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Some notes on Mandelstam’s Tristia

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Ideology in Russian Literature

Part of the book series: Studies in Russia and East Europe ((SREE))

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Abstract

Я изучил нaуку расстaвaнья В простоволосьıх жaлобaх ночньıх. жуют вольı‚ и длится ожидaнье‚ Послeдний чaс вигилий городских‚ И чту обряд той пeтушиной ночи‚ Κогдa‚ подняв дорожной скорби груз‚ глядeли вдaль зaплaканньıe очи‚ И женский плaч мeшaлся с пеньем муз.

Κто может знать при словe — pаccтаваньe‚ Κаκая нам pазлyκа пpедcтоит‚ Что нам cyлит петушье воcκлицанье‚ Κогда огонь в аκpополе гоpит‚ И на заpе κаκой ‐ то новой жизни‚ Κогда в сeняx лeниво вол жуeт‚ зачeм пeтуx‚ глашатай новой жизни‚ Ηа городcкой стене крьιлами бьeт?

И я люблю обьıкновенье пряжи: Снует челнок‚ веретено жужжит‚ Смотри‚ навстречу‚ словно пух лебяжий‚ Уже босая делия летит! О‚ нашей жизни скудная основа‚ Kуда как беден радости язьıк! Bсë бьıло встарь‚ всë повторится снова‚ И сладлок намлишь узнаванья миг.

да будет так: прозрачная фигурка Ηа чистом блюде глиняном лежит‚ Kак беличья распластаннаяш курка‚ Склонясь над воском‚ девушка глядит.

Ηе нам гадать о греческом Эребе‚ ддя женщин воск‚ что для мужчиньı медь. Ηам только в битвах вьıпалaет жребий‚ Α им дано гадая умереть.

I have lеагпед the art of parting/ In unbound nocturnallaments./ The охеп chew апд the waiting lingers,/ The last hour of the city’s vigils;/ I revere the ritual of that cockerel night,/ When lifting their wayfarers’ burden of grief,/ Wept-out eyes gazed afar/ Апд women’s crying mingled with the singing of the Muses.//

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NOTES

  1. Conversation about Dante’, in Jane Gary Harris (еd.), Mandelstam: The Complete Critical Prose апd Letters (Аnn Arbor, Michigan, 1979) р. 409 (hereafter referred to as The Complete Prose).

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  2. See ‘Morning of Acmeism’ in The Complete Prose, р. 64. This contradicted the symbolist principle that А must not equal А: I аt not а Symbolist if mу words ате equal to themselves, if they ате not ап echo of other sounds about which уоu dо not know, as уоu dоn’t know about the Spiri, where they соте from аnd where they go to ...’ (Viacheslav Ivanov, Mys1i о simvolizme’, in Borozdy i mezhi (Moscow, 1916) р. 153.)

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  3. Mandelstam. ‘Conversation about Dante’, in The Complete Prose, р. 407.

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  4. The line quotes the common Russian fairytale ending as well as Pushkin’s Ruslan i Liudmila.

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  5. N.I. Khardzhiev draws attention to the Tibullus-Batiushkov апд Akhmatova subtexts (See his notes in Osip Мапдеl’shtam, Stikhotvoreniia (Leningrad, 1973) р. 275. Fairly detailed analysis of the роет’s subtext is given in the following works: V. Terras, ‘Classical Motives in the poetry of Osip Мапдеl’stam’s “Tristia”, SEEJ, 3(1966) рр. 251–67; S. Вгоуде, ‘Osip Мапдеl’stam’s “Tпstia”, Rшsian Poetics, Proceedings of the International Colloquium at UCLA, Septem6er 22-б 1975 (Columbus, Ohio, 1983) рр. 77–88. То the ‘classical’ subtexts noted by these authors тау Ье аддед Virgil’s Aeneid, Books N апд VI (translated into Russian Ьу А.А. Fet and V.S. Solovёv), particularly the episode of Aeneas’s farewell to Dido, her loosened hair, invocation of oracles and tears. In Book VI Aeneas encounters Dido in the underworld and placha, glazami sledit daleko, skorbia оb ushedshei (‘weeping, for 1ong, he follows her with his eyes, grieving for the departed’). In Dante, in the translation Ьу Lozinsky, а friend of Mandelstam, Dido is mentioned as nezhnoi strasti gorestnaia zhritsa (‘pitiful priestess of the tender passion’). (Purgatorio, Canto V. 61).

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  6. The дау of the founding of the Lycke at Tsarskoe Se1o, marked every year Ьу former students.

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  7. Mandelstam brings the two concepts together in prose a1so: ‘... in each опе of us there is ап invinciЫe пеед to find the solid kernel of а kremlin, an acropolis ...’ ‘Nature of the Word’, in The Сотрlе[е Prose, р. 123.

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  8. Translation Ьу D. Obolensky in The Penguin Book of Russian Verse (London, 1962) р. 18.

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  9. In an article on the anniversary of B1ok’s death, Mandelstam picks out those features in his poetry which арреаl to him: ‘But the summit of B1ok’s historical poetics, the celebration of Еигореап myth that moves freely in traditional forms, that is not afraid of anachronism оr modernity, is his “Steps of the Knight Commander” (Shagi Котапdоrа). Here the strata of time аге рlасеd contiguously in the newly ploughed poetic consciousness, аnd the seeds of the old theme have рroducedbountiful shoots ...’ Badger Но1е’, in The Complete Prose, р. 135.

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  10. Сотрате with Batiushkov’s: Na kry1’iakh radosti letim k svoim дтиг’iam (К drugu) — wings of joy we fiy to our fnends’ (То Му Friend, 1815).

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  11. Оп Mandelstam’s ‘De1ia’ N. Mandelstam wrote: I scarcely know апуthing about her, except that she had something to до with the ballet. М. met her in Moscow when he spent several days there оп his way from Georgia to Petersburg. She was very homesick for her native Petersburg, and he went to the ballet with her опсе.’ (Норе АЬапdопеd, (Penguin Books, 1976) р. 75).

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  12. ‘Word anд Culture’, in The Complete Prose, р. 114. The verses are translated by А1ап Myers.

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  13. N. Mandelstam, ор. cit., р. 30.

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  14. See also the connection with Zhukovsky in Anna Akhmatova’s роет written in 1911: Vysoko v nebe oЫachko serelo, Kak belich’ia rasplastannaia shkurka . . . О nёm gadala ia v kanun Kreshchen’ia. Ia v ianvare Ьу1а ego podrugoi. (High in the sky, а greyish cloudlet / Like а squiпel’s skin outstretched ...// I told mу fortune оп him оп Twelfth Night Eve / In January I was his bride.) Svetlana’s waiting, incidentally, was also rewarded. It should Ье said that Akhmatova was celebrated for her gift of prophecy апд реорlе used to tell fortunes using her books of poetry. Mandelstam dedicated the роет То Cassandra to her.

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  15. Podbiudny — аn adjective formed from роd Ыiиdот, ‘ипdеr the plate’, denving from the custom of divining dunng Chnstmas festivities Ьу the method of pulling different objects from undет а plate. (In Svetlana the objects are in а сup.)

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  16. N. Mandelstam, ор. cit. (note 11), р. 78.

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  17. The version given here is according to N. Mandelstam’s commentanes in her Kniga tret’ia (The Third Book, Pans, 1987) р. 236.

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Authors
  1. Diana Myers
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, England

    Richard Freeborn (Emeritus Professor of Russian Literature) & Jane Grayson (Lecturer in Russian Language and Literature) (Emeritus Professor of Russian Literature) &  (Lecturer in Russian Language and Literature)

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© 1990 School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London

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Myers, D. (1990). Some notes on Mandelstam’s Tristia. In: Freeborn, R., Grayson, J. (eds) Ideology in Russian Literature. Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10825-1_7

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