasternak at different points in his life and also plays a metaphorical role in his poetry. In O'Connor's analysis of the poem "Y cefui flO M a", for example, she observes that the poet "seeks an end to . . . insomniacal revelations and seeks instead the healing oblivion of sleep." 98 Pasternak, it appears, equates this insomnia not only with the ardors of physical travel but extends its purview metonymically into poetic inspiration and its forays into the regions of the psyche. 243 Sleep and the end of a journey provide for Pasternak "healing oblivion." Exploring the intertextual relationship between Mv Sister Life and the poetry of Lermontov to whom the book is dedicated, O'Connor reveals how Pasternak s revisioning of Lermontov involves an alternation that is thematic as much as poetic. The final poem, "KoHeit", reverberates with the same longing for peace as did the earlier poem, "y ceba jnoMa", but here the journey is strictly of the metaphorical variety and the poet s "exhaustion and fatigue are less physical than emotional." " The sensations echo the "sense of stasis and despair" that characterize Lermontov s poem "BtixosKy oahh a Ha .Aopory'' according to O'Connor, and Pasternak’s poem and book end on a note of ennui that relates to the entire process of "verbal realization 100 "Pasternak's final plea for the release offered by sleep," explains O'Connor, "resembles, in fact, a plea for release from ennui and the metapoetic overload which his poetic 'I' seems to be experiencing at the end of the book." 101 By the time Pasternak writes the final lines of Yuri Zhivago's life (the fictional poet was also an insomniac) this "metapoetic overload" is exacerbated by the dark forces of history, and the sleep that at last takes over the poet is eternal. The legacy of the Zhivago poems, however, incorporates the feminine voice of life as sister, or life as woman, with the voice of Christ, the healing masculine entity , and the voice of the poet Zhivago 244 who is also doctor and healer . Thus, the novel really concludes at the evolutionary point where the feminine and the masculine sides are fully realized in the poet through the mediating force of Christian belief. The penultimate stanza of poem XVII, "CBH^aHHe , concludes: "H npOBecTH rpaHHU,M/Me*: Hac a He Mory." In the last analysis, when Pasternak identified Doctor Zhivago as his most important literary accomplishment, regardless of the objections the critical world would raise, he established the novel's preeminence in the auto-critical hierarchy. In many ways similar to Verlaine, the poet Yuri Zhivago experiences traumatic loss and separation and ultimately degradation in his life. By conferring his poetic gift on Zhivago, Pasternak also transfuses requisite components of his poet s psyche. Making Zhivago a contemporary, a victim of the revolutionary times, he inflicts upon him the collective scars of the era's poet-victims. A probe of the dark side of Zhivago is pivotal in understanding his poetry, and this seminal link with Verlaine is clarified through the psycho-literary formulations of Julia Kristeva. Kristevas most recent work completes a trilogy of psychoanalytic studies. She takes the title of her book, Black Sun, from Gerard de Nerval’s poem "El Desdichado", and she discusses this poem as well as other works of art and literature as manifestations of the pathological mourning which is the 245 subject of her work. The foci of her study are the two opposing ends of the spectrum of human feelings, " jouissance " which she defines as the "solidary obverse of suffering," 102 and depression. As the most intense emotive states, they motivate human communication and play a particularly vital role in the writing process. For, according to Kristeva, the "wonderments of psychic life" -the writer s stimulus and source - "stem from those alternations of protections and downfalls, smiles and tears, sunshine and melancholia." 103 In Black Sun Kristeva probes the dark void at the core of all depression which is integral to the human condition. "Without a bent for melancholia," she determines, "there is no psyche.” 104 But, critical episodes of depression occur, often out of proportion to precipitating events. Kristeva describes such immediate experiences of psychic pain as echoes of an old, archetypal trauma. A current breakdown has its antecedents in a "loss, death, or grief" over someone once loved. "Depression points to not knowing how to lose, " explains Kristeva. 105 The shadow of despair is the dark side , "the mute sister" of euphoria without which there is no meaning. Irredeemable sadness must precede utterance. It is loss that causes one to try and find the essential object or being from which one is separated, first in the imagination and then in words. Thus, depression itself is a kind of discourse. It is an avenue of approach to otherwise unknowable mysteries and is 246 the necessary opposite of " jouissance " in the bipolar human condition. It leads the psyche into the "enigmatic realm of affects", and its repudiation through the active work of the imagination produces the work of art or literature. Kristeva reviews the history of thought on melancholia and recalls that in medieval times monks promoted sadness; "as mystical ascesis it became essential as a means toward paradoxical knowledge of divine truth and constituted the major touchstone for faith." 106 In other words, hope is a derivative of despair, and resurrection is possible only because of death. The artist consumed by melancholia, observes Kristeva, is "the most relentless in his struggle against the symbolic abdication that blankets him" and, paradoxically, "loss, bereavement, and absence trigger the work of the imagination as much as they threaten it." 107 It is precisely this struggle on the part of an author that appeals to a reader who is allowed vicariously to experience the inscribed affective reality and is reassured that it has been dominated, set aside, vanquished." 108 This required cycle of "triumph over sadness", according to Kristeva insures "entrance into the universe of signs and creation" as the sufferer asserts "no, I haven't lost; I evoke, I signify through the artifice of signs and for my self what has been parted from me." 109 Literary creation, therefore, is an efficacious, cathartic "semiological representation of the subject's battle with symbolic collapse." 110 The "excess of 247 affect" which propels the subject into the abyss of loss has only one means of finding expression and therefore relief: "to produce new languages — strange concatenations, idiolects, poetics." 111 Pasternak s poetry as a whole has been declared life- affirming. His belief in the curative power of writing is everywhere manifest in his work. But in Doctor Zhivago the Kristeva model is readily recognizable. In fact, the novel begins as nearly a textbook illustration of her paradigm of the lost "Thing", or what is termed in Freudian theory "the maternal object", for which an impossible mourning generates melancholia. Doctor Zhivago begins with the funeral of Maria Nikolaevna when Yuri was but ten years old. In the Kristevan context these first lines describing the hero acquire new significance. One had the impression, we are told, >ito MajibqHK xoneT cxa3aTb c^ obo Ha MaTepHHCKOH Momne." 112 The early period of his grief is described as very intense, to the degree that the child was virtually haunted. "Ha.n jiyjKaiiKaMH c-ryxoBOH ra;iJuoitHHau,HeH BHce-Ji npH3pax MaMHHoro rojioca."113 Feeling more and more lonely, he prays, anguishing in his fear that his mother might be suffering in the after life, and "B^tpyr He Bbi,nep;*:a;i h yna;i Ha3eMb h noTepa;i co3HaHHe."1H Ten years later Zhivago can still vividly recall his grief and terror: "BHeuiHHH m h p obcTynan K)py co Bcex ctopoh ocflsaTenbHWH, HenpoxoAHMbiH h beccnopHHH, Kax 248 jie c h O T T o r o - T o 6 h ji K)pa TaK n o T p a c e H MaMHHOH C M e p T b io , h t o o h c Hen 3abayja;Haca b 3 t o m aecy h B^pyr ocTaaca b h c m O .H H H , 6e3 Hee." ,l5 Significantly, according to Kristevaa theory, he understands that the important difference at this point in his life, when he is mourning the death of Anna Ivanovna, is that now "o h HH^ero He doaaca, h h » ch3 h h h h CMepTH, Bee Ha c s e T e , Bee Beiqn 6 h ;ih caoaaMH ero caoBapa." 116 The possibility of speech makes all the difference. A short time later in the churchyard, the same one where his mother was buried, he goes alone, ahead of the dispersing mourners; " ewry . . . x o T e j i o c b M e ^ T a T b h A y M a T b , T p y ^ H T b c a H a ^ $ o p M a M H , npoH3BO/tHTb KpacoTy 117 This is the first time Zhivago determines to write a poem. He instinctively seeks relief from his suffering in poetic language. We are privy to a series of epiphanic episodes in the life of Yuri Zhivago. A brief summary of them reveals that they were linked to events of birth, death, or parting and usually occurred in connection to the women through whom, according to Kristeva, he would attempt to regain his lost mother s love.118 At the birth of his son, for example, Zhivago exaggerates everything in his excitement, indicating the manic state, and thinks Tonia to be in an unknown country where "h h k t o He 3Haa . . . Ha KaKOM «3hiKe obpaTHTbca k Heii" 119 Almost immediately he is mobilized, and two years pass before he sees his son again. The euphoria at his birth is then 2 4 9 supplanted by depression when the child —who is described as being the image of Zhivago's deceased mother — slaps his father in the face. Thereupon Zhivago enters a period of withdrawal as he realizes how alone he is. During the exile in Varykino, Zhivago keeps a notebook through the course of the winter. The brief entries include two meditations, one on life, one on death. He records his thoughts on motherhood and virtually eradicates the role of a father, indicating the priority of the maternal in the hierarchy of relationships. "Ha b c a k o h poacaiomeH, w H eacH T t o t : *: e OTb;iecK oflHHoqecTBa, ocTaBwHeHHOCTH, npe^ocTaB/ieHHOCTH ce6e caMOH. MyacMHHa ^o TaKOH CTeneHH He y p,en cefiqac, b 3 t o cymecTBeHHefimee H3 MrHOBeHHH, ^ t o t o m h o ero h b 3aB0^e He 6h ; i o h Bee Kax c Hebo CBajiHJiocb." 120 Such a perception, according to Kristeva, is derivative of an attachment and longing for the lost "Thing', "the maternal object." Soon thereafter Zhivago contemplates his own death and, completing the life cycle from birth to death, again is joined with his mother. He discovers that he has inherited her weak heart and, confronted with the certainty that his time is limited, feels the urge to write. Zhivago actually becomes a poet only much later, however, when he lives with Lara again at Varykino. He suffers nightmarish dreams, depressions, and even falls from consciousness when his happiness with Lara is conflicted by his 2 5 0 loss of Tonia and the children. We learn only post facto that he sought refuge in poetry when Lara, with a sense of foreboding, asks him to write down all the poems he has said to her. With the wolves literally at the door', Zhivago becomes a nocturnal poet. Feverish with excitement, he copies out as many of the old poems as he can remember and then creates new ones. The days, we are told, were just a preparation for the night when he could write. These passages depict a process strikingly similar to what Kristeva identifies as the modifying power of discourse. Zhivago felt at these times that "raaBHyio paboTy coBepmaeT He o h caM, h o t o m t o Burne ero , nTO Haxo^HTca Haa h h m h ynpaB/raeT h m .“ Furthermore, he was convinced that TIepBeHCTBO no;iynaeT He qejioBeK h cocTOJiHHe ero z t y n i H , KOTopoMy o h Hin,eT BbipaaceHHJi, a H3biK, k o t o p h m o h xoneT ero BWpa3HTb. 121 These nights of writing would return him to himself, ’ cnacTJMBhiH, c h ^ h h h , cnoKOHHHH Once he parts from Lara finally and completely, Zhivago succumbs to deep melancholia. Pasternak sets Zhivago’s intense emotional state against a vivid natural setting, establishing an intimate and archetypically Pasternakian connection between human feeling and nature. The setting he envisions is virtually identical to the model of Kristeva’s analysis. In Doctor Zhivago" TeMHO nyHB,OBoe co^Hite em,e Kpyr;m;iocb. " And then "C/rpeMHTe/ibHO BhiitBeTa^H, racnn pa36pocaHHHe no cHery 6arpoBO-6poH30Bwe naTHa 3apn. " 122 251 The "Black Sun of Melancholia" metaphor in Nerval’s poem "El Desdichado" , says Kristeva, "sums up the blinding force of the despondent mood —an excruciating, lucid affect asserts the inevitability of death, which is the death of the loved one and of the self that identifies with the former, . . ." 123 Zhivago's state of mind also fits the Kristevan model of depression as providing moments of "supreme lucidity". \HyineBHoe rope o 6 o c t p h j i o BocnpHHMnHBOCTb JOpna AH^peeByqa. O h y;iaB.nHBa;i Bee c y,necflTepeHHoio pe3KocTbio OKpyacaiomee npno6peTa.no nepTW pe^KOH e^HHCTBeHHOCTH, ^aace caMMH B03.n,yx." 124 Pasternak intervenes here with his own trusted prescription, nature as antidote for man’s malaise: ’ HebhiBanwM yqacTHeM Auina^ 3 h m h h h Benep , xax sceMy coqyBCTByiomHH CBHaeTenb. TonHO eme HHKor^a He cMepxa^ocb Tax flo c h x nop, a 3aBenepe.no b nepBUH pa3 Tonbxo cero^Hn, b yTemeHHe ocHpoTeBineMy, snaBmeMy b ojn,HHonecTBO n e n o B e K y ." 125 But for Zhivago, melancholy insists. He echoes "El Desdichado" who, according to Kristeva, realizes that "the present is beyond repair, without the slightest hope of solace." 126 Nerval’s poem reads: "Ma seule etoile est morte, et mon luth constelle/Porte le Soleil Noir de la Melancolie." Zhivago utters repeatedly to himself: "3aKaTH^ocb Moe co^Hne acHoe." The descriptions of Zhivago in the writerly state support Kristeva's thesis that depression is a discourse with a language 2 5 2 to be learned. Zhivago hears two inner voices in dialogue. One urges him to practical considerations, but the other draws him inexecrably away from reality. Thus he speaks to the lost Lara: \3 3annmy naMATb o Tebe b h c j k h o m , meM»me ne^ajibHOM H3obpax:eHHH." 127 Zhivago is slowly losing his mind, losing track of time and neglecting himself completely. He abandons himself to vodka and writes about Lara. Again evidencing the Kristevan model "mourning for an archaic and indispensable object"128, Zhivago translates or metamorphizes Lara: " O h iih ji h linear eeutH, nocB«m,eHHbie ew, h o /Iapa ero c t h x o b h 3airaceH, no Mepe b hi Map o k h 3aMeHti oja,Horo cnono .npyrHM, ece ^ajibiue yxo^H^a o t HCTHHHoro cBoero nepBoobpa3a. " 129 and gradually he attains serenity. This "discourse of the depressed," explains Kristeva, “is the normal' surface of a psychotic risk;" the alternative, if the weight of the trauma prevails, is asymbolia, loss of meaning. The subject becomes silent and dies. As a vital addendum to the novel, come the twenty-five poems, attesting to Pasternak s belief in Zhivago the poet, and belief, like Kristeva, that the writing process constitutes the healing act. The extant Zhivago poems are icons of his struggle and catharsis and complement Pasternak's poems. Zhivago as his alter ego unveils the "mute sister" or "Black Sun" of his "Sister Life". Inscribed in the poems are his descent into the 253 abyss and his search for mercy, for what Kristeva calls "commiseration". The journey is detailed in interwoven cycles, a structuring through which Zhivago orders his despair by seeking the reassuring order of the seasons and the Christian liturgical calendar. 130 The cyclical nature of the collection supports an understanding of the text of Doctor Zhivago as "mise en abime" , 131 in which the historical context is provided in the poems by the Christian myth. 132 The collection is framed by the poems faM^eT and fedicHMaHCKHH Can, both of which, although they belong to separate cycles, cohere because of one major common element, the cry for mercy, for release. In faMJieT. "E c ;i h To;ibK O m o s k h o , ABBa O T M e, Mauiy 3Ty m h m o npoHecTH. In fetftcHMaHCKHH Caj. H, r jisl a h b 3 t h qepHHe npoBajiu, nycTBie, 6e3 H a ^ a ^ a h KOHija, Mto6 3Ta Mama CMepTH MHHOBajia, B n o T y K p o B a B O M o h m o .i h ^ OTU,a. faMaeT belongs to the group of personal poems whose persona is a contemporary human being, probably Zhivago himself. fedicHMaHCKHH Caji concludes or recommences the poems of the liturgical cycle, and elevates to the supernatural the third group of poems that deal with the seasonal cycle of nature. The lack of apparent order to the collection ( "ABrycT," for example, appears between "OceHb" and HoW) shifts the emphasis away from the surface temporal order 254 onto the spiritual. The interlacing of never-ending cycles within this body of poetry mirrors the endless cycle of jouissance and melancholia, the essence to a greater or lesser degree of the human condition. But in the Zhivago poems, reassurance is provided by the seemingly random and therefore most persistent return of spring and resurrection. The abyss into which the poet peers is reassuring and comforting rather than terrifying because as he states in "Ob-hJicHeHHe/ "/fCH3Hb aepHyjiacb Tax 7K e becnpn’ qw H H O ." The poem ' Myao," twentieth in the collection, will illustrate and support the application of Kristeva s model to Doctor Zhivago. The first half of the poem depicts the aphasic state of melancholia in which the subject, Christ, is overwhelmed with a sense of impending doom . O h h i m H3 BHi|iaHHH b Epyca;iH M ,/3apaH ee rpycT bio npea^yecTBH H t o m h m . The landscape is petrified ( " E h / i B0 3,nyx ropjm h K a M w m H eno.fl,B H }K eH ,/H M e p T B o r o M o p a i i o k o h He^tBH^KHM. ) metonymically extending the sapping of life's force by the Black Sun of Melancholia. The image of the Dead Sea dominates; both man and the world around him are moribund. Nature is seen as victim of the human psyche, the inverse of the real, or non-poetic order. Christ descends into the abyss, A MecTHocTh Jie:*a;ia iuiacTOM b 3a6hiTbH.“ The longing for the maternal object is represented by the fig tree, fruitless and barren. At this encounter depression 255 reaches its most acute stage when the alternatives are utter despair that can lead only to death, or a return, by means of some miraculous process to jouissance. The writer attains this salvation through his art; by signifying his loss, Kristeva states, he recovers it. The persona who is Christ speaks to the fig tree, and so powerful is the word that the command kills the fig tree, kills the maternal object, the essential "first step on the way to becoming autonomous 133 The word is the miracle worker that leads the poet out of confusion , up from the abyss of depression. It constitutes an act of forgiveness, which for Kristeva is "a gesture of assertion and inscription of meaning", and "has the effect of an acting out, a doing, a poesis." The transubstantiation occurs in the writing or signifying that erodes the melancholia and allows the sufferer to live a second life or to experience a second birth. 134 Zhivago's "^y^o" exemplifies Kristeva" s belief that "the imaginary constitutes a miracle" 135 and that "poetry bears witness to a conquered depression." 136 “At the very heart of a value crisis," concludes Kristeva, poetry "mimics a resurrection. " 137 Presaging Kristeva, Pasternak had discovered Verlaine s all-encompassing capacity to effect catharsis through poetry. His words are equally appropriate for Doctor Zhivago, by then in progress: "Like no one else, he expressed the long, gnawing, relentless pain of a lost possession, whether it was the loss of God, who had been and who had ceased to be, or of a woman 2 5 6 who had changed her mind, or of a place dearer than life which one had to leave, or the loss of peace." 138 Pasternak provided Zhivago that very resurrection Kristeva speaks of through the survival of the poems at the conclusion of the novel. Pasternak's great experiment with prose is a metapoetic testament which ironcially, and perhaps in spite of itself, serves most successfully to affirm the supremacy of poetry. For Pasternak, “el desdichado,” poetry was indeed the great healer. Conclusion Boris Pasternak never succumbed to the temptation of escape through suicide. And although Yuri Zhivago died, like Paul Verlaine, a reprobate, he was assured immortality through the preservation of his poetry. Hope for such an eternal life through literature sustains many a writer. It is secured only through the efforts and tribute of ensuing generations. Translation offers a writer from one nation and era lasting recognition and readership beyond the limits of his own world. What occurs when translation is enacted by strong" writers is the issue raised at the outset of this dissertation. In such circumstances, comingling of both authors' viewpoints and styles is inevitable, and, according to a logical extension of Harold Bloom's theory of anxiety of influence, intentional. As a direct and intense manifestation of one writer's involvement / with another, a translation is an ideal subject for studying the 257 impact of the translator upon the original text, and more important, the consequences of influence on the translator s later work. When a writer such as Pasternak makes another author's voice his own, he translates his origins, contemporizes them, in effect becomes his own forefather. Thus is anxiety tranquilized and the demon of influence exorcised. This exploration of the Pasternak/Verlaine influence began with a survey of Pasternak's poetry just prior to his work on Verlaine. In the first decade of the Stalin era Pasternak held fast to his hopes for fulfillment of the revolutionary promises that had inspired many of Russia's young intellectuals. When his optimism was crushed by dire reality, he had few options as a member of the endangered influential class. Translation was one avenue left open for a writer who refused, in the main, to write socialist cant, but who dared not freely express himself. Thus, the Verlaine translations appear in the otherwise silent interval and denote the end of the pro-revolutionary Pasternak. Identifying how the Verlaine translations are revelations of Pasternak's state of mind as well as of his poetics first required a comparative analysis of the translations done by the great Russian poets who preceded him. In the dialectic of literary history, the poets Annensky, Sologub, and Bryusov also represented themselves as much as Verlaine in their translations. The different translators emphasized the 2 5 8 Verlainian attributes that resonated most with their own work, in accordance with Bloom s theory. Annensky's versions depict the dismal reality of life, but transform it through the beauty of the language and music of poetry. With the same language and music, Sologub’s drag Verlaine s sad reality into a more hopeless, meaningless and inescapable imaginary realm. And Bryusov's, in spite of his most adamant intention to produce a faithful translation, imperil the beauty of Verlaine's verses by their arid self-restraint. Translator poets are no mere scriveners. Unlike Annensky, Sologub, and Bryusov, Pasternak's lyrics, even when tinged with the sinister elements of the reality he lived in, consistently transcended that reality to find the beauty nature never failed to offer. Yet in his Verlaine translations, Pasternak also allowed himself to acknowledge his doubts and fears. The small collection of translated poems reflects Pasternak's dark side and, in a subtle gesture of defiance, includes an assertion of his abiding faith in his art. In his attraction to Verlaine Pasternak could see himself as in a mirror. Translation is narcissistic as well as altruistic. Writing Verlaine and later writing Zhivago, Pasternak was engaged in a salutary process. According to Kristeva, for a writer the only possible antidote to despair is to write. Like the melancholic Verlaine, Pasternak and his character Zhivago were uplifted from their depression by a religious spirit and by 259 a conviction that only in their art could they act as if free from their oppression. Through the device of the poet-character Zhivago, whose identity converges with and yet is autonomous from his own, Pasternak expresses some of his most fundamental concerns and fears; the anxiety of influence is prominent among them. The Zhivago poems are like translations among Pasternak's collected works. Pasternak transcribed them as the work of another as he did the poems of Verlaine and others. In this sense, Zhivago plays a role similar to Verlaine s; his voice is distinct from and yet one with Pasternak's. Pasternak's cooptation of Verlaine is most fully actualized in his twinship with the poet Yuri Zhivago. Through the voice of this composite other self, whom Pasternak imbues with his own troubles as well as transcendent beliefs, and to whom he grants the literary survival that every writer seeks, Pasternak grapples with the question of influence. Zhivago writes in his journal about many of his Russian literary ancestors - Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Chekhov. But it is above all Pushkin who inspires endless discussions about art. "Be3 KOHua n ep eq H T H B aeM EBreHHfl O H erH H a h no3Mu. BecKOHe^iHtie p a 3 r o B o p ti 0 6 H C K yccT B e.' 139 Zhivago thus recognizes the continuity in literary heritage that is at the heart of the anxiety of influence. O n e passage in particular identifies the repetitive unfolding of the history of 260 art, th e root of th e in e v ita b le im ita tio n that p ro d u ces the in e s c a p a b le a n x ie ty . Zhivago w rites: "McKyccTBO nepBobhiTHoe, ernneTCKoe, rp en ecx o e, Harne, 3 to , HaBepHoe, Ha npoTn;*ceHHH MHOTHX TMC«^ie^eTHH O^HO H TO 3Ke, B eflHHCTBeHHOM nH C Jie o c T a i o m e e c a HCKyccTBO. 140 Z h i v a g o ' s f o r a y i n t o l i t e r a r y c r i t i c i s m i n c l u d e s a s e l f - c o n s c i o u s c o m m e n t r e f l e c t i v e o f a w r i t e r s s t r u g g l e w i t h d e n i a l o f i n f l u e n c e . E x a m i n i n g t h e s t a g e s o f P u s h k i n ’s w o r k , h e o b s e r v e s t h a t t h e g r e a t P u s h k i n w a s b o r n w h e n t h e i m i t a t i v e s t a g e c e a s e d . It i s o n l y w i t h w h a t h e , e r r o n i o u s l y f r o m a B l o o m i a n p e r s p e c t i v e , p e r c e i v e s a s a d e f i n i t i v e r u p t u r e w i t h t h e p a s t , t h a t P u s h k i n m a t u r e s to t a k e h i s p l a c e a m o n g t h e i m m o r t a l s . "B c t h x o t b o p eH H e, t o ^ h o nepe3 o k h o b KOMHaTy, BpbmanHCb c y;iHU,hi c b c t h B 0 3 ,n y x , rn y M 5*ch3hh, Bem,H, cym ,H ocTH ." 141 It m a y b e s h e e r c o i n c i d e n c e t h a t Z h i v a g o ' s w o r d s s o s t r o n g l y r e s e m b l e P a s t e r n a k ' s e a r l i e r t r i b u t e t o V e r l a i n e s f r e s h a n d n o v e l i d i o m . In a s u b s e q u e n t e n t r y , Z h i v a g o c o n t i n u e s h i s r e f l e c t i o n o n t h e s u b j e c t o f i n f l u e n c e , b u t t h i s t i m e h e a c k n o w l e d g e s t h e p o s i t i v e , f o r m a t i v e r o l e p l a y e d b y a n a r t i s t ' s a n c e s t o r s . In a n o t h e r i n t e r t e x t w i t h P a s t e r n a k h e r e f e r s t o G o e t h e , w h o m P a s t e r n a k a l s o t r a n s l a t e d , a n d c o n c l u d e s t h a t e a c h a r t i s t i s , i n t r u t h , a r e i n c a r n a t i o n . "Ka*:,n,biH p o /t H T c a 4>aycTOM, h t o 6 m B ee ofiHHTb, B ee H cn h iT a T b , B ee B w pa3H T b. . . . 0 t o m , nT obbi 4 > a y c T y dbiTb xy ^ o jK H K O M , n o 3 a b o T H jr a c b 3ap a3H T e;ibH b ie n p H M e p b i y n H T e n e H . [B a r Bnepe,a, b H c x y c c T B e . n e n a e T c a n o 3aKOHy 261 npHTflJKeHHfl, c no.qpaacaHHfl, c-ne^oBaHHa h noooHeHHA /ho6h m h m npe,o,TeqaM. " 142 Accordingly for Pasternak, Verlaine and Zhivago along with Goethe, Shakespeare, Yashvili and others were his lifeline. They supplied the oxygen when his own voice was suffocated, and they helped to expiate his guilt when he submitted to imposed silence. His translations were the discourse of his repression which enabled the future discourse of revelation, redemption and resurrection. 2 62 Notes: Chapter Five H arold Bloom. The A n xiety of Influence (Oxford: Oxford U niversity Press, 1973) 7. 2H. Bloom, A nxiety 21. 3H. Bloom, The Breaking of the V essels (Chicago: The U niversity of Chicago Press, 1982) 7. 4/LA. rHH36ypr, TlHCbMa Bopnca nacTepHaxa" in lleoenHCKa BooHca flacTepHaKa ed. E.B. nacTepHax h E.B. nacTepHaxa (MocxBa: XyfloacecTBeHHaa JiHTepaTypa, 1990)4. 5 a . Sinyavsky, Pasternak's Poetry" Pasternak. A Collection of Critical E ssavs. trans. and ed. Victor Erlich (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1978) 65. 6for a d iscu ssion of how "artistic sim p licity is more com plex than a rtistic co m p lex tiy " see Y. Lotman, A nalysis of the Poetic T e x ted. and trans. D. Barton Johnson. (Ann Arbor: A rd is.1976) 26. 7Lazar Fleishman, Boris Pasternak: The Poet and His Politics (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard U niversity Press, 1990)224. 8 Fleishman 224. ^Sinyavsky 106. 10Fleishm an 225- 1'Boris Pasternak, Paul-Marie Verlaine", Pasternak on Art and C reativity ed. Angela Livingstone (Cambridge: Cambridge U n iversity Press, 1985)179. 1 2 Pasternak,"Verlaine" 180. 1 ^Pasternak, Verlaine" 179. 14Pasternak, "V erlaine' 180. '^Sinyavsky 94. 1 ^Pasternak, "Verlaine" 181. ' 7Pasternak, "Verlaine" 182. 180 . Hughes, The Poetic World of Boris Pasternak (Princeton: Princeton U niversity Press, 1974) 69. J^A.E. Carter, Verlaine: A Study in Parallels (Toronto: Toronto U niveristy Press, 1969) 233. 20Charles Morice later became a stauch supporter of V erlaine who then dedicated a future publication of "Art Poetique" to him. 2 'quoted in A. E. Carter 233. 2 2 P. Stephan Paul Verlaine and the Decadence 18 8 2 -1 8 9 0 (Manchester: Manchester U niversity Press, 1974) 77. 23Anna Balakian The Sym bolist Movement (New York: Random House, 1967) 67. 24Balakian 70. 2 6 3 25sin yavsky 89. 28Guy De Mallac, "Pasternak's Critical-Esthetic Views" R ussian Literary T riauarterly no. 6 (Ann Arbor: A rdis, 1975) 524. 2 7 B.d>. AcMyc, " T B O p q e c K a a o c T e T H K a E. I l a c T e p H a K a ' E o p h c F la c T e p H a K 06 HCKVCCTBe ed. E.B. M E. B. riacTepHaK (M ocK B a: M cicyccTBO, 1990) 30. 28Jane Harris, "Pasternak s Vision of Life: The H istory of a Fem inine Image" in Russian Literary Triauarterly no. 9 (Ann Arbor, A rdis, 1975) 413. 29Fleishm an 237. 3°Fleishman 292. 81 Fleishman 277. 32Hughes 62. 33a . Livingstone, introduction to Pasternak on art and creativity 3. ^ L iv in g sto n e 3. 35 N icola Chiaromonte, The Paradox of History: Stendahl. Tolstoy. Pasternak and others. (London: W eidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973) 128 36 Plank 76. 37riacTepHaK, TIo^b-MapH BepjjeH 166. 38N icola Chiaromonte, Pasternak s Message, ' Pasternak. Modern fudem ents ed. Donald Davie and A ngela Livingstone (London: MacMillan, 1969) 230. 39nacTepHaK, ^CHBaro 217. 40riacTepHaK, /KHBaro 328. 4 1 Harold Nicolson, Paul V erlaine (Boston: Houghton M ifflin Co., 1921) 241. 42Nicolson 242. 43Eleonore M. Zimmerman, Magies de Verlaine: Etude de revolution ooetiaue de Paul Verlaine (Geneve: Slatkine, 1981) 325- 44Zimmerman 275- 4 5A ntoine Adam, The Art of Paul Verlaine trans. Carl Morse (New York: New York U niversity Press, 1963) 94. 4 8 jean -P ierre Richard, Poesie et Profondeur (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1955) 166-167. 47Rene W ellek and A. Warren, Theory of Literature (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1956)115- 48N eil Cornwell, Pasternak s Novel: Perspectives on Doctor Zhivago" (Keele: Keele University, Essays in Poetics Poublications No. 2, 1986) 40- 41. 49C ornw ell41-42. 5°Cornwell 42 5*Fleishm an 2 5 8 . 5 2 Katherine T. O'Connor, Boris Pasternak s My siste r -life : the illu sion of narrative (Ann Arbor: A rdis, 1988)13. 2 6 4 53The sym m etry of the novel has also been discussed by Josephine Pasternak whose article centers on the Zhivago burials at the opening and the closure of the novel. J. Pasternak, "Patior' R ussian Literary T riauarterly *9 1974. 54j. Pasternak 388 55o'Connor 197. 5&O Connor 75- 57e. M . ByKaHOBHq, "3ByKOBa« ‘fcaxTypa CTHXoTBopeHHH CbopHHxa 'CecTpa Moa 3H3Hb' B. /I. nacTepHaxa." R ussian Language lournal (1971)151. 58Fleishman 267. 5^Sinyavsky 107. 6°Sinyavsky 160. 8 l in A. Livingstone Pasternak on Art and C reativitvl7 7 . 62 Sinyavsky 159. 63jane Gary Harris, Pasternak s Vision of Life: the History of a Fem inine Image." Russian Literary Triauarterly 9 (1974) 4 2 0 -4 2 1 . 64N icolson 242. ^^Michel Barlow. Poesies Verlaine (Paris: Hatier, 1982) 242. 66 L ivingstone259. 67Per Arne Bod in, Nine Poems from Doktor Zivaeo: A Study of Christian Motifs in Pasternak's Poetry (Stockholm: Alm qvist & W iksell International, 1976)208-209. 68 O 'Connor 169. 690'Connor 192. 7°Silbajoris, "The Poetic Texture of Doktor Zivago." Slavic and East European lournal. 9 (1965) 25- 7 •Christopher Barnes. Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biograohv. Volume 1 (Cambridge, U niversity Press, 1989) 350. 72 Fleishman 261. 73Fleishman 262. 74 Fleishman 262. 75ByxaHOBH<i 1 4. 7^ByxaHOBH^ 3-4. 77ByKaHOBHM 4. 78Fleishman 267. 79Fleishman 267. 8 0 Christopher Barnes, Introduction to Boris Pasternak, The Voice of Prose. Volume One: Early Prose and Autobiography, ed. Christopher Barnes, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh U niversity Press, 1986) 7. ^ B a r n e s , Literary Biography 114. 82Victor Erlich, "Categories of Passion," Pasternak: A Collection of Critical Essays , p. 8. 265 83Fleishm an 268-269. 84 Barnes, Literary Biography 82. 85 Barnes, Literary B iography,! 13. 86 Barnes, Literary Biography _1 35- S^Barnes, Literary Biography 399- 88Barnes, Literary Biography 404. 89pieishman 167. 90Fleishm an 167. 91 Fleishm an 269. 92j.Pasternak 377. 93Fleishman 294. 94Fleishman 24 1. 95Fleishman 268. 96Fleishman 267. 97 O'Connor 27. 98 o Connor 140. 99o' Connor 174. 100 O' Connor 180. 101 O' Connor 196. 102ju iia Kristeva, Rlack Sun: D epression and M elancholy, tr. Leon 8. Roudiez (New York: Columbia U niversity Press, 1989) 259. l°3K.risteva 259- 104 Kristeva 4. 1 °5Kristeva 5- 106 Kristeva 8. 107 Kristeva 9. 108 Kristeva 22 109 Kristeva 23. 110 Kristeva 24. 111 Kristeva 42. H2EopHC nacTepHaK, Hmc-roo >KwBaro jM ocKBa. MaflaTejibCTBO KHHJKHaa naaaTa, 1989)15- 113riacTepHaK 2CHBaro 2 1 . 1 14fiarTRnHaK ^HBaro 2 1 . H5riacTepHaK /KHBaro 7 5- 116nacTepHaK )KHBaro 7 6. 1 17narTenHaK /KHBaro 7 7- 118See also: Angela Livingstone , Doctor Zhivago (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)22. 1 19riacTepHaK XHBaro 8 8. 120piacTepHaK XHBaro 2 15- 2 6 6 I21riacTepHaK /KHBaro 328. 1 2 2 riacT epH aK ^KHBaro 3 3 9 . 123 K risteval51 • 1 2 ^ n a c T e p H a K /K H B a ro 3 3 9 . 125 n a c T e p H a K /KHBaro 3 3 9 . 126K ristev a l4 8 . 12 7 n a c T e p H a K ?KHBaro 3 4 0 . 128According to Kristeva the psychoanalytic leap beyond loss and mourning depends on the p o ssib ility of t r a n s p o s i t i o n . "Verbal sequences turn up only if a transposition is substituted fo r a m o re or less sym biotic object.... That critical task of t r a n s p o s i t i o n consists of two facets: the mourning gone through for the object...and the subject s acceptance of a set of signs...." 41. 12^riaCTepHaK /KHBaro 3 4 0 . !30Mary F. Rowland and Paul Rowland cla ssify three cy cles s lig h tly differen tly as three "strands of the poetic cycle: nature, love, and religion." in Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago (Carbondale. Illinois: So. Illin ois U niversity Press, 1967) 60. 131 Af/se e n a b im e is defined in Black Sun as a non-linear, in fin ite reading that situates subject and text in historical context. 132A ngela Livingstone has pointed out Czeslaw Milosz's words about the novel, that it was "open to huge vistas of space and historical time. 4. 133Kristeva 27. 134Kristeva 206. 135Kristeva 3 4 . 1 ^ K risteva 65- 137Kristeva 17 1 . 138 Pasternak, Verlaine" 181. 139riacTepHaK, /KHBaro 213. ^ ^ a c T e p H a K , /KHBaro 2 1 4 . ^ a c T e p H a x , /KHBaro 2 1 7 . ! 4 2n a cT e p H a K , ^KHBaro 2 1 8 . 2 6 7 Works Consulted I. Translation Aizenshtok, I. "O Perevode." Masterstvo Perevoda. Moskva: Sovetskii Pisatel", 1970. Arrowsmith, William and Roger Shattuck. The Craft of Translation. Austin, Texas, Humanities Research Center, 1961. Benjamin, Walter, "The Task of the Translator." Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1969. Brislen, Richard W. Translation: Applications and Research. New York: Gardner Press, Inc., 1976. Brower, Reuben Arthur. On Translation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959. Brower, Reuben Arthur. The Fields of Light. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951- Chukovsky, Kornei. The Art of Translation. Trans, and Ed. Lauren G. Leighton. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984. Etkind, Efim. Russkie Poetv-oerevodchiki: ot Trediakovskogo do Pushkina. Leningrad: Nauka, 1973. Fedorov, A. Iskusstvo oerevoda i zhizn" literaturv: ocherki. Leningrad: Sovremennyi pisatel", 1983. Felstiner, John. Translating Neruda: The Wav to Macchu Picchu. Stanford: Stanford Unviversity Press, 1980. 268 Frawley, William, ed. Translation: Literary. Linguistic, and Philosophical Perspectives. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1984. Garrigue, Jean, ed. Translations bv American Poets. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1970. Ginzburg, Lev. Nad strokoi oerevoda. Moskva: Sovetskaia Rossiia, 1981. Guenther, F. and M. Guenther-Reutter., (ed,) Meaning and Translation: Philosophical and Linguistic Approaches. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd, 1978. Hermans, Theo, ed. The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation. New York: St. Martins Press, 1985- Holmes, James S, ed. The Nature of Translation: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Literary Translation. Bratislava: Publishing House of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1970. Kross, Ian. "Bez liubvi khoroshii perevod ne myslit." Masterstvo Perevoda. Moskva: Sovetskii Pisatel', 1969. Kunitz, Stanley. "A Sum of Approximations." Translation. Winter 1973 pp. 51-60. Liubimov, Nikolai. Nesgoraemve slova. Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia Literatura, 1983- Liubimov, Nikolai. "Perevod - iskusstvo." Masterstvo Perevoda. Moskva: Sovetskii Pisatel', 1963. Mkrtchian, L. "Poeziia v pervode." Masterstvo Perevoda. Moskva: Sovetskii Pisatel', 1969. Muchnic, Helen. "Russian Poetry and Methods of Translation." New York: P.E.N. American Center, 1971. 2 6 9 Paz, Octavio. Traduccion: literaturav literalidad. Barcelona: Tusquets Editor, 1971. Pound, Ezra. Instigations of Ezra Pound. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1976. Pound, Ezra, unpublished papers, Rene de Gourraont folder. New Haven: Beinecke Library, Yale University. Proetz, Victor. The Astonishment of Words: an experiment in the comparison of languages. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971. Rab ass a, Gregory. "The Ear in Translation." New York: P.E.N. American Center, 1971. Revzin, 1.1, and V. Iu. Rozentsveig. Osnovvi obshchego i mashinnogo perevoda. Moskva: Izdatel'stvo Vysshaia Shkola," 1964. Rose, Marilyn Gaddis, ed. Translation Soectrum: Essavs in Theory and Practice. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. Tolman, Herbert Cushing. The Art of Translating. Boston: Benj. H. Sanborn and Co., 1901. Warren, Rosanna. The Art of Translation. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1989. II. Works bv and about Harold Bloom Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence. New York: Oxford University Pres, 1973. Bloom, Harold. The Breaking of the Vessels. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982. Bloom, Harold. A Mao of Misreading. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975- 270 Bloom, Harold. Aeon: Towards a Theory of Revisionism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Bloom, Harold. Poetry and Repression: Revisionism from Blake to Stevens. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. Moynihan, Robert. A Recent Imagining: Interviews with Harold Bloom. Geoffrey Hartman. I. Hillis Miller. Paul de Man. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1986. 271 III. Works bv Verlaine Gourevitch, Doris-Jeanne, trans. and ed. Paul Verlaine: Selected Verse. Waltham, Mass.: Blaisdell Publishing Co., 1970. Verlaine, Paul-Marie. Confessions of a Poet. Trans. Joanna Richardson. London: Thames and Hudson, 1950. Verlaine, Paul-Marie. Oeuvres ooetiaues completes. Ed. Y . G . Le Dantec. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1962. Verlaine, Paul-Marie. Oeuvres ooetiaues de Verlaine. Ed. Jacques Robichez. Paris: Editions Garnier Freres. 1969. Verlaine, Paul. Lettres inedites a divers corresoondants. Ed. Georges Zayed. Geneve: Librairie DROZ S.A., 1976. Verlen', Pol'. Izbrannve stikhotvoreniia v oerevodakh russkikh ooetov. Ed. V. Izraztsova. Vseobshchaia Biblioteka No. 1 18, 191 1. Verlen, Pol*. Stikhi. Trans. Fedor Sologub. Petrograd: Knigoizdatel'stvo Petrograd, 1923. IV. Verlaine's Life and Works Adam, Antoine. The Art of Paul Verlaine. Trans. Carl Morse. New York: New York University Press, 1963. Barlow, Michel. Poesies Verlaine. Paris: Hatier, 1982. Beneleau, Andre. Etude sur l'insoiration et l'influence de Paul Verlaine. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1930. Bornecque, Jacques-Henri. Les Poemes saturniens de Paul Verlaine. Paris: Librairie Nizet, 1952. 272 Bornecque, Jacques-Henri. Verlaine oar lui-meme. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1966. Carter, A.E. Verlaine. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1971. Carter, A.E. Verlaine: A Study in Parallels. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969. Chadwick, C. Verlaine. London: The Athlone Press, University of London, 1973. Chaussivert, J.S. L Art Verlainien dans La bonne chanson. Paris: Librairie Nizet, 1973. Clerget, Fernand. Paul Verlaine et Ses Contemoorains. Geneve: Slatkine, 1980. Cornulier, Benoit de. Theorie du vers: Rimbaud. Verlaine. Mallarme. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1982. Cuenot, Claude. Etat present des etudes verlainiennes. Paris: Societe d'Edition Les Belles Lettres," 1938. Delahaye, Ernest. Documents relatifs a Paul Verlaine. Paris: "Maison du Livre", 1919. Delahaye, Ernest. Verlaine. Paris: Albert Messein, Editeur, 1923. Diederichs-Maurer, Anna Katherina. La Theme de l'aneoisse chez Verlaine. Dusseldorf-Koln: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1971. "La petite musique de Verlaine: Romances sans paroles, Sagesse." Paris: Societe D Editions D'Enseignement Superieur, 1982. Martino, Pierre. Verlaine. Paris: Boivin & Cie, Editeurs, 1924. 273 Monkiewicz, Bronislawa. Verlaine: Critique litteraire. Paris, Albert Messein, Editeur, 1928. Morice, Charles. Paul Verlaine. Paris: Leon Vanier, 1888. Mourot, Jean. Verlaine. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1988. Nicolson, Harold. Paul Verlaine. London: Constable & Co., Ltd., 1921. Soulie-Lapeyre, Paule. Le Vague et l'aigu dans la perception Verlainienne. Nice: Annales de la Faculte des Lettres et sciences Humaines, 1969. Stephan, Philip. Paul Verlaine and the decadence 1882-90. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1974. Zimmermann. Eleonore M. Magies de Verlaine: Etude de revolution ooetiaue de Paul Verlaine. Geneve: Slatkine, 1981. V. Works bv Pasternak Barnes, Christoper, ed. Boris Pasterak: The Voice of Prose. Volume One: Earlv Prose and Autobiography. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1986. Pasternak, Boris. Doktor Zhivago. Moskva: Knizhnaia palata, 1989. Pasternak, Boris. Pereoiskas Ol'goi Freidenberg. Ed. Elliott Mossman. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc., 1981. Pasternak, Boris. Sobranie sochinenii v oiati tomakh. Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1990. Pasternak, Boris. Sochinenia I-I1I. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1961. 274 Pasternak, Boris. Stikhotvoreniia i ooemv. Moskva-Leningrad: Sovetskii pisatel', 1965. Pasternak, Boris. Vozdushnve outi: Proza raznvkh let. Moskva: Sovetskii pisatel’, 1982. Struve, G . P. and B.A. Filippova, ed. Boris Pasternak: Proza 1915-1958. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961. VI. Pasternak's Life and Works Baevskii, V.S. " Faust’ Gete v Perevode Pasternaka" Seriia Literaturv i Iazvka Tom 49, No. 4. (1990), 341-352. Barnes, Christopher. Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography Volume I 1890-1928. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Bod in, Per Arne. Nine Poems from Doktor Zivaeo: A Study of Christian Motifs in Pasternak's Poetry. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1976. Boris Pasternak 1890-1960 Colloaue de Cerisv-La-Salle. Paris: Institut D'Etudes Slaves, 1979. Chiaromonte, Nicola. The Paradox of History: Stendahl. Tolstoy. Pasternak and others. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973. Conquest, Robert. The Pasternak Affair: Courage of Genius. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1962. Cornwell, Neil. Pasternak's Novel: Perspectives on "Doctor Zhivago". Keele: Keele University, Essays in Poetics Publications No. 2, 1986. 275 Davie, Donald, and Angela Livingstone, ed. Pasternak. Modern judgements. London: MacMillan, 1969. Erlich, Victor, ed. Pasternak. A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1978. Fleishman, Lazar'. Boris Pasternak V Dvadtsatve Godv. Munchen: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1979. Fleishman, Lazar'. Boris Pasternak V Tridtsatve Godv. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1984. Fleishman, Lazar, ed. Boris Pasternak and His Times: Selected Papers from the Second International Svmnosium on Pasternak. Berkeley: Berkeley Slavic Specialties, 1989. Fleishman, Lazar. Boris Pasternak: The Poet and his Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. France, Anna Kay. Boris Pasternak's Translations of Shakespeare. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976. France, Peter K. Poets of modern Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Gifford, Henry. Pasternak: a Critical Study. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Gladkov, Alexander. Meetings with Pasternak. Trans, and ed. Max Hayward. London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977. Hamilton, Tatiana Nicolaevna. "Osnovnaia tematika proizvedenii Borisa Pasternaka." Diss. Georgetown University, 1978. Harris, Jane Gary. "Pasternak's Vision of Life: the History of a Feminine Image." Russian Literary Triquarterly. 9 1974, p. 389-422. 276 Hingley, Ronald. Nightingale Fever: Russian Poets in Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. Hingley, Ronald. Pasternak: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983. Hughes, Olga R. The Poetic World of Boris Pasternak. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974. Ivinskaya, Olga. A Caotive of Time. Trans. Max Hayward. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1978. Jakobs on, Roman. Essav and Commentary in Boris Pasternak. Prague: Glejt, 1935- Lekic, Maria. "Pasternak's Doctor Zivago: The Novel and Its Title." Russian Literary lournal XLII (1988), 177-191. Livingstone, Angela. Boris Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Livingstone, Anglela, ed. Pasternak on art and creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985- Mallac, Guy de. Boris Pasternak: His Life and Art. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. Nilsson, Nils A. Boris Pasternak: Essavs. Stockholm, Almquist and Wiksell International, 1976. O'Connor, Katherine Tiernan. Boris Pasternak's Mv sister-life: the illusion of narrative. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1988. Pasternak, E. Boris Pasternak: materialv dlia biografii. Moskva: Sovetskii pisatel', 1989. Pasternak, E. V. and E. B. Pasternaka, ed. Boris Pasternak: Ob Iskusstve. Moskva: Iskusstvo, 1990. 277 Pasternak, E. V. and E. B. Pasternaka, ed. Pereoiska Borisa Pasternak a. Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1990. Pasternak, Evgeny. Boris Pasternak: The Tragic Years 1930- 60. Trans. Michael Duncan. London: Collins Harvill, 1990. Pasternak, Josephine. "Patior". Russian Literary Triquarterlv #9 (1974) p. 371-389. Plank, Dale L. Pasternak's Lvric: a Study of Sound and Imagery. The Hague: Mouton, 1966. Pomorska, Krystyna. Themes and Variations in Pasternak s Poetics. Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press, 1975. Rashkovskaia, M. A. "Dve Sud'byi: Vstrechi s proshlymi," Sovetskaia Rossiia. Moskva, 1990. Rowland, Mary F. and Paul Rowland. Pasternak s Doctor Zhivago. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967. Silbajoris, Rimvydas. "The Poetic Texture of Doktor Zivago." Slavic and East European journal. 9 (1965), 19-27. Steinberg, Ada. “B.L. Pasternak - Perevodchik P. Verlena.” Russian Literature and History. Ed. B.W. Moskovich. Jerusalem: The Soviet Jewry Museum Foundation, 1989, pp. 96-103. Voznesensky, Andrei. An Arrow in the Wall. Ed. William Jay Smith. Trans. F. D. Reeve. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1987. Vukanovich, E. I. "Zvukovaia Faktura Stikhotvorenii Sbornika Sestra MoiaZhizn' - B.L. Pasternaka." Russian Language Tournal. 1971, p. 145-159. 278 Wren, C.L. "Boris Pasternak." Oxford Slavonic Papers. 11 (195D. Zholkovsky, Alexander. "Iz zapisok po poezii grammatiki": On Pasternak s figurative voices. Russian Linguistics. 9 (1985), 375-386. Zholkovsky, Alexander. "La poetique de Pasternak", Histoire de la Litterature Russe. Le XX-e siecle. Gels et Degels. Ed. E. Etkind. Paris: Fayard, 1990, 488-504. Zholkovsky, Alexander. "The Sinister' in the Poetic World of Pasternak. International fournal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics. 29 (1984), 109-131. Zhovtis, A. "Pul's Stikhotvornogo Perevoda." Masterstvo Perevoda. 1964, p. 124-149. Zvezdnoe Nebo: stikhi zarubezhnvkh ooetov v oerevode. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo Progress, 1966. VII. Other Russian Poets Annenskii, Innokentii. The Cypress Chest. Trans. R. H. Morrison. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982. Annenskii, Innokentii. Izbrannve. Moskva: Pravda, 1987. Annenskii, Innokentii. Lirika. Leningrad: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1976. Annenskii, Innokentii. "0 Sovremennom Lirizme." Anollon. No. 1 (1909), 12-42. Annenskii, Innokentii. Stikhotvoreniia i Traeedii. Leningrad: Sovetskii pisatel', 1959. Borker, David. "Annenskij and Mallarme: A Case of Subtext." Slavic and East European lournal. 21 (1977), 46-55- 2 7 9 Borker, David. "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Aspects of Structure in Annenskij's Verbnaja Nedelja ." Slavic and East European lournal. 23 (1979),p. 491-505. Briusov, Valerii. Stikhotvoreniia i Poemv. Leningrad: Sovetskii pisatel", 1961. Chebotarevskaia, Anastasia. 0 Fedore Sologube: Kritika. Ann Arbor: Ardis, Inc., 1983. Fedorov, A. Innokentii Annenskii: Lichnost. i tvorchestvo. Leningrad: Khudozhestvennaia Literatura, 1984. Ivanov-Razumnik. 0 Smvsli Zhizni. Letchworth, England: Bradda Books Ltd., 1971. Kleiman, Liudmila. Rannaia Proza Fedora Soloeuba. Ann Arbor: Hermitage, 1983. Maslenikov, Oleg A. The Frenzied Poets: Andrev Bielv and the Russian Symbolists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952. Peterson, Ronald E. ed. and trans. The Russian Symbolists. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1986. Rice, Martin P. Valerv Briusov and the Rise of Russian Symbolism. Ann Arbor: Ardis, Inc., 1975- Setchkarev, Vsevolod. Studies in the Life and Work of Innokentij Anneskij. The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1963. Sologub, Fedor. Kiss of the Unborn and Other Stories. Trans. Murl Barker. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1977. Sologub, Fedor. Rasskazv. Berkeley: Berkeley Slavic Specialties, 1979. 280 Struk, Danylo. "The Great Escape: Principal Themes in Valerij Brjusov's Poetry." Slavic and East European Journal. 12 (1968), 407-423. Tucker, Janet G . Innokentii Annenskii and the Acmeist Doctrine. Columbus, Ohio: SlavicaPublishers, Inc., 1986. Tucker, Janet Gary. "Innokenty Annensky As Critic". Russian Literary Triauarterlv # 11 (1975) p. 386-397. VIII. Other Works Balakian, Anna. The Symbolist Movement. New York: Random House, 1967. Balakian, Anna, ed. The Symbolist Movement in the Literature of European Languages. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 1982. Broome, Peter and Graham Chesters. The Appreciation of Modern French Poetry (1850-1950). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. Bruns, Gerald L. Modern Poetry and the Idea of Language. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974. Caws, Mary Ann. "Insertion in an Oval Frame: Poe Circumscribed by Baudelaire." Charles Baudelaire. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Chatman, Sidney, ed. Literary Stvle: A Symposium. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. Etkind, Efim. Master Poeticheskoi Kompozitsii." Masterstvo Perevoda. Moskva: Sovetskii Pisatel', 1971. 281 Ginzburg, Lidiia Iakovlevna. 0 Lirike. Leningrad, Sovetskii pisatel', 1964. Hooker, Joan Fillmore. T.S. Eliot's Poems in French Translation. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1983. Kristeva, Julia. Black Sun: depression and melancholia. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989. Loseff, Lev. On the Beneficence of Censorship: Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Literature. Trans. June Bobko. Munchen: Verlag Otto Sagner in Kommission, 1984. Lotman, Yuri. Analysis of the Poetic Text. Ed. and trans. D. Barton Johnson. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1976. Matejka, Ladislav and Krystyna Pomorska. Readings in Russian Poetics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1978. Miller, J. Hillis. The Ethics of Reading. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. Moser, Charles A., ed. The Cambridge History of Russian Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989. Mukarovsky, Jan. On Poetic Language. Ed. and trans. John Burbank and Peter Steiner. Lisse, Belgium: The Peter de Ridder Press, 1976. Pinsky, Robert. The Situation of Poetry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976. Rancour-La Ferriere, Daniel . "Russian literature and psychoanalysis - Four modes of intersection." Russian Literature and Psvchonalvsis. Ed. P.R. Laf. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1989. 282 Richard, Jean-Pierre. Poesie et Profondeur. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1955. Rifelj, Carol de Dobay. Word and Figure: The Language of Nineteenth Century French Poetry. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987. Riffaterre, Michael. Semiotics of Poetry. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. Scherr, Barry P. Russian Poetrv: Meter. Rhvthm. and Rhvme. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986. Shcheglov, Yuri and A. Zholkovsky. Poetics of Expressiveness: A Theory and Applications. Ed. A. Zholkovsky. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1987. Sollers, Philippe. Logiaues. Paris: Seuil, 1968. Symons, Arthur. The Symbolist Movement in Literature. New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1971. Terras, Victor. Handbook of Russian Literature. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985. Tynianov, Yuri. The Problem of Verse Language. Ed. and trans. Michael Sosa and Brent Harvey. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1981. Ushakov, Nikolai. Masterskaia: o ooezii i ooetakh. Moskva: Sovetskii pisatel', 1983. Wellek, Rene and A. Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1956. Zholkovsky, A. and Y . Shcheglov. Mir avtora i struktura teksta: stat'i o russkoi literature. Tenafly, N.J.: Hermitage, 1986. The Verlaine Poems Art poetique A Charles Morice De la musique avant toute chose, Et pour cela prefere 1'Impair Plus vague et plus soluble dans 1'air, Sans rien en lui qui pese ou qui pose. II faut aussi que tu n ailles point Choisir tes mots sans quelque meprise: Rien de plus cher que la chanson grise Ou l'lndecis au Precis se joint. Cest des beaux yeux derriere des voiles, Cest le grand jour tremblant de midi, C'est, par un ciel d'automne attiedi, Le bleu fouillis des claires etoiles! Car nous voulons la Nuance encor, Pas la Couleur, rien que la nuance! Oh! la nuance seule fiance Le reve au reve et la flute au cor! Fuis du plus loin laPointe assassine, L'Esprit cruel et le Rire impur, Qui font pleurer les yeux de 1 ‘Azur, Et tout cet ail de basse cuisine! Prends l eloquence et tords-lui son cou! Tu feras bien, en train d'energie, De rendre un peu la Rime assagie. Si 1 on n y veille, elle ira jusqu'ou? 284 O qui dira les torts de la Rime? Quel enfant sourd ou quel negre fou Nous a forge ce bijou d un sou Qui sonne creux et faux sous la lime? De la musique encore et toujours! Que ton vers soit la chose envolee Qu'on sent qui fuit d une ame en allee Vers d'autres cieux a d'autres amours. Que ton vers soit la bonne aventure Eparse au vent crispe du matin Qui va fleurant la menthe et le thym... Et tout le reste est litterature. Effet de nuit La nuit. La pluie. Un ciel blafard que dechiquette De fleches et de tours a tour la silhouette D une ville gothique eteinte au lointain gris. La Plaine. Un gibet plein de pendus rabougris Secoues par le bee avide des corneilles Et dansant dans l air noir des gigues nonpareilles, Tandis que leurs pieds sont la pature des loups. Quelques buissons d'epine epars, et quelques houx Dressant l'horreur de leur feuillage a droite, a gauche, Sur le fuligineux fouillis d un fond d'ebauche. Et puis, autour de trois livides prisonniers Qui vont pieds nus, un gros de hauts pertuisaniers En marche, et leurs fers droit, comme des fers de herse, Luisent a contre-sens des lances de l'averse. 285 Puisque l’aube grandit, puisque voici 1‘aurore, Puisque, apres m'avor fui longtemps, l espoir veut bien Revoler devers moi qui l'appelle et 1 implore, Puisque tout ce bonheur veut bien etre le mien, C'en est fait a present des funestes pensees. C'en est fait des mauvais reves, ah! c'en est fait Surtout de l'ironie et des levres pincees Et des mots ou l'esprit sans l ame tromphait. Arriere aussi les poings crispes et la colere A propos des mechants et des sots rencontres: Arriere la rancune abominable! arriere L oubli qu'on cherche en des breuvages execres! Car je veux, maintenant qu'un Etre de lumiere A dans ma nuit profonde emis cette clarte D une amour a la fois immortelle et premiere, De par la grace, le sourire et la bonte, Je veux, guide par vous, beaux yeux aux f lammes douces. Par toi conduit, o main ou tremblera ma main, Marcher droit, que ce soit par des sentiers de mousses Ou que rocs et cailloux encombrent le chemin; Oui, je veux marcher droit et calme dans la Vie, Vers le but ou le sort dirigera mes pas, Sans violence, sans remords et sans envie: Ce sera le devoir heureux aux gais combats. Et comme, pour bercer les lenteurs de la route, Je chanterai des airs ingenus, je me dis Qu elle m ecoutera sans deplaisir sans doute; Et vraiment je ne veux pas d'autre Paradis. 2 8 6 Green Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches Et puis voici mon coeur qui ne bat que pour vous. Ne le dechirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches Et qu a vos yeux si beaux l humble present soit doux. J'arrive tout couvert encore de rosee Que le vent du matin vient glacer a mon front. Souffrez que ma fatigue a vos pieds reposee Reve des chers instants qui la delasseront. Sur votre jeune sein laissez rouler ma tete Toute sonore encor de vos derniers baisers; Laissez-la s'apaiser de la bonne tempete, Et que je dorme un peu puisque vous reposez. Langueur A Georges Courtetine. Je suis l’Empire a la fin de la decadence, Qui regarde passer les grands Barbares blancs En composant des accrostiches indolents D un style d or ou la langueur du soleil danse. L'&me seulette a mal au coeur d un ennui dense. La-bas on dit qu'il est de longs combats sanglants. 0 n'y pouvoir, etant si faible aux voeux si lents, 0 n'y vouloir fleurir un peu cette existence! 0 n'y vouloir, o n'y pouvoir mourir un peu! Ah! tout est bu! Bathylle, as-tu fini de rire? Ah! tout est bu, tout est mange! Plus rien a dire! Seul, un poeme un peu niais qu'on jette au feu, Seul, un esclave un peu coureur qui vous neglige, Seul, un ennui d on ne sait quoi qui vous afflige! Dans 1 ' interminable Ennui de la plaine La neige incertaine Luit comme du sable. Le ciel est de cuivre Sans lueur aucune. On croyait voir vivre Et mourir la lune. Comme des nuees Flottent gris le chenes Des forets prochaines Parmis les buees. Le ciel est de cuivre Sans lueur aucune. On croyait voir vivre Et mourir la lune. Corneille poussive Et vous, les loups maigres, Par ces bises aigres Quoi done vous arrive? Dans 1‘ interminable Ennui de la plaine La neige incertaine Luit comme du sable. 2 8 8 // p lea t doucement su r la. ville. (A rthur Rimbaud) II pleure dans mon coeur, Comme il pleut sur la ville; Quelle est cette langueur Qui penetre mon coeur? 0 bruit doux de lapluie Par terre et sur les toits! Pour un coeur qui s'ennuie 0 le chant de lapluie! II pleure sans raison Dans ce coeur qui s ecoeure. Quoi! nulle trahison? . . . Ce deuil est sans raison. C est bien la pire peine De ne savoir pourquoi Sans amour et sans haine Mon coeur a tant de peine! 289 Mon reve familier Je fais souvent ce reve etrange et penetrant D une femme inconnue, et que j'aime, et qui m'aime Et qui n est, chaque fois, ni tout a fait la raeme Ni tout a fait une autre, et m'aime et me comprend. Car elle me comprend, et mon coeur, transparent Pour elle seule, helas! cesse d'etre un probleme Pour elle seule, et les moiteurs de mon front bleme, Elle seule les sait rafraichir, en pleurant. Est-elle brune, blonde ou rousse? - Je l'ignore. Son nom? Je me souviens qu'il est doux et sonore Comme ceux des aimes que la Vie exila. Son regard est pareil au regard des statues, Et, pour sa voix, lointaine, et calme, et grave, elle a L'inflexion des voix cheres qui se sont tues. 290 Bon chevalier masque qui chevauche en silence, Le Malheur a perce mon vieux coeur de sa lance. Le sang de mon vieux coeur n a fait qu'un jet vermeil, Puis s'est evapore sur les fleurs, au soleil. L'ombre eteignit mes yeux, un cri vint a ma bouche Et mon vieux coeur est mort dans un frisson farouche. Alors le chevalier Malheur s'est rapproche, II a mis pied a terre et sa main m'a touche. Son doigt gante de fer entra dans ma blessure Tandis qu il attestait sa loi d une voix dure. Et voici qu'au contact glace du doigt de fer Un coeur me renaissait, tout un coeur pur et fier Et voici que, fervent d une candeur divine, Tout un coeur jeune et bon battit dans ma poitrine! Or je restais tremblant, ivre, incredule un peu, Comme un homme qui voit des visions de Dieu. Mais le bon chevalier, remonte sur sa bete, En s eloignant, me fit un signe de la tete Et me cria (j'entends encore cette voix): "Au moins, prudence! Car c est bon pour une fois." The Pasternak translations H o n H o e 3 p e jm in ,e Hoqfa. .H o h ca b . B /ta jin HeacHMH o n e p x b w 6 h t : B a o j k a j ih b o m H efie cT a p tiH r o p o A 3 h 6 h t P a3B 0/tH Kpbiin h dam eH H W x 3yd itoB . H a B H c e jw n ,e - TeH H M e p T B eu ,o B , B e3 y r o M O H y n ^ m y m n x n a x o H y , K o r ^ a c H a-neT y h x x jiio io t b o p o h w , M eac TeM Kax b o jik h i i j i t k h h m rpH3yT. Kon-TAe TepHOBWH KyCT, H TaM H TyT H a qepHOM Hede h s m o p o c h MrjiHCTOH - KonionHe o t j i h b h ocTpo;racTa. H m e c T B H e : T p n y 3H H K a n o H ew n o A n e m e n C T p a a ceH b a b c c t h d e p A w in e H , C M M xaioin ,eH ein ,e jiH inb H eH 3d w B H eH > K e ^ e 3 0 nHK b JKeJie3H0H c e T K e ;ih b h j i. Tax xax 6peaKHT AeHb . . . Tax xax dpeacHT AeHb, h b 6 ;ih 3 0 c th paccseTa, M b BHAy HaAexA, pa36HThix, 6w.no, b npax, Ho c y j i u i A H x M H e , m to BHOBb no h x odeTy 3 t o cnacTbe dyAeT Bee b m o h x p y x a x , - HaBcerAa, xoHen, neqa^bHHM pa3Mwm^eHbHM, HaBcerAa - HeAodpwM rpe3aM; HaBcerAa - IloA^KHMaHbio ry6, HacMemxaM, h coMHeHbHM, H BceMy, neM M w cnb de3AyuiHan ropA a. M to 6 h xy^axoB He cMejia THCxaTb 3Jioda. /lerne Ha o 6 h a h nom/iocTH CMOTpeTb. M t o 6 h cepAAe 3Jia He noMHHaao. 4 t o 6 h He Hcxajia rpycTb b BHHe 3adBeHba BnpeAfa. M6o a x o q y b t o t nac, KaK rocTb aynHCTHH Honb M oen ^yuiH , cnycTH Biim cb, 03apHa, BBepHTbca ^io6bh 6 e s yMHpaHba <ihctoh HMeHeM 3a Heii n a p a m n x ^ o 6 p w x cha. 5 1 ^OBepiOCb BaM, OqeH MOHX 3apHHI],M, 3a to6oh noHAy, BoacaToro p yxa, 5 1 noH ^y cT e3eii TepHHCTOH a n , cayn H T ca, Hab .ziopora fiy^ eT MUiHCTa h M arxa. 5 1 n p o H a y no * :h 3h h H enoxoaefiH M o ripaMO 3a cy^bfioH, x y ^ a raa3a raa,naT. 5 1 e e nprnviy 6e3 T opra h HaiKHMa. Mhoto 6 y .n e T BCTpeq, h C T b in ex , h 3 a c a ,n . M xoab cxopo a, hto6 cxopoTaTb aopory, riecHeio-Apyrox) cnyTHHue noabin,y, A oHa c y ^ b a , MHe xaaceT ca, He ctpothh, 5 1 n p o p a n hhoh h c a u m a T b He x o a y . ToMaeHHe 51 - p h m c x h h m h p n e p H o n a y n a ^ x a , Kor.ua, BCTpenaa BapBapoB p o h , A x p o c t h x h caaraioT b 3a6hiTbH y»ce, xax B enep, cnaBinero n op an xa. ^lyrne co cxyxH HecTepnHMO ran xo, A roBopaT, H a p y6e»cax 6 o h . 0 H e yiweTh c a o M H T b a e T a c b o h ! 0 H e x o T e T b n p o a c e n h h x 6 e 3 o c T a T x a ! 0 He xoTeTb, o He yMeTb y h t h ! Bee BhinHTo! M to TyT, EaTHaa, CMeniHoro? Bee BhinHTo, Bee cbeneH o! Hh caoBa! f 293 /Irniib cthx CMeuiHOH, yxce b orHe n o ^ T H , /Imiib pa6 flpaHHOH, y:*ce nonTH 6e3 fleaa, JlHiub rpycT b 6e3 odijacHeHba h npe.ii.eJia. s t c * * Cpe^b Heo6o3pHMO Y h HJIOH paBHHHH C H e^K H H K H O T T JIH H bl E^Ba OTJIHnHM bl. To Bbir;iflHeT d^eflHo Flofl TycKJioH aaTyHbio, To KaHeT 6eccjie,nHO Bo Mr^y HOBOJiyHbe. OdpHBKaMH ^HMa Co CTepTOio rpaHhio .H epeBba b T yM aH e ripOHOCHTCa M H M O . To BbirjiflHeT 6;ieAHO rio/i. TycKJioH aaT yH bio, To KaHeT 6eccjie,n,HO Bo M rjry HOBoayHbe. X y a w e b o p o h h M 3/IHe BO aH H n.111, H a nTO BaM h JihCTHTbca 3 h m o h pa3'bapeH H 0H ? Cpe^b Heo6o3pHMO YhIjIJIOH paBHHHM C H e^K H H K H O T T JIH H bl E flBa OTJIH^HM H. 294 3e;ieH b Bo t jih c t b ji, h i^BeTH, h iiao,!!, Ha BeTKe c n e r a f i , M c e p a a ,e , BceM dHeHbeM n p e ^ a H H o e BaM. He B3flyM aH Te T e p 3 a T h ero pyKOio b eao H H oxaxH T e ^iecTb npocTHM m o h m .uapaM. 51 C BOJIH TOJIhKO MTO H Becb noKpbiT p o co io , O jie^eH H B m eH -nod Ha yT peH H eM B eT p y . rio3B o^bT e, a q y T b - a y T h y B arnnx H o r b noKoe 0 n p e^ cT O flm eM c ^ a c T b e m m c;ih c o b e p y . Ha r p y ^ b BaM yn&py h ro a o B y noH ypio, Bcio b Baiimx nou,e;iyax, orztyuiHsniHX c a y x , H 3H aeT e, noKa yroM O H H Tca 6ypa. CocHy a, ,n.a h bh nepeBe^HTe .nyx. XaH^pa H b c e p ^ e p a c T p a s a , M Aoac^H K c y T p a . O T K y.u a bw , n p a a o , T aK aa xaH jotpa? 0 ,II,OJKAHK JKeaaHHblH, T b o h m o p o x - n p e ^ / i o r .H y in e decTaaaH H O H B c n a a K H y T b no^Ei, uiyMOK. O T K y/i,a ac npH aH H a M cep,zma b ^ o b c t b o ? XaHapa 6 e 3 npHTHHM M h h o t qero. XaH,npa HHOTKy^a, Ha t o h xaH^pa, Kor.ua He o t xy.ua H He o t flodpa. 295 Annensky Translations Le reve fam ilier M m n o /n o 6 H ; in . n p y r a p y r a b M H H yT W r a y b o x o r o c H a : n pH 3paK TOMHTeJIbHO-CJia,HKHH H CTpaHHNH - OHa. MacKH, h Be^iH O h h o h , HHKor,a.a npe.no m h o h He CHHMaa, / I k ) 6 h t OHa h MeHH noHHMaeT, HeMaa . . . T aK k H 3 ro jio B b io n p H H H K H yB , n e n a a h H a a H e a c H a a M a T h C ep ,a;iteM 3 a r a ^ K H y M e e T o n n a n oH H M aT b . E can ace rpe3a b Mopiu,HHax ropaayio Baary poacnaeT, riaaaa nHn,o MHe cne3aMH OHa npoxaaacnaeT . . . U,BeTa Ha3BaTb He yM eio jibhhth jiacKaBiuiix Boaoc, M m h? . . . B HeM 3ByaHoe, noMHio a, c HeacHHM caHaocb. HMa - H3 M H pa TeHeH, aTo TocxyioT b aa3ypH c h s h h h , B3opH - rayboKHe B3opM HeMbix HsBaaHini. T o a o c - C B oeio n a a e K O H , h HeacHOH, h BeaHOH M o a b b o H , H a n o M H H a a y M o n K u r a x , 3 o a e T 3 a c o b o ii . . . IlecH a be3 c a o B C e p n ite h c x o ^ h t cae3aM H , CaoBHO x o a o A H a a T y a a . . . CkOBBHO TaaCKHMH CHBMH, C e p a n e HCXoaHT cae3aM H . /I b io T c a M e a o a n e H h o t m U le a e c T a , rnyM a, acy p n aH b a, B cepAP,e no# nroM apeMOTM /Ib io T c a a o a ca n H B h ie h o t m . . . 296 To^bKO He ropeM tomhmo riaaqeT, a acH3Hbio HacKy^a, fl,Z ],O M H3MeH He H3BHM0, MepHHM dneHbeM tom hm o. Pa3Be H e xyace M y q eH H H 3 T a TOCKa d e 3 H a 3 B a H b » ? /K H T b 6 e 3 d o p h d u h B/ie^ieHHH Pa3Be H e xyace M y ^ eH H H ? T oM JieH H e S I - fin e^ H h iH phmjishhh 3 n o x H A n o c T a T a . I lo K y fla nopTHK m oh o t r y / i a 6oh h h t h x , S I c t h JieM 3ojiotum c ^ a r a io a x p o c T H x , r ^ e y M H p a e T d;iecK n y p n y p H o r o 3 a x a T a . He M e flb io TflJKKOio, a cxyKOH rpy,n,b odTiflTa, M n y c T h KpoBaBbiH C T ar TaM B eeT H a a p y r n x , Si H e jiio6^ ki T p y d w , M He , hhkh ctohw h x , H HecTepnHM BeHOK, jiHineHHwii apoMaTa. Ho hjih /iaHU,eT MHe fleHH He n p exp aT aT . X oTh KydKH ^ o n H T H , h n a p a 3 H T neMajibHHH He npo^ib dbi 6 h ;i n oqT H T b H ac p e ^ b io n o r p e d a jib H o n ! riycKaH b oroHb c th x h daHaJibHhie ;ieTiiT: S i B ee ace He ojj,h h : c o mhoio p a d HaxajibHMH M cKyKa acejiTaa c ycMeniKOH HH$epHa;ibHOH. 2 9 7 r ie p B o e cT H X O T B o p eH H e c b o p H H x a Sag e s s e MHe noA MacKoio p u q ,a p b c xoha He rpo3H A , Moana CTapoe cepA ue MHe HepHbin npoH3HJi, H npo6pH3Hyjia KpoBb moa a^WM $OHTaHOM, H b Jiynax no AaeTaM pa3oniJiacA TyMaHOM. BexH cxcaaa MHe TeHb, rydu yxcac pa3xcaji, M n o c e p A u y n o c j i e a h h h H c n y r n p o d e x c a j i. tJepHHH BcaAHHK Ha cjieA cboh HeMeAJM BepHyjicA, Oie3 c koha h AO Tpyna pyxoio xocHyjicA. Oh, yKejie3HbiH cboh nepcT b moio paHy baoxchb, >KecTKHM roaocoM Tax MHe cxa3a;i: "ByAeuib xchb." H noA naabn,eM nepnaTXH n,e;iHTeJiA T B e p a u m ripobyaiAaeTC a cepAAe h mhcthm h ropAUM. ilHBHHM acap O M obtAAO MeHA 6bITHe, M 3adHAocb, x a x b io h o c t h , cepA A e M oe. 5 1 Apoxcaji ot BocTopra h naAa comhchhh, K a x d b iB a eT c j h o a b m h n e p e A n y A O M b h a o h h h . A yxc p h m a p b nooA a/ib ctoaa BepxoBOH; YexcaA, oh c A e a a /i M H e 3Hax toaoboh, H A o c e A b e r o r o ; io c b y r n a x o c T a e T C a : Hy, cMOTpH. Wcn,eAHTb TOAhxo pa3 yA aeT ca'. COH, C KOTOPHM fl CpO^HHACfl COHeT M H e A y n i y C T p a H H o e H 3M yn H Jio B H ,n eH b e, M H e CHHTCfl x e H m H H a , 6 e 3 B e c T H a h MHJia, Bcer^a o ^ H a h T a x h b BenHOM H3MeHeHhH, 0 , KaK OHa MeHfl raydoKO noHfl.ua . . . Bee, Bee o t k p h t o eft . . . OdMaHhi, noA03peHbfl, M T aH H a c e p ; m a eft, /nraib eft, yB w ! cBeTJia. Mt o 6 ocB eacH T b cfle3oft M He BflaacHtift acap n e fla , O H a r o p f ln n e p o a c fla e T n c n a p e H b fl. B p ioH eT K a? p y c a a ? He 3H aio, a b o;ioc SI Jib He jia.cKa.ji e e ? A h m a ? B HeM c jiu jio c b Co 3ByMHWM H e ^ H o e , n,B eT yin,ee c O TUBeTim iM ; B3op, KaK y CTaTyn, h HeM, h yr;iydjieH , H 6 e 3 B H 6pan,H H , cn oK oeH , yTOM JieH. TaKoft dw ronoc rne/i k t c h a m , o t H a c y m e ^ u iH M . Sologub Translations "II pleure ..." B c ;ie 3 a x M oa .n y iiia , jOto^^eM 3anaaK an ropo/i,. 0 aeM, tockoh Aurna, r p y c T H T moa .ztyrna? 0, CTpyH ^.oxcAeBbie no KpOBJiaM, no 3eMne! B MHHyTH, cepn.n.y 3;ibie, 0 , necHH ao^K^eBue! np H *1H H U H H K aK O H , Ho cep ,m ty s e e npoTHBHO. K neMy *:e Tpayp moh? H3MeHW HHKaKOH. HeT ropine 3toh iwyKH, - He 3Haenib, noneMy, Be3 cnacT ba, 6e3 pasay K H , Tax MHoro b cep.zm e MyKH! "Dans 1 " interminable B n o / i a x KpyroM B T o c K e 6e3bpe5K H OH C H er H e H a A e ^ H M H E ;ie c T H T n ecK O M . KaK n h iab M e T a a a a , /I a 3 y p b T y c K a a . /I y H a 6ny3K^3,aaa H y M e p ;ia . 300 .UpoxcaT, K aK cnhjma, B nybpase t o ft .Hybw Toanoft Cpe^H TyMaHa. KaK nu^b MeTaMa, /la3ypb TycKJia. /lyHa 6jiyxjuana. H yMep;ia. 0 , BOpOH XCaHHblft M TO IU,H H B O /IK M to 5K.neT Barn ikmk 3 h m o h HemaHHOH? B no^ax KpyroM B TocKe 6e36pe5KHOH CHer HeHaneacHHtf B ^ecT H T necKOM. M y p aB a . B oT BeTKH C JIHCThflMH, C IJBeTaMH H C IUIOflaMH, H cepHU,e, - TOJibKo BaM e r o a nocBjrraji. E r o jih p a c T e p 3 a T b B aM 6e^ W M H p y K a M H ! i l a b y n eT c k p o m h h h n a p rjia3aM, CTOJib a c h h m , m h j i. R n p H x o acy , e m e obseTpeH H bift c n o p o r H H Becb o6pw 3raH H H H x o j i o h h o i o p o c o ft. YcTajiocTH Moeft no3BoabTe sanra h o t h ObBHTh MeMTaHbSMH, HapBIHHMH IIO K O H . Ha r p y n b k BaM ro;ioBoft cKOHHTbca He M em aftTe. /Iob3aHba 3ByqHoro a He y c n e ;i 3abwTb. MHe ycnoKOHTbca o t m h ^ o h bypH n airre M Barn eft THfflHHe Heno/irHft c o h BKycHTh. Bryusov Translations "II pleure ..." II pleut doucement sur laville. Arthur Rimbaud. He 6 0 Haa ropo.no m n;iaqeT, n^aqeT h cepnu,e Moe. MTO OHO, ^TO OHO 3HaqHT, 3 to yHUHbe Moe? H no 3eMJie h no KpuuiaM /IacKOBbiH ^eneT nojKna. Cepnny neqa;ibHOMy crameH /IacKOBbiH fleneT a o t k a h . M to tm aeneqemb, HeHacTbe? Cepnija neqa^b 6e3 npnqHH . . . .Ha! hh H3MeHbi, h h c q a c T b a , - Cepnna nena^b 6e3 npnqHH. KaK-t o ocobeHHO 6ojibHO n ^ a K a T b B THfflH HH 0 HeM, Fbiaqy, h o njiaqy HeaojibHO, njiaqy, He 3Haa o qeM. HCKyCCTBO n033HH 0 My3biKe Ha nepBOM MecTe! npe^nonHTaH pa3Mep TaKOH, M to 3u 6ok, pacTBopHM, h BMecTe He aaBHT CTporoH nojiHOTOH. UeH« c^oea K aK mo»:ho cTpoace, /Ih )6h b hhx cTpaHHbie qepTbi. Ax, necHH nbflHOH qTo nopoace, ffle TOqHOCTb C 3hl6K0CT bK ) CflHTbl! To - B3op n p e K p a c H H H 3a B y a ;ib w , To - b n o jia e H h 3aAP0JKaBniHH CBeT, To - oceHhw, Ha,n ch h ch ,na;ibio, BeqepHHH, s c h h h 6;iecK luiaHer. OflHH OTTeHKH Hac IIJieHfllOT, He KpacKH: i*BeT h x ctihiiikom cTpor! Ax, JIHIIIb OTTeHKH coqeTaroT Me^Ty c Me^TOH h c $;ieHTOH por. CTpauiHCh HacMeuieK, cMepTHbix (jjypHH, M C flH U IK O M OCTpoyMHHX C J IO B (Ot hhx cae3a b r^a3ax 7Ia3ypH!), H B cex n p w n p a B bjioxhx cto^ob! PHTopHKe cflOMaii t h mew! He oqeHb phiJ jmoh £,opox:H. Ko;ib He npHCMaTpHBaTb 3a Hew, Ky.ua OHa Be^eT, CKaacn! 0, KTO paCCKa»CeT pH(jMhl JliKHBOCTb? K to, nbaHwil Herp, n;ib k to , r ^ y x o n , H aM AaJi rpoinoByw KpacHBOCTb HrpyniKH xphiljioh h nycTOH! 0 My3HKe B cer/i,a h CHoaa! Ct h x h Kphi/iaThie tboh nycT b Hiu,yT, 3a MepTofi 3eMHoro, Hh m x H e b e c , h h o h ;uo6b h ! n ycT b b qac, Kor.ua s e e H ed o XMypo, Tboh c t h x HeceTca B#o/ib no^iflH, H MflTOW H TMHHOM IlbJIH . . . Bee npo^iee - JiHTepaTypa!
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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Dillon, Kathleen Elizabeth
(author)
Core Title
Pasternak's Verlaine: The translations as transcripts of influence
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
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Literature
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University of Southern California
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literature, romance,Literature, Slavic and East European,OAI-PMH Harvest
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738827
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Dillon, Kathleen Elizabeth
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literature, romance
Literature, Slavic and East European