whitened by the moon. It seems to me that the kak simply moves the action on, as is often the case in folk poetry, the idea being that on a quiet night, something is happening, with no emphasis, no full stop, not even a full sentence. 154. October 22nd. 1849. Such a sense of depression cannot be alleviated, despite the poet's attempts, by a sense of spring being wafted over his soul, for the ubiquitous dead leaf, like the pied piper, mockingly runs before him all the way. 155. Autumn 1849. Aksakov recalls the circumstances of this composition. Noting that it was only after Tyutchev's daughters were grown up and Ernestine had learned some Russian, he quotes an example of their need to write down what Tyutchev sometimes dictated: "...once, one rainy, autumn evening, being driven home by cab, almost soaked to the skin, he said to his daughter who had come to meet him, 'I've made up a few verses'. While they helped him out of his clothes, he dictated the following charming poem". (A:1/84-5) 156. 1849. Addressed to F. Vigel (1786-1856), the author of the well known Zapiski/Notes written as if by Pyotr Chaadaev (1794 [?]-1856). The latter was the strange, neurotic writer of the Lettres philosophiques addressees a une dame/Philosophical Letters Addressed to a Lady which, criticised Russia from a Roman Catholic point of view. In Chaadaev's bitter denunciation of Russia, he accused the country, among other things, of being somewhere between the west and the east, sharing neither the ideas nor the education of either. His work brought upon him society's vitriolic condemnation. He was not the only writer of his age to condemn things Russian, but unlike Gogol, who got away with it because he was seen as a comic writer, his attacks were all too openly serious. In 1847 Chaadaev had lithographed portraits of himself commissioned in Paris and sent to various people. Receiving a dozen to distribute, Tyutchev wrote these verses on one and sent it to Vigel, a stranger to both of them. Vigel wrote a puzzled, grateful letter to Chaadaev who wrote to the writer and music critic V. Odoevsky (Jan. 15th. 1850): "Some stupid prankster has thought to send him my lithographed portrait on his name-day, accompanying it with Russian verses which he attributes to me... It's a matter of urgency to make sure there are absolutely no consequences". The prankster was never uncovered, so Tyutchev and Chaadaev did not fall out. In a letter of the same year to his sister, Tyutchev quipped: "By the way, tell Chaadaev to get some more copies of his lithograph ordered. All the print shops are besieged by crowds, and I can only guess that their having to wait so long might be the cause of some agitation in this mass, and we could do with avoiding that". 157. 1849. There are times when it appears that Tyutchev forgets he is an original poet and reproduces, if not verbatim, then subtly plagiaristically someone else's poem. Here, of course, it is his version of Heine, [34]. 158. November, 1849. On the first manuscript there is in brackets the dedication "to Fuad-Efendi", the latter a Turkish administrator in the Danube region, poet and pamphleteer, Mehmed Fuad-Pasha (1815-1869). While there are no hard facts relating to the reason Tyutchev wrote this, the political events of the time make his motivation fairly clear. This enlightened, liberal doctor of medicine, grammarian, interpreter, diplomat, commander and minister was dispatched as a special envoy to the Tsar in October 1849 as a result of Russia's insistence on the extradition of Hungarian and Polish nationalists and Turkey's refusal to acquiesce. War was imminent. Fuad-Pasha was instrumental in reaching a peaceful settlement. Tyutchev may well have met him, for the Turk had talks with various Russian officials during his visit to the capital. Both men were fluent French-speakers, the Turk a supporter of the Europeanisation of his country and a civilising influence in many ways in his circle, one of his ambitions being the emancipation of women. Had it not been for their mutual paranoia, Russia's on account of what she saw as an aggressive western Europe siding with the infidel against Orthodox Christianity, Turkey's resulting from her equally paranoid perception of Europe as a military and political power expanding at her own expense, the two educated, intelligent diplomats could well have been friends. While as liberal as one in his position could be, Fuad Pasha was a foreign minister who, when sent to the Lebanon to deal with internecine fighting between Maronites and Druzes, employed savage methods to restore order. (See [326] and C:28.) 159. 1849. Addressee unknown. The "southern glance" could refer to one of many women he will have known on his trips to Southern Europe, in addition to being used in symbolic contrast to the "ugly dream" of the "fateful north" of the final stanza. Cimmerian night: the joyless night of Homer's Odyssey. The Cimmerii were a tribe fabled to have lived in perpetual darkness. A different land....: Italy. 160. 1848 or 1849. Korolyova was the first to establish that this poem was influenced by Lamartine's Les confidences/Confidences. (B:22) Larmartine's description of his home was echoed by Tyutchev. The Frenchman wrote: "As for the garden itself, almost all that's left is the name. It could count only as a garden in those primitive days when Homer described the modest holding of Laertes and the seven fields belonging to the old man. Eight squares of vegetables lined by fruit trees at right angles to each other and separated by rows of fodder grass and yellow sand; at the end of these rows, to the north, eight tortuous-trunked old arbours on a bench of wood". Writing to Ernestine (Aug. 31st. 1846), Tyutchev produced an unidealised, though fundamentally fond description of his own home. His obsession with his own ageing comes through: "The room I'm writing to you from is my father's study, the very room he died in. To one side there is his bedroom, where he no longer went. Behind me is the settee, making up the corner where he laid down never to rise again. All around the room are old, well-known portraits from my childhood and which, indeed, have aged less than I. Opposite me is that old relic of a house which we once lived in and of which there remains the body of the dwelling which my father had maintained religiously so that one day, on returning to the country, there would be some trace, some scrap of our former existence for me to find... Indeed, that first moment I arrived, I had a very vivid memory as if it were a revelation of that enchanted world of childhood, destroyed and annihilated for such a long time now. The former garden, 4 large limes, very well known in those parts, a fairly puny alley about a hundred paces long which to me seemed immeasurable, all this magnificent universe of my childhood, so full of life, so varied - all of that is enclosed within an area of several square feet". Lamartine was born in Savoy. 161. Possibly 1849. In such an insignificant poem written in French, the Tyutchevian idea of something significant being poured into the air comes across. 162. Final version NL early 1850. See note [90]. 163. Late 1840s-early 1850s. Lane was the first to deal in detail with the Pascalian character of some of Tyutchev's French poems, (A:18vii/321), mentioning in particular [130, 139, 163, 176]. He begins his treatment of these poems with [130], pointing out that "the first seven lines of the following piece communicate anxiety and terror of the abyss of time". 164. NL early 1850. this rather stilted poem is reminiscent of parts of Uraniya [7]. 165. NL early 1850. The coldness of the moonlight, the desertedness of the scene, the absolute sense of man's being alone and in an unwelcoming environment all come across forcefully in this "western" poem. 166. NL early 1850. The first two stanzas refer to the annual symbolic betrothal of the doges of Venice with the Adriatic sea, a tradition lasting up till the late eighteenth century. Three centuries, perhaps four: the republic of Venice blossomed between the 12th. and 15th. centuries. The shadow of the lion's wing: a reference to the emblem of St. Mark, the protector of Venice. The links of heavy chains: From 1814 up to 1866 Venice was under Austrian rule. 167. NL early 1850. This is untypical of Tyutchev. Nonetheless, it shares with Vous, dont on voit briller, dans les nuits azurees/Unsullied gods of light [176] a sense of warmth, even security. Night, in so many of Tyutchev's spontaneous poems, is a comforting thing. Only in the more formal, so-called "Holy Night" lyrics is night perceived to be a fearsome entity. 168. March 1st. 1850. The tsar considered this poem, unpublished until the Crimean War had broken out, "untimely" and censored it himself. the fourth age: a reference to the 400th. anniversary of the fall of the Byzantine empire (1453-1853). The ancient vaults of Sofia: Aia-Sofia is now a mosque in Istanbul. 169. March 1st.-6th. 1850. The words in italics are taken from an imperial manifesto of March 14th. 1848, on the revolutionary events in Austria and Prussia. 170. May, 1850. Addressed to the Austrophil chancellor, Karl Nesselrode (1780-1862). Nesselrode was of the old Holy Alliance school. 171. July, 1850. This comfortingly warm poem, dealing with the same theme as his translation of Beranger's cynical work [93], shows, perhaps, a Tyutchev pining for security, despite being in Russia with his family, and equally expressing a conservative attitude to the beggar, asking god to help him through life while accepting from the outsider's point of view that his unenviable lot is a holy one. 172. July, 1850. The up-down movement of the river and apparent sky-movement is typical of Tyutchev's poetic refusal to separate phenomena. 173. July, 1850. This is the first poem about his mistress, Elena Deniseva. Elena inspired some of the sharpest, most touching love poetry in nineteenth-century Russian literature. 174. July, 1850. His epigrammatic style comes across yet again. As in [16] and [122], there are times when Tyutchev seems to sit back and simply let God get on with it, provided he, the poet, is not pestered. 175. August, 1850. In this incredible poem, as in [118], nature is an entity in which space and time merge. 176. August 23rd. 1850. A nocturnal walk with Ernestine is the subject. This excellent work is yet another example of the warmth of a Russian night-poem. (See [177].) 177. September 15th. 1850. Concerning death, as did the earlier [80], hidden among luxuriant, colourful images. 178. 1850. St. Petersburg. A polite compliment to his sister-in-law, the poetess, Evdokiya Rostopchina (nee Sushkova, 1811-1858), some of whose popular love lyrics were set to music. She also wrote about the emptiness of upper-class life. Tyutchev is said to have had a low opinion of her work. 179. 1850. One of the favourites of the poet Alexander Blok (1880-1921), with what he referred to as its "Hellenic, pre-Christian sense of Fate", this enigmatic poem seems relatively mediocre, far from possessing any of the pre-Christian, Hellenic freshness Blok and his peers were often looking out for in the poetry of previous years. It is untypical and difficult to date. It could well have been written considerably earlier than the fifties, though there is no hard evidence. Any reference to the Greeks immediately suggests political undertones. The theme of Fate and the indifference of the gods to man is Tyutchevian, but the general layout of the poem most certainly is not. It could well be a translation or adaptation. Indeed, Kozyrev (A:20,vol.1/88) considers Goethe's Symbolum/Symbol to be the undisputed source although, despite his claim, he was not the first to notice the link. (ibid., vol. 2, 47/129) The relevant lines from Goethe (taken from stanza 3) are as follows: ....................Stille Ruhn oben die Sterne Und unten die Graber. *** ....................Peacefully the stars rest above and the graves below. There are other references in Goethe's poem to the basic theme of toiling man and carefree gods. No self-respecting Soviet commentator could have resisted the temptation to deal with this poem. Tvardovskaya (ibid., vol. 1/163) writes as follows about the first stanza: "The lines... seem to have been written about those and for those who, at a time when there was no widespread, national movement, began single-handed their struggle with autocracy". Atheistic existentialism is brought into the picture by Kozyrev. I cannot agree with his finding that there are two creative periods in Tyutchev's work, a point he makes more than once forcefully, any more than I accept his philosophical links with Sartre and Heidegger in his discussion of Two Voices: "The crucial moment between Tyutchev's two creative periods and, from a certain point of view, perhaps, the height of his poetry, is represented by 'Two Voices'. Here you have the break with the 'beneficent' gods of nature, there - a majestic attempt to confirm man's dignity in himself, as in the highest being in the Universe, but in a solitary being thrown into the Universe, where Fate conquers, where everything is subservient to death. The spirit of this poem is akin, in all likelihood, not only - and not so much - to the tragic feel of the ancients, as much as to the ethical concepts of the atheistic existentialism of Sartre or Heidegger". (ibid., vol. 1/92) An echo of like minds (pereklichka golosov/an exchange of voices) is postulated by A. Neusykhin (ibid. vol.2/542-547) in an unfinished report in which a link is seen between this poem and Holderlin's Hyperions Schicksalslied/Hyperion's Song of Fate. The idea that the gods live in eternal serenity and bliss, far from human toil and sorrow is, of course, ancient and in his study of the Classics, the young Tyutchev will have encountered it in Homer. I do, however, feel that Neusykhin was over-cautious in stating that Holderlin's poem exerted no direct influence on Tyutchev. The song is from the novel Hyperion, which deals with the on-going Russo-Turkish conflict and was one of the few works by Holderlin relatively well known in his lifetime. The German text follows: Ihr wandelt droben im Licht Auf weichem Boden, seelige Genien! Glanzende Gotterlufte Ruhren euch leicht, Wie die Finger der Kunstlerin Heilige Saiten. .......... Schiksaallos, wie der schlafende Saugling, atmen die Himmlischen; Keusch bewahrt In bescheidener Knospe, Bluhet ewig Ihnen der Geist, Und die seeligen Augen Bliken in stiller Ewiger Klarheit. .......... Doch uns ist gegeben, Auf keiner Statte zu ruhn, Es schwinden, es fallen Die leidenden Menschen Blindlings von einer Stunde zur andern, Wie Wasser von Klippe Zu Klippe geworfen, Jahr lang ins Ungewisse hinab. *** You wander above in the light on soft ground, blessed spirits! Gleaming, divine breezes touch you gently like the artist's fingers on sacred strings. .......... Without Fate, like the sleeping infant, the heavenly ones breathe. Chastly preserved in the modest bud bloom eternally their minds, and their blessed eyes gaze in calm, eternal clarity. .......... But to us it is given nowhere to rest. Dizzy and falling is suffering mankind blindly from one hour to the next, like water from one ledge to another ledge drops, year after year into uncertainty. Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843) merged Christian and Classical themes in German verse which attempted to naturalise Classical Greek poetry. He saw the gods of Greece as real, living forces in natural manifestations. The novel Hyperion is the story of a disillusioned Greek freedom-fighter. In his poem Die Heimat/Home, Holderlin wrote: "For they who lend us the heavenly fire, the Gods, give us sacred sorrow too. Let it be so. A son of earth I seem; born to love and to suffer". Fundamentally, Tyutchev's poem is probably another example of his eclecticism. All great literature owes much to what has gone before and the truly great writer is capable of using, borrowing as opposed to stealing, in T.S. Elliot's words, other people's work to his own original ends. As with his choice of Schiller's Das Siegesfest/The Victory Celebration [181], a connection with the Eastern Question can never be ruled out. 180. 1850. The two major political problems facing Tyutchev tended to be the relationship between the Slavonic world friendly to Russia and Poland, and the age-old question of the position of Constantinople, occupied by the Turks. 181. Probably 1850-early 1851. TR Schiller: Das Siegesfest/The Victory Celebration (1803) from Poems. Priams Feste war gesunken, Troja lag in Schutt und Staub, Und die Griechen, siegestrunken, Reich beladen mit dem Raub, Sa?en auf den hohen Schiffen Langs des Hellespontos Strand, Auf der frohen Fahrt begriffen Nach dem schonen Griechenland. Stimmet an die frohen Lieder, Denn dem vaterlichen Herd Sind die Schiffe zugekehrt, Und zur Heimat geht es wieder. .......... Und in lagen Reihen, klagend, Sa? der Trojerinnen Schar, Schmerzvoll an die Bruste schlagend, Bleich mit aufgelostem Haar. In das wilde Fest der Freuden Mischten sie den Wehgesang, Weinend um das eigne Leiden In des Reiches Untergang. Lebe wohl geliebter Boden! Von der su?en Heimat fern Folgen wir dem fremden Herrn, Ach wie glucklich sind die Toten! .......... Und den hohen Gottern zundet Kalchas jetzt das Opfer an. Pallas, die die Stadte grundet Und zertrummert, ruft er an, Und Neptun, der um die Lander Seinen Wogengurtel schlingt, Und den Zeus, den Schreckensender, Der die Aegis grausend schwingt. Ausgestritten, ausgerungen Ist der lange schwere Streit, Ausgefullt der Kreis der Zeit, Und die gro?e Stadt bezwungen. .......... Attreus Sohn, der Furst der Scharen, Ubersah der Volker Zahl, Die mit ihm gezogen waren Einst in des Scamanders Tal. Und des Kummers finstre Wolke Zog sich um des Konigs Blick, Von dem hergefuhrten Volke Bracht' er wen'ge nur zuruck. Drum erhebe frohe Lieder Wer die Heimat wieder sieht, Wem noch frisch das Leben bluht, Denn nicht alle kehren wieder! .......... Alle nicht, die wieder kehren, Mogen sich des Heimzugs freun, An den hauslichen Altaren Kann der Mord bereitet sein. Mancher fiel durch Freundes Tucke, Den die blut'ge Schlacht verfehlt, Sprachs Uly? mit Warnungs Blicke, Von Athenens Geist beseelt. Glucklich wem der Gattin Treue Rein und keusch das Haus bewahrt, Denn das Weib ist falscher Art, Und die Arge liebt das Neue! .......... Und des frisch erkampften Weibes Freut sich der Atrid und strickt Um den Reiz des schonen Leibes Seine Arme hoch begluckt. Boses Werk mu? untergehen, Rache folgt der Freveltat, Denn gerecht in Himmels Hohen Waltet des Chroniden Rat! Boses mu? mit Bosem enden, An dem frevelnden Geschlecht Rachet Zeus das Gastesrecht, Wagend mit gerechten Handen. .......... Wohl dem Glucklichen mags ziemen, Ruft Oileus tapfrer Sohn, Die Regierenden zu ruhmen Auf dem hohen Himmelsthron! Ohne Wahl verteilt die Gaben, Ohne Billigkeit das Gluck, Denn Patroklus liegt begraben, Und Thersites kommt zuruck! Weil das Gluck aus seiner Tonnen Die Geschicke blind verstreut, Freue sich und jauchze heut, Wer das Lebenslos gewonnen! .......... Ja der Krieg verschilingt die Besten! Ewig werde dein gedacht, Bruder, bei der Griechen Festen Der ein Turm war in der Schlacht. Da der Griechen Schiffe brannten, War in deinem Arm das Heil, Doch dem Schlauen, Vielgewandten Ward der schone Preis zu Teil! Friede deinen heilgen Resten! Nicht der Feind hat dich entrafft, Ajax fiel durch Ajax Kraft, Ach der Zorn verderbt die Besten! .......... Dem Erzeuger jetzt, dem gro?en; Gie?t Neoptolem des Weins: Unter allen ird'schen Losen Hoher Vater, preis'ich deins. von des Lebens Gutern allen Ist der Ruhm das hochste doch, Wenn der Leib in Staub zerfallen, Lebt der gro?e Name noch. Tapfrer, deines Ruhmes Schimmer Wird unsterblich sein im Lied; Denn das ird'sche Leben flieht, Und die Toten dauern immer. .......... Weil des Liedes Stimmen schweigen Von dem uberwundnen Mann, So will ich fur Hektorn zeugen, Hub der Sohn des Tydeus an; - Der fur seine Hausaltare Kampfend ein Beschirmer fiel - Kront den Sieger gro?e Ehre, Ehret ihn das schonre Ziel! Der fur sein Hausaltare Kampfend sank, ein Schirm und Hort, Auch in Feindes Munde fort Lebt ihm seines Namens Ehre. .......... Nestor jetzt, der alte Zecher, Der drei Menschenalter sah, Reicht den laubumkranzten Becher Der betranten Hekuba; Trink ihn aus den Trank der Labe, Und vergi? den gro?en Schmerz, Wundervoll ist Bacchus Gabe, Balsam furs zerri?ne Herz! Trink ihn aus den Trank der Labe Und vergi? den gro?en Schmerz, Balsam furs zerri?ne Herz, Wundervoll ist Bacchus Gabe. .......... Denn auch Niobe, dem schweren Zorn der Himmlischen ein Ziel, Kostete die Frucht der Ahren, Und bezwang das Schmerzgefuhl. Denn so lang die Lebensquelle Schaumet an der Lippen Rand, Tief versenkt und festgebannt! Denn so lang die Lebensquelle An der Lippen Rande schaumt, Ist der Jammer weggetraumt, Fortgespult in Lethes Welle. .......... Und von ihrem Gott ergriffen Hub sich jetzt die Seherin, Blickte von den hohen Schiffen Nach dem Rauch der Heimat hin. Rauch ist alles ird'sche Wesen, Wie des Dampfes Saule weht, Schwinden alle Erder gro?en, Nur die Gotter bleiben stat. Um das Ro? des Reiters schweben, Um das Schiff die Sorgen her, Morgen konnen wirs nicht mehr, Darum la?t uns heute leben! *** The fortress of Priam fell, Troy was lying in ruins and dust and the Greeks, drunk with victory, richly loaded with their spoils, sat on their high boats, travelling happily along the coast of Hellespont to beautiful Greece. "Let us sing joyful songs for the ships are making for their fatherland, returning to their homeland". .......... And in long rows, lamenting, sat a crowd of Trojan women, beating their breasts with grief, pale, with their hair undone. They mingled their plaintive wailing with the wild celebration full of joy, bemoaning their own suffering caused by the fall of the empire. "Goodbye, our cherished land! We are following the foreign master far away from our sweet homeland, oh, how lucky are those who are dead!" .......... And now Calchas is lighting a sacrifice to the gods above. He addresses Pallas, who founds and destroys cities, and Neptune, who casts his girdle of waves around lands, and Zeus, who induces fear and wields the aegis. "The long, hard war is now fought out and over. The circle of time has been completed and the great city has been conquered". .......... The son of Atreus, warlord of the troops, looked at the numbers of people who once upon a time went with him to the valley of Scamander, and the dark cloud of sorrow gathered upon his brow. He was bringing back only a few of those who had followed him here. "Therefore let those who are going to see their native land again and whose lives are still in bloom, sing a happy song, for not all are going back". .......... "Not all of those who are on their way home may rejoice about their homecoming, because even his own home could be stalked by murder. Many survivors of bloody battles fell through friends' treachery", Ulysses said with a warning look, inspired by Athena. "Happy are those whose homes are pure and chaste, protected by their wives' loyalty, for a woman's nature is treacherous and the bad ones like novelty". .......... And the son of Atreus rejoices about the woman he has only just won in the war and, full of happiness, he puts his arms around her beautiful body's charms. "Evil doings must perish and any outrage is followed by revenge, because the council of Zeus rules with justice in the high heavens". "Evil begets evil and those who offend against the law of hospitality are punished by the just hand of Zeus." .......... "It may be fitting for those who are fortunate", Oileus's courageous son exclaims, "to praise the rulers on the heavenly throne. However, their gifts are shared unequally, and good fortune is not for Patroclus, in his grave while Thersites is returning! Because luck tips destinies blindly from its barrel. Let those who won their lives in the lottery be glad and shout for joy. .......... Yes, war devours the best. You, brother, who were a tower in the battle, will be forever remembered by the Greeks on festive occasions. It was your arm that offered salvation when the ships of the Greeks were burning, and yet the beautiful prize went to him who was cunning and smart. May your sacred ashes rest in peace! You were not snatched away by the enemy. Ajax fell through his own strength Oh, anger destroys the best of men!" .......... Now Neoptolem pours out wine for his great father: "Of all human destinies, exalted father, I consider yours to be best. After all, glory is the greatest thing one can possess and the great name lives on after the body has turned to ash. "Brave man, the brilliance of your glory will be immortal in song, because earthly life flees and the dead last forever." .......... "Since the vanquished are not mentioned in the song, I shall testify on Hector's behalf", the son of Tydeus began, "he who fell protecting his country and home while the victor has gained greatest honour, he is honoured, because he fell for a worthier cause. The honour of the names of the fallen protecting their home will live forever in the memory of their enemies, who will pay tribute to them." .......... Now Nestor, the old reveller, who saw three generations, passes the garlanded cup to the tearful Hecuba: "Drink this refreshing drink and forget the great pain. The gift of Bacchus is wonderful, a balm for the torn heart. Drink up this refreshing drink and forget the great pain. The gift of Bacchus is wonderful, a balm for a torn heart! .......... For Niobe, who was the object of the gods' heavy anger, also tasted the fruit of the vine and overcame the feeling of pain. For as long as the source of life is bubbling at the lips, the pain is submerged deeply in Lethe's waters and held there. For as long as the spring of life is bubbling at the lips, woes are dreamt away, washed away in Lethe's water." .......... And now the prophetess rose, inspired by her god, and looked from the tall ships towards the smoke of her native land: "All that is earthly is smoke; all that is great on earth, vanishes like a column of smoke and only the gods are permanent. The horse of the rider, the ship are surrounded by cares, therefore let us live today, because tomorrow we'll not be able to." 182. NL Spring, 1851. From the point of view of man's thought being a transient insignificance, as expressed in Vesna/Spring [132], this is one of several very un-Pascalian poems. 183. NL first months of 1851. Tyutchev ironically compares a woman's beauty with the brief northern summer, clearly borrowed from Pushkin's lines from Evgeny Onegin (chap. 4, canto XL): No nashe severnoe leto, Karikatura yuzhnykh zim, Mel'knyot it net .... *** But our northern summer, a caricature of southern winters, flashes and is gone already. The poem begins in deadly earnest, the poet exclaiming that as we age, we love "more murderously", more surely "ruining" what is dear to us, yet already in the second stanza, then rapidly as the poem progresses, a lighter, no less regretful tone appears, reminiscent of some of the earlier poems with their "cheeks'...roses", "magical voice" and "youthfully lively laughter". 184. April 12th. 1851. Addressed to Ernestine. Less inspired than the previous poem, in these lines Tyutchev allows himself to float as it were on the memory of childhood as recounted by his wife. (See A:20, vol.2/99-103.) 185. 1851. Addressed to Ernestine. Written during the second year of his love for Elena (she had been pregnant since September 1850), the poem stayed in a herbarium album, undiscovered by his wife until May 1875. On first reading this poem, Aksakov wrote to Tyutchev's daughter, Ekaterina, in 1875: "These verses are remarkable not so much as poetry, as for the fact that they throw some light on the most treasured, intimate ferment his heart sensed for his wife... But what is especially striking and what grips the heart so is the circumstance... that she had not the faintest idea that these Russian verses existed... In 1851... she did not know enough Russian to be able to understand Russian verse nor to decipher the Russian writing of F.(yodor) I. (vanovich)... What must have been her surprise, her joy and her grief on reading this greeting from beyond the grave, such a greeting, such an act of gratitude for her work as a wife, her acts of love!" (See A:33ii/149-150) 186. May, 1851. Trees dream, even hallucinate about spring in an image which recurs throughout the poetry. 187. 1851. Addressed to Elena shortly after the birth of their eldest daughter, Elena (May 20th. 1851-May 2nd. 1865). Your unnamed cherub: could refer either to the fact that the poem was written before the child's christening (the opinion of E. Kazanovich) or that the baby was illegitimate (G. Chulkov), a fact that the poem was writen before the child's christening (the opinion of E. Kazanovich) or that the baby was illegitimate (G. Chulkov), a fact weighing heavily on the mother. 188. June 30th. 1851. Let me in....! A paraphrase of Mark IX, 24. 189. July 14th. 1851. The image of ebb and flow is common in Tyutchev, whether it be the literal forward-retreating movement of the sea ([143]) or the figurative incursion-exiting movement of different levels of reality constructed around a sea-image [92]. 190. July 14th. 1851. En route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. This poem is cleverly constructed to allow a superb image of a Jly, star-filled sky to merge with a sense of threat, hinting back at a poem about a woman's eyes as she is kissed ([123]). 191. August 6th. 1851. In this cynical comparison of love with a brief dream, Tyutchev employs his epigrammatic style to great effect. There is, of course, more to any poem employing any form or interpretation of the nodal son/sleep, dream, as the opening of a letter to his wife (1852) demonstrates: "... I had expected a letter from you today to give myself just a tiny bit of a sense of reality. For it often happens that I perceive my real life as a dream". 192. NL October 27th. 1851. TR Goethe: Mignon from Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (bk.3). First edition 1795, published separately in Ballads and Romances (1800). Mignon Kennst du das Land? wo die Zitronen bluhn, Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen gluhn, Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht, Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht, Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin Mocht' ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter ziehn. .......... Kennst du das Haus? Auf Saulen ruht sein Dach, Es glanzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach, Und Marmorbilder stehn und sehn mich an: Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan? Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin Mocht' ich mit dir, o mein Beschutzer, ziehn. .......... Kennst du den Berg und seinen Wolkensteg? Das Maultier sucht im Nebel seinen Weg, In Hohlen wohnt der Drachen alte Brut, Es sturzt der Fels und uber ihn die Flut. Kennst du ihn wohl? Dahin! Dahin Geht unser Weg! O Vater, la? uns ziehn! *** Do you know that land were the lemons bloom, Gold-orange glows in dark leaves, a gentle wind wafts from a blue sky, The myrtle stands quietly, the laurel stands high! Perhaps you know it? There, there would I go with you, my darling. .......... Do you know that house? Its roof rests on columns, its hall gleams, its chamber shimmers and mosaics look down upon me: poor child, what have they done to you? Perhaps you know it? There, there would I go with you, my protector. .......... Do you know the mountain and its high footbridge? The mule seeks its way in the clouds; in caves a brood of serpents lives, rocks fall and over them pour waters! Perhaps you know it? There, there lies our path! Oh father, let us go! Tyutchev alters Goethe's stanza order for some reason, interchanging 2 and 3. 193. November 1st. 1851. The third stanza was quoted by Turgenev in his story entitled Faust/Faust (1856) as well as by Chernyshevsky in his Povesti v Povesti/Tales within in a Tale, which he wrote in the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1863. 194. 1851. There are many echoes of the earlier Vesenyaya groza/A Spring Storm [38], the chief difference being the yellow (i.e. dying) leaf image. 195. 1851. TR Schiller: Wilhelm Tell/William Tell (1805). The song of the fisherman's son (I,1). The play begins with these lines. Fischerknabe singt im Kahn. Melodie des Kuhreihens. Es lachelt der See, er ladet zum Bade, Der Knabe schlief ein am grunen Gestade, Da hort er ein Klingen, Wie floten so su?, Wie Stimmen der Engel, Im Paradise. .......... Und wie er erwachtet in seliger Lust, Da spulen die Wasser ihm um die Brust, Und es ruft aus den Tiefen: Lieb Knabe, bist mein! Ich locke den Schlafer, Ich zieh ihn herein. *** The fisher boy sings in a boat. Cowherd's melody. The sea laughs, summoning to swim in her, the young man has fallen asleep on the green bank. There he hears the ringing floating so sweetly, like the voices of angels in paradise. .......... And as he awakes in blessed pleasure, the water splashes onto his chest, and from the deeps comes a call: Dear youth, be mine! I lure the sleeper, I draw him here. William Tell contains scenes of the natural beauty of Switzerland, rebellion and two lake storms which help the fugitives to escape. There is a strongly expressed "bond between man and nature, nature both within him and around him". (B:36i/196) 196. 1851. Addressed to one of his daughters who had accidentally crushed a canary. Tyutchev cannot resist a certain black humour at the arbitrariness of Fate. 197. 1851 early 1852. His love for Elena is once again seen as a duel. 198. 1851-early 1852. Written from Elena's point of view. An interesting treatment of this and the following poem deals with Tyutchev's adoption of Elena's persona, a "gender shift". Pratt sees the lyric as "a struggle between entropy - the terrifying tendency towards emotional inertness caused by the impending loss of the beloved - and energy, the cohering force supplied by the person's single-minded devotion to the love relationship". (C:21/228) Discussing [199], she continues: "As opposed to the sense of fragmentation created by the alternately halting and rushing speech of his female counterpart. Tyutchev's male persona exudes a sense of coherence and control as he uses each line to express a complete thought smoothly and rationally. His is the rhetoric of logic; hers the rhetoric of passion". (ibid./231) Irrespective of one's reaction to psychoanalytical interpretations of Tyutchev's work, Pratt's treatment of the dramatic qualities of this and the following poem is excellent. 199. 1851-early 1852. See [198]. 200. 1851-early 1852. While my imagery is different, though, I feel, not alien to that employed by Tyutchev, I believe it conveys adequately the sense of anger and frustration experienced by him at society's shunning of his mistress. 201. NL early 1852. Chulkov considers the use of the past tense throughout to suggest that the poem might not be addressed to Elena. There is indeed a hint of light-heartedness, almost flippancy, which characterises none of Tyuchev's poems to his mistress. This poem is far more likely to be addressed to an old flame or possibly his wife or former wife. 202. NL early 1852. Various interpretations could easily flow from this poem where Death is equated with Sleep and Suicide with Love, though in the case of the latter pair, while Tyutchev himself would experience the love, the idea of suicide would most likely be transferred to Elena, most of the suffering having been hers. 203. April, 1852. The image of something precious being buried on the bed of the sea is not unusual in the poems, from his translations of Hernani [65] and Sakontala [29], through Venetsiya/Venice [166] to Net dnya, chtoby dusha ne nyla/Not a day relieves the soul of pain [299]. 204. End of June, 1852. En route from Oryol to Moscow. Only those .... a paraphrase of Matthew, V, 8. 205. July 28th. 1852. Stone Island (Kamennyi Ostrov). Tyutchev lived there from early June to the end of September. All his letters of this period are franked "Stone Island". It was renamed "Workers Island" after the Revolution and is one of the island areas of St. Petersburg. In Tyutchev's day, the wealthy had country homes there. 206. December 31st. 1852. Ovstug. One of many superb "Russian" nature poems, the favourite sleep-dream formula appears in the central stanza, Tyutchev's preoccupation with the limbo world between external reality and his own inner reality never being far from the surface. It is interesting that in proportion as her husband disliked the Russian countryside, or often had people believe he disliked it, in July of this year Ernestine could write the following: "I love the Russian countryside; these vast plains swelling like wide seas, this limitless expanse which the glance cannot take in, all this is full of grandeur and endless sadness. My husband drowns in melancholy when he's here. I, however, feel at peace and trouble-free right out here. I always have something to think about or, rather, something to remember (...) I'd willingly spend winter in the country, but my husband has announced categorically that he will never agree to this, and I still don't know what we'll decide". 207. NE first half 1852-NL early 1854. Connected with his love for Elena. In such a nostalgic and tender love poem, an image of the last glow appearing in the western sky cannot fail to be interpreted as a symbol of his equally strong love for western Europe. Lane describes the reason for this journey abroad. (A:18, vol.2/464-470) Acting almost as a secret agent, Tyutchev is described thus by the French ambassador to St. Petersburg: "The Russian Cabinet senses the need to combat the English, French and German press, which have crushed her with unanimous reprobation. As a result ... it has sent to Paris one Mr. Tyutchev... so that he may meddle in the French press! He's some poor diplomat, though attached to the Russian Chancellery, and a pedantic and Romantic literary type ... Keep an eye on Mr. Tyutchev, no matter how harmless his empty dreams may be!" In a later communication, it was decided that Tyutchev was not particularly hostile to France and was "as un-Russian as he could possibly be". 208. Sept. 5th.-7th. 1853. Cros