sing at Kovno (present-day Kaunas). Written en route from the west to Petersburg. On the evening of September 2nd. Tyutchev left Warsaw. The "fatigue and horrible boredom" experienced by him during forty eight house in a stage-coach forced him to spend two and a half days in Kaunas. Sending the poem to his wife, Tyutchev wrote: "These verses I told you about are entirely imbued with the Neman. In order to understand them, you would have to re-read Segur's page from his history of 1812 where he talks about the crossing of the river by Napoleon's army, or at least remember the pictures depicting this event so often seen in coaching inns". southern demon: a reference to Napoleon's Corsican origins. Philippe Paul Segur (1780-1873) was one of Napoleon's generals and a writer on military matters. His Histoire de Napoleon et de la Grande Armee pendant l'annee 1812/History of Napoleon and the Great Army during the Year of 1812 (vols. 1-2) is referred to in Tyutchev's letter. 209. Autumn 1852-Spring 1854. Tyutchev hopes for a speedy, victorious outcome to the Crimean War. Russia declared war on Turkey on November 1st. 1853, Turkey reciprocating on October 4th. Nicholas I took war to the British-French-Turkish alliance on April 23rd. 1854. The war manifesto of Nicholas I reads like one of Tyutchev's political poems: "Is Orthodox Russia to fear such threats? Ready to confound the audacity of the enemy, shall she deviate from the sacred aim assigned to her by almighty Providence? No! Russia has not forgotten God! It is not for worldly interests that she has taken up arms; she fights for the Christian faith, and for the defence of her co-religionists oppressed by implacable enemies". (C:5/539) 210. Early 1854. On February 13th. 1854 Darya Tyutcheva wrote to her friend, O. Smirnova: "If I had any poetic talent, I'd have written you something in the spirit of this charming verse my father sent to Alex(andra) Dolg(orukaya)". Darya then quoted this. Alexandra Dolgorukaya was eighteen, and, like Darya, was a maid of honour to the heir to the throne, Maria Alexandrovna. Tyutchev frequently met Alexandra at his daughter's house. In his diary, Tyutchev described Alexandra as being "irresistibly fascinating", mentioning her "intelligence and grace" and, above all, the surprising "enigmatic" quality of her nature. Years later, Anna wrote: "At first glance, this tall, thin girl, with her awkward gait and somewhat rounded shoulders, whose face was leaden-pale, with colourless, glassy eyes which looked at you from heavy lids, produced an impression of repellent ugliness. But as soon as she became animated by conversation, dancing or a game, the most complete transformation was affected throughout her being. Her slender build straightened up, her movements became more rounded and acquired the magnificent, almost feline grace of the young tiger, her face glowing with tender rosiness, her glances and smile taking on a thousand tender charms, crafty and insinulating. Her entire being was imbued with elusive, truly mysterious charm". Alexandra was, in addition, extremely intelligent, sharply witty with a fine sense of irony. Anna Tyutcheva, however, concludes by adding that beneath this trenchant charm there was sometimes something "predatory". She describes her friend as going out of her way to attract the tsar (C:19/83) and clearly a liaison of some sort did take place. Having met the novelist Turgenev, Alexandra served as the prototype for the heroin of Dym/Smoke, Irina Ratmirova. 211. About August 11th. 1854. On August 5th. he wrote to his wife: "What days! What nights! What a wondrous summer! You feel it, breathe it, are penetrated by it and can scarcely believe it yourself. What strikes me as being particularly wonderful is the way these lovely days are just going on and on, inspiring a kind of confidence, what's called success in a game. Has the good lord really abolished bad weather just for our sakes?" 212. September 11th. 1854. An epigrammatic profundity, the simple act of saying good bye becomes an "abyss" (bezdna). 213. December, 1854. The poem fell foul of censor for its "vague thought" and "a certain sharpness of tone". Addressed to G. Popova, one of Tyutchev's acquaintances. 214. 1855-59. Late 1850s. The Jeu de secretaire/Secretary's Game was fashionable in the St. Petersburg salons. This quatrain was written in a book of questions and answers used in the game and might be a quotation from something else. It seems to be a reply to the question put to Tyutchev: A quoi bon un crayon?/What's a pencil for? 215. March 1st. 1855. The Austrian archduke was in St. Petersburg on February 27th. 1855. Austria had refused to declare its neutrality during the Crimean War. 216. July 10th. 1855. Addressed to Elena. There are echoes of many poems here: billow after billow flow on as do thoughts and waves in Volna i duma/The Wave and the Thought [189]; in Teni sizye smesilis'/Blue-grey mingling [107], sounds, shapes, colours and aromas merge synaesthetically to produce a dreamlike existence in which the poet can pour himself, as happens when smoke from the fire engulfs him and his mistress; more ominously, in Gus na kostre/Hus at the Stake [356], flame crackles and spreads like an animal through the kindling. 217. Probably July, 1855. Tyutchev forgets himself and whatever problems life has created for him, or that he has created for himself, the exhortation to time to wait containing a hint of pathos made all the more powerful by the reference to that which is vile and false, for the less pleasant aspects of life in St. Petersburg high society were Elena's daily social lot and, while after this moment Tyutchev must return to them, he was never shunned for his part in the illicit romance. Unlike Elena he could escape the vile and false at any time. 218. August 13th. 1855. Roslavl in the Smolensk province. One of Tyutchev's most oft-quoted poems, it lends itself to easy interpretation by commentators of various persuasions. From being a spontaneous reaction to the sight of the down-trodden serfs, observed by Tyutchev more than once on his own estate, to a reflection on the courage of the ordinary privates of the serf-army defending Sevastopol, it was notably quoted by Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov, the section called The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. (B:11iii, vol.14/226). Ivan Karamazov's strange prose poem concerns the re-appearance of Christ during the Inquisition, a Christ who had finally heeded man's prayers and in his immeasurable compassion once more come down to offer succour to suffering humankind. The inquisitor informs Christ that he is to be burned the next day, although after a lengthy justification of his decision, relents and finally releases him, warning him that he must never return. The contradiction inherent in the existence of a Church which is Christian but which, like any ruling political party, needs to stay in power to survive, is one of many aspects of the problem of faith and religion brilliantly exploited by Dostoevsky. Tyutchev's meaning may be more ambiguous. 219. August 13th. 1855. Roslavl. Inspired by the poet's gloomy presentiments during the siege of Sevastopol. The fall of the town overwhelmed and stunned Tyutchev. In her diary Anna wrote: "My father had just returned from the country, not suspecting anything of the fall of Sevastopol. Knowing his passionate patriotic feelings, I was very much afraid of the first explosion of his anger, and it was a great relief to see him not irritated; only, from his eyes, quietly, great tears rolled; he was deeply moved, when I told him that only the second day after receiving the dreadful news of this blow which had befallen us, the tsar and the tsarina had wanted to go out to the people to raise their spirits". (C:19/49-50) The Crimean defeat had more than the straightforward effect of wounded national pride on Tyutchev. "The deafening collapse of the imaginary granite structure made the poet glance around him, look at Russia not only from the window of the high-society salon". (A:20, vol.1,fn.9/166) While it did not, as Soviet commentators have sometimes tried to demonstrate, make him in any way anti-monarchist, it reinforced that contempt he had always felt for inefficiency among those whose role was to rule. 220. October 16th. 1855. The poetess Rostopchina, about whose return to Petersburg the poem is written, published her ballad Nasil'nyi brak/The Forced Marriage, a portrayal of Russo-Polish relations. It incurred the displeasure of Nicholas, who forbade her to appear in St. Petersburg. She returned to the city only after the tsar's death. Tyutchev was constantly involved in the works of other poets. Two days after writing this verse, he was appointed to a committee whose brief was an examination of those of Zhukovsky's works unpublished during his lifetime. 221. December 31st. 1855. St. Petersburg. Concerning the war and the then fashionable spiritualism, ironically referred to as Stoloverchenie/table-turning, Anna wrote (ibid./147-8): "July 10. Yum the table-turner has arrived. Seance in the great hall in the company of twelve of the emperor's entourage.... We were all sitting around a large table, hands on the table; the magician sat between the empress and Grand Duke Konstantin. Suddenly from various corners of the room there came knocks, produced by spirits and corresponding to the letters of the alphabet". The spirits decided they did not like Anna and asked for her to be banished to the neighbouring room, from which she heard all the goings on, including the table being raised into the air. 222. 1855. Tyutchev being the literary magpie he was, line 1 is taken straight from Hamlet (1,v). 223. 1855. TR Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Caro m'e 'l sonno, e piu l'esser di sasso, mentre che'l danno e la vergogna dura; non veder, non sentir m'e gran ventura; Pero non mi destar, deh, parla basso. (B:27i) *** Sleep is dear to me and being of stone is dearer, as long as injury and shame endure; not to see or hear is a great boon to me; therefore, do not wake me - pray, speak softly. Michelangelo's destiny, that of a brilliant artist dependent on powerful masters, might well have struck sympathetic chords in Tyutchev. In writing this quatrain, the Italian probably had in mind the loss of freedom of Florence, in the designing of whose defences he played a part. In a letter of 1870, Tyutchev, incensed at the stupidity of Russia's rulers, quoted lines 2-3 of Michelangelo's poem. The quatrain is a reply to some verses by Strozzi, inspired by the famous sculpture of Night on the sarcophagus of Julian de Medici in Florence. Enraptured by Michelangelo's work of genius, Strozzi wrote that if Night could be awoken she would begin to speak: La Note che tu vedi in si dolci atti dormir, fu da un Angelo scolpita in questo sasso e, perche dorme, ha vita: destala, se nol credi, e parleratti. *** The Night that you see sleeping in such a graceful attitude, was sculpted by an Angel in this stone, and since she sleeps, she must have life; wake her, if you don't believe it, and she'll speak to you. (B:27ii/419) Filippo Strozzi (1489-1538) was a merchant banker and speculator who basked in the glow of the favours abounding at the court of the De Medicis. 224. 1855. This French version of [223] is more faithful to the original. 225. 1855. An epigrammatic epitaph for Nicholas I, who died on February 18th. of this year, undoubtedly inspired by the fall of Sevastopol. Tyutchev wrote to Ernestine: "in order to create such a desperate position, you'd need the monstrous stupidity of this ill-starred man". (Sept. 17th. 1855) 226. January 4th. 1856. St. Petersburg. Sent to Abram Norov (1795-1869), an education minister from 1854 up till 1858. Norov was wounded during the Napoleonic wars at the battle of Borodino. 227. April 8th. 1856. Addressed to Ernestine on her birthday. "Survive" could well have been Tyutchev's catchword. 228. November, 1856. Written from the standpoint of Darya, who had been persuaded to take part in an amateur production of Alfred de Musset's (1810-1857) comedie-proverbe/proverb-comedy, Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermee/A door should be open or closed. De Musset was extremely good at what he called le spectacle du fauteuil/armchair theatre. These popular comedies were written to be read. They tended to involve a couple of people, no external events, sentimental dialogue and the kind of theme which would go down well at soirees, "a scene with people of wit, in a real-life situation, and presented as faithfully as to suggest nature itself". (B:28/1127) This particular comedie-proverbe was first published in La Revue des Deux Mondes/The Journal of Two Worlds, November 1st. 1845. 229. February 04th 1857. St. Petersburg. Nikolay Shcherbina (1821-69) was a talented poet who grew up in Taganrog on the Black Sea in a Greek community of a Greek mother. Nature and classical themes are predominant in his imagist work. There are a few parallels between his poetic preoccupations and Tyutchev's. He wrote contrasting verses about western blueness and eastern European bleakness, some fairly mediocre philosophical and some poor civic poetry. He was an ultra-conservative minister without portfolio to the Associate Minister of Education and Tyutchev's great friend, the poet P. Vyazemsky. In the 1860s, a period of demands for socially relevant literature, he unashamedly proclaimed the lofty mission of the poet. He died of a throat tumour. E. Petrova (A:20, vol.1/33) considers this to be a "very characteristic, very 'Tyutchevian' poem". She goes on to say that "the poetic world of Shcherbina, this talented poet who tried to feel, to think like the harmonious person of Hellas, is seen by Tyutchev as an attempt to escape the over-burdensome impressions of existence, the 'Scythian blizzard', to see refuge in a country where 'golden freedom' reigns in a land of reverie. But it's a "sickly" "dream". Petrova rightly, I believe, takes Freiburg to task. Tyutchev is not rebuking Shcherbina's "honeyed antiquity" (ibid.), rather showing awareness of a need to escape in fantasy. 230. NL April 2nd. 1857. TR Schiller: Das Gluck und die Weisheit/Fortune and Wisdom (Poems, 1805). Entzweit mit einem Favoriten Flog einst Fortun' der Weisheit zu: "Ich will dir meine Schatze bieten, Sei meine Freundin du! .......... Mit meinen reichsten schonsten Gaben Beschenkt' ich ihn so mutterlich, Und sieh, er will noch immer haben, Und nennt noch geizig mich. .......... Komm, Schwester, la? uns Freundschaft schlie?en, Du marterst dich an deinem Pflug. In deinen Scho? will ich sie gie?en, hier ist fur dich und mich genug". .......... Sophia lachelt diesen Worten, Und wischt den Schwei? vom Angesicht; Dort eilt dein Freund - sich zu ermorden, "Versohnet euch, ich brauch' dich nicht". *** Fortune with a favourite once flew to Wisdom. "I'll offer you my riches, just you be my friend. .......... I've poured my wealth liberally over this spendthrift, into his lap like a mother! And look! He's just as greedy and keeps on calling me stingy. .......... Come, Sister, let's be friends. You puff and pant so hard at your plough. I'll reward you richly. Follow me. You have enough". .......... Wisdom laughs at these words and wipes the sweat from her brow. "Your friend's coming on over - make up, you two, for I've no need of you." 231. April 11th. 1857. Written on the fly-leaf of Volume 10 of Zhukovsky's works and presented to Darya. 232. August, 15th. 1857. Ovstug. Written on the Feast of the Assumption. Tyutchev also had in mind the impending reform of serfdom. He expressed a reservation about Alexander II's reform programme in a letter of September 28th. 1857, to A. Bludova, considering the system of serfdom ready to be taken over by another system in reality even more despotic, for it will be invested with the outward form of Law". 233. August 22nd. 1857. En route from Ovstug to Moscow. One of the most anthologised poems, beloved of Tolstoy, this wonderful scene suggests restfulness after a day of hard labour. 234. End of August, 1857. On leaving Ovstug for Moscow. This is a less frivolous, equally happy and sensation-replete version of the earlier Polden'/Midday [54]. 235. February 23rd. 1858. On Maria's eighteenth birthday. 236. March, 1858. Dedicated to Elizaveta Annenkova (1840-1886). 237. NL April, 1858. Dedicated to the memory of Eleonore. Despite his philandering, Tyutchev was capable on more than one occasion of writing poems to Eleonore and Ernestine which demonstrate his genuine affection. It should not, of course, be forgotten that in so many, if not all of his love poems, he thinks primarily about himself. He does not say anything about the positive effect of his love on a woman, rather of the way the relationship made him feel. 238. NL April, 1858. Possibly in memory of Eleonore. Gregg's mistranslation is unfortunate. The souls in question look down on the corpse they have abandoned, not "from a height at a body they themselves have hurled down". (A:14/171) Discussing the Russian eschatological sermon, Fedotov points out that "The last striking image, familiar in Russian poetry from the religious folksongs to Tyutchev, originates in Plato". He is referring to the following: "..... with a terrible pain the soul will issue from the body, as someone who has taken off his vestment and stands looking at it". (C:31) The poem contains echoes of Heine's Wiedersehen/Meeting Again [13] of the Lazarus poems, which Tyutchev will have read as Heine died in 1856 and these poems were published in 1851: Die Gei?blattlaube - Ein Sommerabend - Wir sa?en wieder wie eh'mals am Fenster - Der Mond ging auf, belebend und labend - Wir aber waren wie zwei Gespenster. .......... Zwolf Jahre schwanden, seitdem wir beisammen Zum letzten Male hier gesessen; Die zartlichen Gluten, die gro?en Flamme, Sie waren erloschen unterdessen. .......... Einsilbig sa? ich. Die Plaudertasche, Das Weib hingegen schurte bestandig Herum in der alten Liebesasche. Jedoch kein Funkchen ward wider lebendig. .......... Und sie erzahlte: wie sie die bosen Gedanken bekampft, eine lange Geschichte, Wie wackelig schon ihre Tugend gewesen - Ich machte dazu ein dummes Gesichte. .......... Als ich nach Hause ritt, da liefen Die Baume vorbei in der Mondenhelle, Wie Geister. Wehmutige Stimmen riefen - Doch ich und die Toten, wir ritten schnelle. *** The honeysuckle - a summer evening - We sat at the window as before. The moon, enlivening and leavening, Rose, but two ghosts was all we were. .......... Since we last sat together here, Twelve years subsided into Time: Affectionate embers, the whole great flare, Extinguished in the interim. .......... I sat, laconic. She, loquacious, The woman, poked and poked about Persistently in the old love's ashes. But not a spark was still alight. .......... She told a long tale - how she's won Her fight against bad thoughts - some fight! How very shaky her virtue had been - At which I kept my face quite straight. .......... As I rode home, the moonlight trees Seemed in the brilliance to run past Like spirits - a sense of mournful cries - But we, the dead and I, ride fast. 239. August 15th. 1858. A variation on a theme from Lenau's Blick in den Strom/A Glance into the River (Lyrische Nachlese/Lyrical Late Harvest, 1844). Sahst du ein Gluck vorubergehn, Das nie sich wiederfindet, Ists gut in einen Strom zu sehn, Wo alles wogt und schwindet. .......... O! starre nur hinein, hinein, Du wirst es leichter missen, Was dir, und solls dein Liebstes sein, Vom Herzen ward gerissen. .......... Blick unverwandt hinab zum Flu?, Bis deine Tranen fallen, Und sieh durch ihren warmen Gu? Die Flut hinunterwallen. .......... Hintraumend wird Vergessenheit Des Herzens Wunde schlie?en; Die Seele sieht mit ihrem Leid Sich selbst voruberflie?en. *** If fortune passes you by it will never return. It's good, then, to glance into the river where everything moves on and fades away. .......... Oh, just stare into it, you'll then do without it more easily, what was torn from your heart, even if it was the thing dearest to you. .......... Stare hard into the stream till your tears become a warm downpour pouring into a flood. .......... Oblivion, dreaming, will close up the heart's wound; with your grief, the soul sees itself fly by. 240. October 22nd. 1858. Tsarskoe Selo. "Tsarskoe" has three vowels: tsar-sko-ye (first syllable stressed). Sye-lo is end-stressed. 241. October, 1859. En route from Konigsberg to St. Petersburg. This superbly descriptive, lyric work is so typical of the brilliant Russian-nature poems of this period which go hand in hand with his constant dislike of the bleaker aspects of eastern Europe, that "sad thing" which is "a country where there are only clouds to simulate mountains". (LET.ERN. Sept. 14th. 1853) One commentator considers it to be a political poem and writes of Tyutchev's "total inability to create in his political verse a living image of his 'chere patrie' - except in the most superficial sense, i.e. the externals of Russian imperial power". (A:9/64) To consider a nature poem to be political because it was written in Russia as Conant appears to do, is strange enough. To miss the wondrous qualities of this poem is unforgivable. Tyutchev began a short letter to Darya with the poem, concluding: "Here are a few poor verses, my dear daughter, which helped me pass the time on this dreadfully boring journey... To be fair, however, I ought to tell you that right now there's a lovely sun shining, not on rose bushes and orange blossom, true, but on fresh, newly blossoming icicles". 242. December 20th. 1859. On December 20th 1859, Tyutchev received a packet containing some spectacles and bearing the words, "To His Excellency Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev from Grand Prince the Admiral-General for the coming ball". Puzzled, Tyutchev finally assumed that this was by way of a reproach for not having paid his compliments to Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich at the Annenkovs' ball two days previously. Irritated, he sent the verses to the prince, his daughter Maria hoping nothing would come of this. Tyutchev discovered that at a forthcoming fancy-dress ball in the Mikhailovsky Palace, he and the prince were to appear in identical costumes, a domino (a long cloak of silk with a hood). Being short-sighted and not wanting to be immediately recognised by his spectacles, the prince had sent a whole variety of guests spectacles to wear at the ball. The poem was interpreted positively by the prince, clearly considering that stanza 1 did not refer to him, but that lines 18-19 were obviously directed at him. 243. Late 1850s. Addressed to the wife of Alexander II, the Empress Maria Alexandrovna (1824-80). Aksakov wrote, "It is hard to imagine any courtier smacking less of the court than Tyutchev". (A:1/261) As a chamberlain, it fell within Tyutchev's duties to attend court and other social gatherings. As a result of his dreadful writing, something to which he referred frequently, he was once mistaken by "some stupid Englishmen" who saw his entry in a hotel register as the tsar himself, on the strength of "Emperor of Russia" being written after the word "chamberlain" and his name, the latter indecipherable. (LET. DAR. 1862) This and the following quatrain, composed on the occasion of "living pictures" at the Winter and Mikhailovsky palaces, are characterised by the refined courtesy and courtly gallantry of the French madrigal. "Living pictures" (Zhivye kartiny) were minor amateur theatricals. (See [255].) 244. Late 1850s. See previous note. Addressed to Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (1806-73), wife of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the uncle of Alexander II. Elena Pavlovna, nee Princess Frederika-Charlotta-Maria von Wurttemberg, was one of the founders of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross community of the Sisters of Mercy and the Russian Musical Society. She was patron of a variety of educational and medical institutions, used great initiative to put into practice the Reforms on her own estate and extended her patronage to many liberal thinkers and writers. In a letter to his wife (July 25th. 1851), Tyutchev describes spending "a good hour tete-a-tete with her on her balcony on Stone Island". He refers to her as a woman of grace and "imperishable charm" with an open, flexible nature and inner joy and serenity. He dined with her more than once on this "poetic balcony" and the two clearly had a good, friendly relationship. 245. December, 1859. A note on the manuscript reads: "December. 8 a.m.". The image of the moon, unaware of the early sun, and the spider-like, timid groping over the horizon of the sun's first rays impart a hint of apprehension to this lyric before the joy of sunrise. 246. 1859. Dedicated to Elizaveta Annenkova. 247. 1860-64. TR Jakob Bohme (1575-1624). Wem Zeit ist wie Ewigkeit Und Ewigkeit wie Zeit, Der ist befreit Von allem Streit. *** He for whom Time is like Eternity and Eternity like Time is free of all conflict. Tyutchev finishes a letter to D. Bludov (written between 1860 and 1864) with this poem. Bludov had asked Tyutchev, as a master of the short poem, to translate this verse of the great, self-taught German philosopher. Tyutchev held Bohme in high esteem, considering him "one of the greatest minds ever to cross our world ... standing at an intersection point between the two opposed doctrines of Christianity and Pantheism. You could call him the Christian Pantheist, if these two words did not shriek at being put together. To reproduce his ideas in Russian, in true Russian, you'd have to acquire that language, so idiomatic and so profoundly expressive, of certain members of our sects". Bohme's view of God's ways is often considered idiosyncratic and his writings can be considered confused, even chaotic. There is a striving in his work to reconcile the dualities of Good and Evil to produce harmony. He believed that they were equally important in God's universe. His work is also pantheistic. Interest in the philosopher, which flagged after his death, was revived during the Romantic movement. This poem served as Bohme's motto and the theosophist would write it in friends' albums. (B:5/10) Bludov (1785-1864) was an important state and literary figure, President of the Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. He and the Tyutchevs were very close. 248. Possibly 1850s, possibly early sixties. Pigaryov does not consider that it was written during this period, although Tyutchev had serious misgivings about these reforms (A:33ii, vol.2/370). The latter were complex in structure and, far from revolutionary, the result of a long thought-out process. Indeed, Nicholas I had set up secret committees to look into the whole matter of serfdom well before it was finally abolished. The Crimean disaster played a significant part, highlighting Russia's economic and technological backwardness, related to her military ineptitude. 249. 1860s. There is some small doubt as to the authorship of this poem, but there are enough indicators to suggest that it was written by Tyutchev, possibly to Gorchakov's niece, N. Akinfeva. The manuscript bears the initials "O.T." Pigaryov points out that in the pre-revolutionary orthography, the Russian "F" was "(" and, this being very similar to "O", a copying error could well be possible. He further considers that the poem's "rhythmic-stylistic characteristics allow one to attribute it to Tyutchev". (ibid./434) 250. March, 1860. St. Petersburg. Sent to Darya in Geneva. 251. October 20th.-29rd. 1860. On the death of the widow of Nicholas I, the Empress Alexandra. Tyutchev recalls meeting her in Vevey on Lake Leman in September of the previous year. 252. Possibly October 1860 in Geneva. Pigaryov casts doubt on 1861, postulated earlier, as Tyutchev was in St. Petersburg then. It is, of course, perfectly possible that having visited Switzerland the previous year, Tyutchev was reliving a favourite experience in imagination, that of being among his beloved mountains and lakes. 253. Feb. 23rd. 1861. Addressed to Maria, whose dog, Hecuba, seems to have enjoyed a special wash and brush-up. 254. About February 25th. (re-worked early March 1861). Prince P. Vyazemsky (1792-1878) and Tyuchev were old friends. P. Pletnyov, having re-read Vyazemsky's work with Tyutchev one day, wrote to Vyazemsky that he and Tyutchev agreed that in proportion as the burden of his days became heavier, so his verse became younger and more playful. While Tyutchev did not always see eye to eye with Vyazemsky, he placed great value on their friendship. Whether or not, as Mirsky suggests, Vyazemsky "grew into an irritating reactionary who heartily detested anyone born after 1810", (C:2/82) Vyazemsky was his own man and unafraid to speak out. His verse was somewhat along the lines of Batyushkov's, sometimes convoluted. In later life, he produced some very mature poetry. 255. Early March, 1861. Tyuchev's son, Ivan, confirms that this was written as if by Maria, in connection with Vyazemsky's fiftieth jubilee. In December 1853 Maria played the role of a major in an amateur production of the sort known as "living pictures". A propos of this, Vyazemsky wrote a verse for her: Lyubezneishii maior, teper' ty chinom mal /My very dearest major, right now you're of lowly rank. Later on Maria's engagement to N. Birilev (February 05. 1865), Vyazemsky recalled the event in Ya znal maiorom vas kogda-to/I knew you as a major then. Vyazemsky's poem follows: Lyubezneishii maior, teper' ty chinom mal, No poterpi, i budet povyshen'e; V glazakh tvoikh chitayu uveren'e Chto budesh' ty, v stroyu krasavits, general, A v ozhidanii pobed svoikh i balov Uchis', trudis', - i um, i serdtse prosveshchai, Chtob posle ne popast', maior moi, nevznachai, V razryad bezgramotnykh, khot' vidnykh generalov. *** Dearest major, you're now of lowly rank but, if you're patient, promotion will come along. I see in your eyes that confidence that, among all the beautiful women, you will be a general. In anticipation of your successes and of balls, study and work hard, enlightening your heart and mind, to ensure, dear major, that you do not end up unexpectedly among the ranks of illiterate, though conspicuous generals. 256. March 25th. 1861. In connection with the abolition of serfdom. 257. March 27th. 1861. Addressee unknown. This work is a gentle masterpiece. The final stanza could be no more than a belated Romantic cliche were it not for the remarkable music of the entire poem (as Kozyrev points out in A:20, vol.1/122). Tyutchev alternates on "a" rhyme with other rhymes in the first two stanzas, the final stanza's five lines all ending in a stressed "a". There is throughout the poem an almost imperceptible merging of the woman with the sky making of the two entities one being, the rhyme reinforcing this. Kozyrev rightly sees a truly superb effect, Tyutchev's "linguistic freshness" playing an equally important role. He indicates Tyutchev's uses of dorassvetnyi in place of the more usual predrassvetnyi, both meaning "occurring before dawn". (ibid.) The nuance is not possible to translate into English. Tyutchev knew many women, the exact degree of intimacy not always known to us. Kozyrev claims that the poem is written in memory of "some pretty girl who died young". (ibid.) Pigaryov considers the addressee to be unknown. (A:33ii, vol.1/416) However, in a letter to Gagarin (July 22nd. 1836) Tyutchev refers to Amalia Krudner as having become a "constellation" when she used to be "so beautiful on earth", a reference to her affair with Nicholas I, imagery suggestive of this poem. It is impossible to be sure about the identity of the woman in question, but I feel Amalia is a strong contender. 258. March, 1861. Addressed to the German journalist, Wilhelm Wolfson, invited by the Academy of Sciences to attend Vyazemsky's jubilee celebrations. Wolfson was a Jew from Odessa who went some way to acquainting the western European reader with Russian literature. 259. 1861. The first two lines relate to the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Vyazemsky's literary career. The celebrations took place on March 2nd. 1861. 260. July 25th. 1861. Addressee unknown. The poem is replete with dream-forgetfulness imagery and the addressee would certainly seem to be a woman who has appeared in more than one lyric up till now. 261. 1861. Addressed to his eldest daughter, Anna, whose work as lady-in-waiting and tutor in the royal household is described, stripped of any idealisation, in her diary and notes, Pri dvore dvukh imperatorov/At the Court of Two Emperors (C:19). Anna was an honest, devout woman of strong mind and her own opinions. In her diary entry for May 19th. 1855 she writes: "The courtier's profession is not at all as easy as people think, and to do it properly one needs a talent not possessed by everyone. You need to know how to find the point of departure of support, so that you actually want to play with dignity the role of friend and lackey, so that you can easily and gaily go from the living room to the servants' area, always ready to listen to the most intimate confidences of the lord and carry his coat and boots for him. Pascal's words, applied to man in general, are applicable to the courtier". She then quotes Pascal's pensee [163]: S'il se vante, je l'abaisse S'il s'abaisse, je le vante Et je contredis toujours Jusqu'a ce qu'il comprenne Qu'il est un monstre incomprehensible. *** If he boasts, I put him down, if he puts himself down, I build him up, and I always contradict until he understands that he is an incomprehensible monster. 262. December 6th. 1861. A telegram sent to his brother, Nikolay, and brother-in-law, Nikolay Sushkov (1796-1871), on their name day. 263. 1861. Aimed at Grigory Fillipson (1809-1883), the administrator of the St. Petersburg education authority and written on account of his measures against students during the unrest of 1861. Filippson had been a cossack chieftain. A pun on the literal translation of the German name, Fillipson, into Russian Syn Filippa/Son of Phillip. Alexander the Great was the son of Phillip of Macedonia. 264. April 14th. 1862. This and the following poem were sent to Fet on the latter's request that Tyutchev send him a portrait. Afanasy Fet (1820-92) had a great deal of respect for Tyutchev and the two were good friends. Of this champion of the rights of pure poetry whose melodic nature lyrics and imagist style and classical themes gave way, in his later years, to more philosophical and metaphysical verse, Mirsky writes: "The highest summits of Fet's later poetry are reached in his love poems, certainly the most extraordinary and concentratedly passionate love poems ever written by a man of seventy (not excepting Goethe)". (C:2/236) 265. April 14th. 1862. See previous note. The poem would be better understood if directed at Tyutchev himself. Fet's talent notwithstanding, this should be seen as a polite, certainly sincere compliment, but one which perhaps over-states Fet's abilities as poet of nature. 266. May, 1862. Tyutchev re-works verses by his daughter, Anna. The Holy Mountains are a monastery on the northern Donets in the Izyumsky uezd (an administrative region) of the Kharkov province. Anna was rather unhappy with her father's meddling in her own poetic attempts. Writing to her sister, Ekaterina, she says, "I'm sending you some new verses which I wrote about the Holy Mountains and which dad has re-worked in his own style. It goes without saying that his are incomparably better than mine; however, he has not put across my thoughts exactly as I understood them". Her poem follows. Tikho, myagko, noch' Ukrainy, Polna prelesti i tainy, Nad dubravoyu lezhit. Tyomno nebo tak gluboko, Zvyozdy svetyat tak vysoko, I vo t'me Donets blestit. .......... Za obitel'skoi stenoi Psalmopen'e, zvon svyatoi Do zautreni molchat Pod ogradoyu tolpoi, Osvyashchyonnye lunoi, Bogomol'tsy mirno spyat. .......... I s krestom tam na chele Belym prizrakom vo t'me Nad Dontsom utyos stoit. I, kak dukh minuvshikh dnei, On molitvoyu svoyei Bogomol'tsev storozhit. .......... Vo skale toi svyashchenoi Iskoni chernets smirennyi Podvig very sovershal, I v dukhovnom sozertsan'e Skol'ko slyoz i vozdykhanii Pered Bogom izlival. .......... Ottogo, kak dukh blazhennyi, Velichavyi i smirennyi Nad Dontsom ytyos stoit, I v tishi poroi nochnoi On molitvoi vekovoi Spyashchii mir zhivotvorit. *** Quietly, softly the Ukranian night, full of charm and mystery, lies upon the leafy grove. The dark night is so deep, the stars shine so high, and the Donets glistens in the mist. .......... Behind the walls of their dwelling psalm-singing and sacred ringing are silent until prime. Crowding together behind their enclosure, illuminated by the moon, the holy monks sleep peacefully. .......... And there with the cross on its brow like a poor spectre in the mist above the Donets the cliff stands. And, like a spirit of bygone days, with its prayer it stands guard over the monks. .......... In this sacred mountain since time immemorial a humble monk carried out his task, and in spiritual contemplation so many tears and lamentations did he pour out before God. .......... This is why, like a sacred spirit, majestic and humble the cliff stands above the Donets and in the still of the night with its eternal prayer revives the sleeping world. 267. February, 1863. The epigram is aimed at Tolstoy's story, Kazaki/The Cossacks. The writer, Evgeniya Tur, while acknowledging the story's artistic mertis, nonetheless saw in it a poeticisation of "drunkenness, brigandage, thieving, blood lust". Tyutchev's epigram appears to echo her feelings. Tur was a writer of prose and literary criticism, a journalist and was best known as a writer of children's stories. Her work is very much along Christian moralistic lines. Among her many tutors was Raich. 268. August, 1863. Moscow. The verse is a reaction to the combined diplomatic move on the part of England, France and Austria in connection with the Polish uprising. Stanza 3 contains a hint at the part played by the Catholic clergy in the uprising. 269. November 12th. 1863. Dedicated to the St. Petersburg Governor-General, Prince A. Suvorov (1804-1882), grandson of the famous commander. Suvorov was a relatively liberal administrator. While this earned him the sympathies of the St. Petersburg popula