Владимир Набоков - Комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» Александра Пушкина

• Название: Комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» Александра Пушкина
• Автор: Владимир Набоков
• Издательство: «Интелвак»
• Жанр: Критика
• Год: 1999
• ISBN: 5-93264-001-4

Комментарии В. В. Набокова освещают многообразие исторических, литературных и бытовых сторон романа. Книга является оригинальным произведением писателя в жанре научно-исторического комментария. Набоков обращается к «потаенным слоям» романа, прослеживает литературные влияния, связи «Евгения Онегина» с другими произведениями поэта, увлекательно повествует о тайнописи Пушкина.

Предназначена для широкого круга читателей и в первую очередь — для преподавателей и студентов гуманитарных вузов, а также для учителей и учащихся средней школы.

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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 hand
12 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 raise
12 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 arm
12 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 Aurora
12 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 Zadeck
12 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 portends
12 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