A Commentary to Pushkin’s Lyric Poetry, 1826–1836

1834

 1834 „Я возмужа́л среди́ печа́льных бурь“ – “I matured among sad storms” An unfinished piece of what was probably intended to be a poem of many stanzas. The verses are written in iambic pentameter, with caesura after the second foot (a somewhat old-fashioned touch in Pushkin’s poetry of the s). Apparently the poem was to take the form of quatrains with ring rhyme.  дней мои́х пото́к – the stream of my days. The entire stanza develops this not terribly original metaphor. Merlin () suggests a specific source in Lamartine ’s “Le vallon” (“The Vale”), a lengthy meditation in quatrains. La source de mes jours comme eux c’est écoulée; Elle a passé sans bruit, sans nom et sans retour: Mais leur onde est limpide, et mon âme troubleé N’aura pas réfléchi les clartés d’un beau jour. (The stream of my days has flowed away like them [i.e., the two hidden brooks of the previous stanza] / It has passed without noise, without name, and without return: / But their wave is clear, and my troubled soul / Will not reflect the splendors of a beautiful day.)  лазу́рь – azure, the color of the sky  „Пора́, мой друг, пора́! Поко́я сердце просит“ – “It’s time, my friend, it’s time! heart asks for peace” One of Pushkin’s most famous poems, first published after his death, and often admired for its brevity. However, on the manuscript page there is a prose “plan” for the poem’s continuation. Юность не имеет нужды в at home, зрелый возраст ужасается своего уе- динения. Блажен кто находит подругу – тогда удались он домой. О скоро ли перенесу я мои пенаты в деревню – поля, сад, крестьяне, книги; труды поэтические – семья, любовь, etc. – религия, смерть. In short, this frequently anthologized “poem” was intended as the beginning of a long work. The fact that only eight lines were completed gives them a stark and mysterious quality. The presence of the English phrase “at home” (which, judging from the context , Pushkin understood in some non-existent idiomatic sense) has led scholars to search for an English source. However, no convincing model has been adduced. Pushkin’s plan is hardly distinctive; the idea of retreating with one’s beloved from   the city to the countryside can be found frequently in Western literature, going back at least as far as Horace. Its potential literary pedigree aside, Pushkin’s plan seems a fairly clear reflection of his own ideals of the s. The poem is in alexandrines (iambic hexameter couplets with caesura in the middle), a form that had a certain elevated and antiquated quality in the Russian poetry of Pushkin’s day. The poem’s lexicon mixes philosophical abstract nouns (счастье, покой, воля) with startling colloquialisms that one would not expect in a meditative poem of this type.  поко́я – peace. The word is in genitive case after the verb “просит.”  Части́чку бытия́ – a little particle of existence  и глядь – как раз – умрём – and before you know it we’ll up and die. The line is striking in its colloquial lexicon.  воля – freedom  мечта́ется мне доля – I dream of an lot  В оби́тель дальную трудо́в и чистых нег – Into a distant abode of works and pure comforts. In modern Russian, the correct form would be “дальнюю.”  „Он между нами жил“ – “He lived among us” In July  Pushkin’s friend S. A. Sobolevskii returned from Western Europe, bringing Pushkin a four-volume collection of Mickiewicz’s poetry: Poezye Adama Mickiewicza, Paris, – (the first two volumes are dated , the third , and the final one ). Pushkin never cut the pages of the first three volumes, but the pages are all cut in the final volume, which also bears a dedication to Pushkin from Sobolevskii (cited in Modzalevskii , ). That final volume (pp. –) closes with the poem “Do przyjaciół moskali” (“To My Russian Friends”). In that brief poem, Mickiewicz begins by recalling the Decembrists Ryleev and Bestuzhev, but then speaks of someone who “betrays his free soul to the tsar for hire” and “lauds the tyrant,” lines that were transparently aimed at Pushkin and his jingoistic (yet sincere) poems on the taking of Warsaw in . Pushkin’s poem is in many ways a response to his erstwhile friend. The poem – clearly unfinished – is written in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter).  Средь племени ему чужо́го – Among a tribe foreign to him. Pushkin here raises the complicated subject of the relationship of Poland and Russia. In a draft, it is put more forcefully: Ему враждебным племенем – a tribe hostile to him.  с высока́ – from a lofty perspective; from on high  распри – quarrels. It has been claimed (Levkovich , –) that the utopian vision described in these lines reflects the content of a poetic improvisation performed by Mickiewicz in Pushkin’s own apartment.  Ушёл на запад – went to the West  ядом – with poison. Cf. Mickiewicz’s poem: “Teraz na świat wylewam ten kielich trucizny” (“Now I am pouring over the world this goblet of poison”).    знако́мый голос – familiar voice. Cf. Mickiewicz’s poem: “Poznacie mię po g...