Читаем Комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» Александра Пушкина полностью

Комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» Александра Пушкина

I

That year autumnal weather was a long time abroad; nature kept waiting and waiting for winter. ⁴ Snow only fell in January, on the night of the second. Waking early, Tatiana from the window saw at morn the whitened yard, ⁸ flower beds, roofs, and fence; delicate patterns on the panes; the trees in winter silver, gay magpies outside,¹² and the hills softly overspread with winter's brilliant carpeting. All's bright, all's white around.

II

Winter! The peasant, celebrating, in a flat sledge inaugurates the track; his naggy, having sensed the snow, ⁴ shambles at something like a trot. Plowing up fluffy furrows, a bold kibitka flies: the driver sits upon his box ⁸ in sheepskin coat, red-sashed. Here runs about a household lad, upon a hand sled having seated “blackie,” having transformed himself into the steed;¹² the scamp already has frozen a finger. He finds it both painful and funny — while his mother, from the window, threatens him...

III

But, maybe, pictures of this kind will not attract you; all this is lowly nature; ⁴ there is not much refinement here. Warmed by the god of inspiration, another poet in luxurious language for us has painted the first snow ⁸ and all the shades of winter's delectations.²⁷ He'll captivate you, I am sure of it, when he depicts in flaming verses secret promenades in sleigh;¹² but I have no intention of contending either with him at present or with you, singer of the young Finnish Maid!²⁸

IV

Tatiana (being Russian at heart, herself not knowing why) loved, in all its cold beauty, ⁴ a Russian winter: rime in the sun upon a frosty day, and sleighs, and, at late dawn, the radiance of the rosy snows, ⁸ and gloam of Twelfthtide eves. Those evenings in the ancient fashion were celebrated in their house: the servant girls from the whole stead¹² told their young ladies' fortunes and every year made prophecies to them of military husbands and the march.

V

Tatiana credited the lore of plain-folk ancientry, dreams, cartomancy, ⁴ prognostications by the moon. Portents disturbed her: mysteriously all objects foretold her something, ⁸ presentiments constrained her breast. The mannered tomcat sitting on the stove, purring, would wash his muzzlet with his paw: to her 'twas an indubitable sign¹² that guests were coming. Seeing all at once the young two-horned moon's visage in the sky on her left,

VI

she trembled and grew pale. Or when a falling star along the dark sky flew ⁴ and dissipated, then in agitation Tanya hastened to whisper, while the star still rolled, her heart's desire to it. ⁸ When anywhere she happened a black monk to encounter, or a swift hare amid the fields would run across her path,¹² so scared she knew not what to undertake, full of grievous forebodings, already she expected some mishap.

VII

Yet — in her very terror she found a secret charm: thus has created us ⁴ nature, inclined to contradictions. Yuletide is here. Now that is joy! Volatile youth divines — who nought has to regret, ⁸ in front of whom the faraway of life extends luminous, boundless; old age divines, through spectacles, at its sepulchral slab,¹² all having irrecoverably lost; nor does it matter: hope to them lies with its childish lisp.

VIII

Tatiana with a curious gaze looks at the submerged wax: with its wondrously cast design, ⁴ to her a wondrous something it proclaims. From a dish full of water rings come out in succession; and when her ring turned up, ⁸ 'twas to a ditty of the ancient days: “There all the countrymen are rich; they heap up silver by the spadeful! To those we sing to will come Good¹² and Glory!” But portends bereavements the pitiful tune of this dit: to maidens' hearts sweeter is “Kit.”²⁹

IX

The night is frosty; the whole sky is clear; the splendid choir of heavenly luminaries so gently, so unisonally flows.... ⁴ Tatiana, in her low-cut frock, into the wide courtyard comes out; she trains a mirror on the moon; but in the dark glass only ⁸ the sad moon trembles.... Hark!... the snow creaks... a passer-by; the maiden flits up to him on tiptoe — and her little voice sounds¹² more tender than a reed pipe's strain: “What is your name?”³⁰ He looks, and answers: “Agafón.”

X

On the nurse's advice, Tatiana, planning that night to conjure, has ordered in the bathhouse secretly ⁴ a table to be laid for two. But suddenly Tatiana is afraid.... And I — at the thought of Svetlana — I am afraid; so let it be... ⁸ we're not to conjure with Tatiana. Tatiana has removed her silken sash, undressed, and gone to bed. Lel hovers over her,¹² while under her pillow of down there lies a maiden's looking glass. Now all is hushed. Tatiana sleeps.

XI

And dreams a wondrous dream Tatiana. She dreams that she over a snowy lawn is walking, ⁴ surrounded by sad gloom. In front of her, between the snowdrifts, dins, swirls its wave a churning, dark, and hoary torrent, ⁸ by the winter not chained; two thin poles, glued together by a piece of ice (a shaky, perilous small bridge), are laid across the torrent; and before¹² the dinning deep, full of perplexity, she stopped.

XII

As at a vexing separation, Tatiana murmurs at the brook; sees nobody who from the other side ⁴ might offer her a hand. But suddenly a snowdrift stirred, and who appeared from under it? A large bear with a ruffled coat; ⁸ Tatiana uttered “Ach!” and he went roaring and a paw with sharp claws stretched out to her. Nerving herself, she leaned on it with trembling hand¹² and worked her way with apprehensive steps across the brook; walked on — and what then? The bear followed her.

XIII

She, to look back not daring, accelerates her hasty step; but from the shaggy footman ⁴ can in no way escape; grunting, the odious bear keeps lumbering on. Before them is a wood; the pines are stirless in their frowning beauty; ⁸ all their boughs are weighed down by snow flocks; through the summits of aspens, birches, lindens bare the beam of the night luminaries shines;¹² there is no path; shrubs, precipices, all are drifted over by the blizzard, plunged deep in snow.

XIV

Into the forest goes Tatiana; the bear follows; up to her knee comes yielding snow; now by the neck a long branch suddenly ⁴ catches her, or by force it tears out of her ears their golden pendants; now in the crumbly snow sticks fast a small wet shoe come off her charming foot; ⁸ now she lets fall her handkerchief — she has no time to pick it up, is frightened, hears the bear behind her, and even is too shy to raise¹² with tremulous hand the hem of her dress; she runs; he keeps behind her; and then she has no force to run.

XV

Into the snow she's fallen; the bear deftly snatches her up and carries her; she is insensibly submissive; ⁴ stirs not, breathes not; he rushes her along a forest road; sudden, 'mongst trees, there is a humble hut; dense wildwood all around; from every side ⁸ 'tis drifted over with desolate snow, and brightly glows a window; and in the hut are cries and noise; the bear quoth: “Here's my gossip,¹² do warm yourself a little in his home!” and straight he goes into the hallway and on the threshold lays her down.

XVI

Tatiana comes to, looks: no bear; she's in a hallway; behind the door there's shouting and the jingle ⁴ of glasses as at some big funeral. Perceiving not a drop of sense in this, she furtively looks through the chink — and what then? She sees... at a table ⁸ monsters are seated in a circle: one horned and dog-faced; another with a rooster's head; here is a witch with a goat's beard;¹² here, prim and proud, a skeleton; yonder, a dwarf with a small tail; and there, something half crane, half cat.

XVII

More frightful still, and still more wondrous: there is a crab astride a spider; there on a goose's neck ⁴ twirls a red-calpacked skull; there a windmill the squat-jig dances and rasps and waves its vanes. Barks, laughter, singing, whistling, claps, ⁸ the parle of man, the stamp of steed!³¹ But what were the thoughts of Tatiana when 'mongst the guests she recognized him who was dear to her and awesome —¹² the hero of our novel! Onegin at the table sits and through the door stealthily gazes.

XVIII

He gives the signal — and all bustle; he drinks — all drink and all cry out; he laughs — all burst out laughing; ⁴ knits his brows — all are silent; he is the master there, 'tis plain; and Tanya is already not so awestruck, and being curious now she opens ⁸ the door a little.... Sudden the wind blows, putting out the light of the nocturnal flambeaux; the gang of goblins flinches;¹² Onegin, his eyes flashing, making a clatter rises from the table; all rise; he marches to the door.

XIX

And fear assails her; hastily Tatiana strains to flee: not possible; impatiently ⁴ tossing about, she wants to scream — cannot; Eugene has pushed the door, and to the gaze of the infernal specters the girl appears; ferocious laughter ⁸ wildly resounds; the eyes of all, hooves, curved proboscises, tufted tails, tusks, mustaches, bloody tongues,¹² horns, and fingers of bone — all point as one at her, and everybody cries: “Mine! Mine!”

XX

“Mine!” Eugene fiercely said, and in a trice the whole gang vanished; the youthful maid remained with him ⁴ twain in the frosty dark; Onegin gently draws Tatiana³² into a corner and deposits her upon a shaky bench ⁸ and lets his head sink on her shoulder; all of a sudden Olga enters, followed by Lenski; light gleams forth; Onegin brings back his raised arm¹² and wildly his eyes roam, and he berates the unbidden guests; Tatiana lies barely alive.

XXI

The argument grows louder, louder: Eugene suddenly snatches a long knife, and Lenski forthwith is felled; the shadows awesomely ⁴ have thickened; an excruciating cry resounds... the cabin lurches... and Tanya wakes in terror.... She looks — 'tis light already in the room; ⁸ dawn's crimson ray plays in the window through the frozen pane; the door opens. Olga flits in to her rosier than Northern Aurora¹² and lighter than a swallow. “Well,” she says, “do tell me, whom did you see in dream?”

XXII

But she, not noticing her sister, lies with a book in bed, page after page ⁴ keeps turning over, and says nothing. Although that book displayed neither the sweet inventions of a poet, nor sapient truths, nor pictures, ⁸ yet neither Virgil, nor Racine, nor Scott, nor Byron, nor Seneca, nor even the Magazine of Ladies' Fashions ever engrossed anybody so much:¹² it was, friends, Martin Zadeck,³³ head of Chaldean sages, divinistre, interpreter of dreams.

XXIII

This profound work a roving trader had one day peddled into their solitude, ⁴ and for Tatiana finally with a broken set of Malvina had ceded for three rubles fifty, moreover taking for them a collection ⁸ of vulgar fables, a grammar, two “Petriads,” plus Marmontel, tome three. Later with Tanya Martin Zadeck¹² became a favorite. He gives her joyance in all her sorrows and beside her, never absenting himself, sleeps.

XXIV

The dream disturbs her. Not knowing what to make of it, the import of the dread chimera ⁴ Tatiana wishes to discover. Tatiana finds in the brief index, in alphabetic order, the words: bear, blizzard, bridge, ⁸ dark, fir, fir forest, hedgehog, raven, storm, and so forth. Martin Zadeck will not resolve her doubts, but the ominous dream portends¹² to her a lot of sad adventures. For several days thereafter she kept worrying about it.

XXV

But lo, with crimson hand³⁴ Aurora from the morning dales leads forth, with the sun, after her ⁴ the merry name-day festival. Since morn Dame Larin's house is full of guests; in entire families the neighbors have converged, in sledded coaches, ⁸ kibitkas, britskas, sleighs. There's in the vestibule jostling, commotion; there's in the drawing room the meeting of new people, the bark of pugs, girls' smacking kisses,¹² noise, laughter, a crush at the threshold, the bows, the scraping of the guests, wet nurses' shouts, and children's cry.

XXVI

With his well-nourished spouse there came fat Pustyakóv; Gvozdín, an admirable landlord, ⁴ owner of destitute muzhiks; a gray-haired couple, the Skotínins, with children of all ages, counting from thirty years to two; ⁸ the district fopling, Petushkóv; Buyánov, my first cousin, covered with fluff, in a peaked cap³⁵ (as he, of course, is known to you);¹² and the retired counselor Flyánov, a heavy scandalmonger, an old rogue, glutton, bribetaker, and buffoon.

XXVII

With the family of Panfíl Harlikóv there also came Monsieur Triquét, a wit, late from Tambóv, ⁴ bespectacled and russet-wigged. As a true Frenchman, in his pocket Triquet has brought a stanza for Tatiana fitting an air to children known: ⁸ “Réveillez-vous, belle endormie.” Among an almanac's decrepit songs this stanza had been printed; Triquet — resourceful poet —¹² out of the dust brought it to light and boldly in the place of “belle Niná” put “belle Tatianá.”

XXVIII

And now from the near borough, the idol of ripe misses, the joy of district mothers, ⁴ a Company Commander has arrived; he enters.... Ah, news — and what news! there will be regimental music: “the Colonel's sending it himself.” ⁸ What fun! There is to be a ball! The young things skip beforehand.³⁶ But dinner's served. In pairs, they go to table, arm in arm.¹² The misses cluster near Tatiana, the men are opposite; and the crowd buzzes as all, crossing themselves, sit down to table.

XXIX

Talks for a moment have subsided; mouths chew. On all sides plates and covers clatter, and the jingle ⁴ of rummers sounds. But soon the guests raise by degrees a general hullabaloo. None listens; they shout, laugh, ⁸ dispute, and squeal. All of a sudden — the door leaves are flung open: Lenski comes in, and with him [comes] Onegin. “Oh, my Maker!” cries out the lady of the house. “At last!”¹² The guests make room, each moves aside covers, chairs quick; they call, they seat the pair of friends

XXX

— seat them directly facing Tanya, and paler than the morning moon, and more tremulous than the hunted doe, ⁴ her darkening eyes she does not raise. In her stormily pulses a passionate glow; she suffocates, feels faint; the two friends' greetings ⁸ she hears not; the tears from her eyes are on the point of trickling; the poor thing is on the point of swooning; but will and reason's power¹² prevailed. A word or two she uttered through her teeth in a low voice and managed to remain at table.

XXXI

Tragiconervous scenes, the fainting fits of maidens, tears, long since Eugene could not abide: ⁴ enough of them he had endured. Finding himself at a huge feast, the odd chap was already cross. But noting the languid maid's tremulous impulse, ⁸ out of vexation lowering his gaze, he went into a huff and, fuming, swore he would madden Lenski, and thoroughly, in fact, avenge himself.¹² Now, in advance exulting, he inwardly began to sketch caricatures of all the guests.

XXXII

Of course, not only Eugene might have seen Tanya's confusion; but the target of looks and comments at the time ⁴ was a rich pie (unfortunately, oversalted); and here, in bottle sealed with pitch, between the meat course and the blancmangér, ⁸ Tsimlyanski wine is brought already, followed by an array of narrow, long wineglasses, similar to your waist, Zizí, crystal of my soul, object¹² of my innocent verse, love's luring vial, you, of whom drunken I used to be!

XXXIII

Ridding itself of its damp cork, the bottle pops; the wine fizzes; and now with solemn mien, ⁴ long tortured by his stanza, Triquet stands up; before him the assembly maintains deep silence. Tatiana's scarce alive; Triquet, ⁸ addressing her, a slip of paper in his hand, proceeds to sing, off key. Claps, acclamations, salute him. She must drop the bard a curtsy;¹² whereat the poet, modest although great, is first to drink her health and hands to her the stanza.

XXXIV

Now greetings come, congratulations; Tatiana thanks them all. Then, when the turn of Eugene ⁴ arrived, the maiden's languid air, her discomposure, lassitude, engendered pity in his soul: he bowed to her in silence, ⁸ but somehow the look of his eyes was wondrous tender. Whether because he verily was touched or he, coquetting, jested,¹² whether unwillfully or by free will, but tenderness this look expressed: it revived Tanya's heart.

XXXV

The chairs, as they are pushed back, clatter; the crowd presses into the drawing room: thus bees out of the luscious hive ⁴ fly meadward in a noisy swarm. Pleased with the festive dinner, neighbor in front of neighbor wheezes; the ladies by the hearth have settled; ⁸ the maidens whisper in a corner; the green-baized tables are unfolded: to mettlesome cardplayers call boston and omber of the old,¹² and whist, up to the present famous: monotonous family, all sons of avid boredom.

XXXVI

Eight rubbers have already played whist's heroes; eight times they have changed their seats — ⁴ and tea is brought. I like defining the hour by dinner, tea, and supper. In the country we know the time without great fuss: ⁸ the stomach is our accurate Bréguet; and, apropos, I'll parenthetically note that in my strophes I discourse as frequently on feasts, on various¹² dishes and corks, as you, divine Homer, you, idol of thirty centuries!

XXXIX

But tea is brought: scarce have the damsels demurely of their saucers taken hold when from behind the door of the long hall ⁴ bassoon and flute sound suddenly. Elated by the thunder of the music, leaving his cup of tea with rum, the Paris of the surrounding townlets, Petushkóv, ⁸ goes up to Olga; Lenski, to Tatiana; Miss Harlikov, a marriageable maid of overripe years, is secured by my Tambovan poet;¹² Buyánov has whirled off Dame Pustyakóv; and all have spilled into the hall, and in full glory shines the ball.

XL

At the beginning of my novel (see the first fascicle) I wanted in Albano's manner ⁴ a Petersburg ball to describe; but, by an empty reverie diverted, I got engrossed in recollecting the little feet of ladies known to me. ⁸ Upon your narrow tracks, O little feet, enough roving astray! With the betrayal of my youth 'tis time I grew more sensible,¹² improved in doings and in diction, and this fifth fascicle cleansed from digressions.

XLI

Monotonous and mad like young life's whirl, the noisy whirl of the waltz revolves, ⁴ pair after pair flicks by. Nearing the minute of revenge, Onegin, chuckling secretly, goes up to Olga, rapidly with her ⁸ spins near the guests, then seats her on a chair, proceeds to talk of this and that; a minute or two having lapsed, he then¹² again with her the waltz continues; all are amazed. Lenski himself does not believe his proper eyes.

XLII

There the mazurka sounds. Time was, when the mazurka's thunder dinned, in a huge ballroom everything vibrated, ⁴ the parquetry cracked under heel, the window frames shook, rattled; now 'tis not thus: we, too, like ladies, glide o'er the lacquered boards. ⁸ But in [small] towns and country places, the mazurka has still retained its pristine charms: saltos, heel-play, mustachios¹² remain the same; them has not altered highhanded fashion, our tyrant, sickness of the latest Russians.

XLIV

Buyánov, my mettlesome cousin, toward our hero leads Tatiana with Olga; deft ⁴ Onegin goes with Olga. He steers her, gliding nonchalantly, and, bending, whispers tenderly to her some common madrigal, and squeezes ⁸ her hand — and brighter glows on her conceited face the rosy flush. My Lenski has seen it all; flares up, beside himself;¹² in jealous indignation, the poet waits for the end of the mazurka and invites her for the cotillion.

XLV

But no, she cannot. Cannot? But what is it? Why, Olga has given her word already to Onegin. Ah, good God, good God! ⁴ What does he hear? She could... How is it possible? Scarce out of swaddling clothes — and a coquette, a giddy child! Already she is versed in guile, ⁸ has learned already to betray! Lenski has not the strength to bear the blow; cursing the tricks of women, he leaves, calls for a horse,¹² and gallops off. A brace of pistols, two bullets — nothing more — shall in a trice decide his fate.

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