Комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» Александра Пушкина - [301]

   its devastating raid

   and with ice's cast-iron armors roads

   while powder snow betimes

¹⁶ as if with fluffy sand covers the tracks;

   or when the fields are permeated

   with such a torrid drought

   that with eyes closed a fly

²⁰ can ford a puddle.

(The Station, by Prince Vyazemski) >>

43. A simile borrowed from K., so well known for the playfulness of his fancy. K. related that, being one day sent as courier by Prince Potyomkin to the Empress, he drove so fast that his épée, one end of which stuck out of his carriage, rattled against the verstposts as along a palisade. >>

44. Rout [Eng.], an evening assembly without dances; means properly crowd [tolpa]. >>

FRAGMENTS OF ONEGIN'S JOURNEY

The last [Eighth] Chapter of Eugene Onegin was published [1832] separately with the following foreword:

“The dropped stanzas gave rise more than once to reprehension and gibes (no doubt most just and witty). The author candidly confesses that he omitted from his novel a whole chapter in which Onegin's journey across Russia was described. It depended upon him to designate this omitted chapter by means of dots or a numeral; but to avoid ambiguity he decided it would be better to mark as number eight, instead of nine, the last chapter of Eugene Onegin, and to sacrifice one of its closing stanzas [Eight: XLVIIIa]:

   'Tis time: the pen for peace is asking

   nine cantos I have written;

   my boat upon the joyful shore

 ⁴ by the ninth billow is brought out.

   Praise be to you, O nine Camenae, etc.

“P[avel] A[leksandrovich] Katenin (whom a fine poetic talent does not prevent from being also a subtle critic) observed to us that this exclusion, though perhaps advantageous to readers, is, however, detrimental to the plan of the entire work since, through this, the transition from Tatiana the provincial miss to Tatiana the grande dame becomes too unexpected and unexplained: an observation revealing the experienced artist. The author himself felt the justice of this but decided to leave out the chapter for reasons important to him but not to the public. Some fragments [XVI–XIX, l–10] have been published [Jan. 1, 1830, Lit. Gaz.] ; we insert them here, subjoining to them several other stanzas.”

E. [sic] Onegin drives from Moscow to Nizhni Novgorod:

[IX]

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

   . . . . . . . . . . . . before him

   Makariev bustlingly bestirs itself,

 ⁴ with its abundance seethes.

   Here the Hindu brought pearls,

   the European, spurious wines,

   the breeder from the steppes

 ⁸ drove a herd of cast steeds,

   the gamester brought his decks,

   fistful of complaisant dice,

   the landowner ripe daughters,

¹² and daughterlings, the fashions of last year;

   each bustles, lies enough for two,

   and everywhere there's a mercantile spirit.

[X]

   Ennui!...

Onegin fares to Astrahan [XI], and from there to the[Caucasus:

[XII]

   He sees the wayward Térek

   eroding its steep banks;

   before him soars a stately eagle,

 ⁴ a deer stands, with bent horns;

   the camel lies in the cliff's shade;

   in meadows courses the Circassian's steed,

   and round nomadic tents

 ⁸ the sheep of Kalmuks graze.

   Afar [loom] the Caucasian masses.

   The way to them is clear. War penetrated

   beyond their natural divide,

¹² across their perilous barriers.

   The banks of the Arágva and Kurá

   saw Russian tents.

[XIII]

   Now, the eternal watchman of the waste,

   Beshtú, compressed around by hills,

   stands up, sharp-peaked,

 ⁴ and, showing green, Mashúk,

   Mashúk, of healing streams dispenser;

   around its magic brooks

   a pallid swarm of patients presses,

 ⁸ the victims, some of martial honor,

   some of the Piles, and some of Cypris.

   In waves miraculous the sufferer

   plans to make firm the thread of life.

¹² To leave the wicked years' offenses at the bottom

   [plans] the coquette, and the old man

   [plans] to grow young — if only for a moment.

[XIV]

   Onegin, nursing bitter meditations,

   among their sorry tribe,

   with a gaze of regret

 ⁴ looks at the smoking streams and muses,

   bedimmed with rue: Why in the breast

   am I not wounded by a bullet?

   Why am I not a feeble oldster

 ⁸ like that poor farmer-general?

   Why like a councilman from Tula

   am I not lying paralyzed?

   Why in the shoulder do I not

¹² at least feel rheumatism? Ah, Lord,

   I'm young, life is robust in me,

   what have I to expect? Ennui, ennui!...

Onegin then visits the Tauris [Crimea]:

[XV]

   land sacred unto the imagination:

   there with Orestes argued Pylades;

   there Mithridates stabbed himself;

¹² there sang inspired Mickiéwicz

   and in the midst of coastal cliffs

   recalled his Lithuania.

[XVI]

   Beauteous are you, shores of the Tauris,

   when from the ship one sees you by the light

   of morning Cypris, as I saw you

 ⁴ for the first time.

   You showed yourselves to me in nuptial splendor.

   Against a blue and limpid sky

   shone the amassments of your mountains.

 ⁸ The pattern of valleys, trees, villages

   was spread before me.

   And there, among the small huts of the Tatars...

   What ardency awoke in me!

¹²