Комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» Александра Пушкина - [300]

 ⁴ leaning on the granite.

Muravyov, “To the Goddess of the Neva.” >>

10. Written in Odessa. >>

11. See the first edition of Eugene Onegin. >>

12. From the first part of Dneprovskaya Rusalka. >>

13. The most euphonious Greek names, such as, for instance, Agathon, Philetus, Theodora, Thecla, and so forth, are used with us only among the common people. >>

14. Grandison and Lovelace, the heroes of two famous novels. >>

15. “Si j'avais la folie de croire encore au bonheur, je le chercherais dans l'habitude.” Chateaubriand. >>

16. Poor Yorick! — Hamlet's exclamation over the skull of the fool (see Shakespeare and Sterne). >>

17. A misprint in the earlier edition [of the chapter] altered “homeward they fly” to “in winter they fly” (which did not make any sense whatsoever). Reviewers, not realizing this, saw an anachronism in the following stanzas. We venture to assert that, in our novel, the chronology has been worked out calendrically. >>

18. Julie Wolmar, the New Héloïse; Malek-Adhel, hero of a mediocre romance by Mme Cottin; Gustave de Linar, hero of a charming short novel by Baroness Krüdener. >>

19. The Vampyre, a short novel incorrectly attributed to Lord Byron; Melmoth, a work of genius, by Maturin; Jean Sbogar, the well-known romance by Charles Nodier. >>

20. Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate. Our modest author has translated only the first part of the famous verse. >>

21. A periodical that used to be conducted by the late A. Izmaylov rather negligently. He once apologized in print to the public, saying that during the holidays he had “caroused.” >>

22. E. A. Baratïnski. >>

23. Reviewers wondered how one could call a simple peasant girl “maiden” when, a little further, genteel misses are called “young things.” >>

24. “This signifies,” remarks one of our critics, “that the urchins are skating.” Right. >>

25. In my rosy years

   the poetical Ay

   pleased me with its noisy foam,

 ⁴ with this simile of love,

   or of frantic youth.

(“Epistle to L. P.”) >>

26. August Lafontaine, author of numerous family novels. >>

27. See “First Snow,” a poem by Prince Vyazemski. >>

28. See the descriptions of the Finnish winter in Baratïnski's “Eda.” >>

29. Tomcat calls Kit

   to sleep in the stove nook.

The presage of a wedding; the first song foretells death. >>

30. In this manner one finds out the name of one's future fiancé. >>

31. Reviewers condemned the words hlop [clap], molv' [parle], and top [stamp] as indifferent neologisms. These words are fundamentally Russian. “Bova stepped out of the tent for some fresh air and heard in the open country the parle of man and the stamp of steed” (“The Tale of Bova the Prince”). Hlop and ship are used in plain-folk speech instead of hlópanie [clapping] and shipénie [hissing]:

“he let out a hiss of the snaky sort”

(Ancient Russian Poems).

One should not interfere with the freedom of our rich and beautiful language. >>

32. One of our critics, it would seem, finds in these lines an indecency incomprehensible to us. >>

33. Divinatory books in our country come out under the imprint of Martin Zadeck — a worthy person who never wrote divinatory books, as B. M. Fyodorov observes. >>

34. A parody of Lomonosov's well-known lines:

   Aurora with a crimson hand

   from morning stilly waters

   leads forth with the sun after her, etc. >>

35. . . . . . . . . . . .Buyanov, my neighbor,

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

   called yesterday on me: mustache unshaven,

 ⁴ tousled, fluff-covered, wearing a peaked cap.

(The Dangerous Neighbor) >>

36. Our critics, faithful admirers of the fair sex, strongly blamed the indecorum of this verse. >>

37. Parisian restaurateur. >>

38. Griboedov's line. >>

39. A famous arms fabricator. >>

40. In the first edition Chapter Six ended in the following:

   And you, young inspiration,

   stir my imagination,

   the slumber of the heart enliven,

 ⁸ into my nook more often fly,

   let not a poet's soul grow cold,

   callous, crust-dry,

   and finally be turned to stone

¹² in the World's deadening intoxication,

   amidst the soulless proudlings,

   amidst the brilliant fools,

XLVII

   amidst the crafty, the fainthearted,

   crazy, spoiled children,

   villains both ludicrous and dull,

 ⁴ obtuse, caviling judges;

   amidst devout coquettes;

   amidst the voluntary lackeys;

   amidst the daily modish scenes,

 ⁸ courtly, affectionate betrayals;

   amidst hardhearted vanity's

   cold verdicts;

   amidst the vexing emptiness

¹² of schemes, of thoughts and conversations;

   in that slough where with you

   I bathe, dear friends! >>

41. Lyovshin, author of numerous works on rural econ omy. >>

42. Our roads are for the eyes a garden:

   trees, ditches, and a turfy bank;

   much toil, much glory,

 ⁴ but, sad to say, no passage now and then.

   The trees that stand like sentries

   bring little profit to the travelers;

   the road, you'll say, is fine,

 ⁸ but you'll recall the verse: “for passers-by!”

   Driving in Russia is unhampered

   on two occasions only:

   when our McAdam — or McEve — winter —

¹² accomplishes, crackling with wrath,