THE LANGUAGE OF PUSHKIN Aaexcandp Cepeeesus Myuxut, 1799-1837 Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, 1799-1837 ‘Sketch by O. Kiprenskoy, 1827, Engraved by N. Utkin Second, Revised Edition Bloomington, IN: 1994© 1980, 1994, Henry R. Cooper, Jr.PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION In all of Russian literature there is no greater writer than Pushkin. He is the one author every Russian knows and can recite at great length. He was the first Russian poet of international stature. To read him in the original is to come into the immediate presence of the premier poetic genius of the Russian nation. But therein lies the rub, the bedeviling irony, the reason why this greatest of Russian writers, though known, is so little appreciated outside his country. What makes Push- kin unique and great, his Russian, is the very thing that prevents so many from fully understanding him. "Prose can often be translated adequately, but poetry, with its deliberate and complex interweaving of sound and meaning with structure, is diminished by being put into another language. (As the Italians say, rradurre-tradire, "to translate is to betray.") ‘The goal of the text in hand is to share the excitement of Pushkin in his original lan- guage with those who know no Russian at all. To accomplish this, the following twenty-seven lessons, designed either for classroom use with a Russian teacher or for self-tuition, introduce just enough Russian grammar, syntax and vocabulary, together with some background information on history and poetics, to enable the student to read Pushkin's master poem, The Bronze Horseman, in Russian in ten weeks.* The lessons provide no apparatus to practice speaking or understanding spoken Russian, nor do the grammatical explanations pretend to cover any phenomena beyond those which are encountered in the text of the poem. In the final analysis, the aim of this entire exercise is aesthetic, not practical. At the end of ten weeks, students will not be able to speak Russian (an ability that requires years to develop), but they will be able to appreciate The Bronze Horseman in Russian, and have an inkling why Pushkin’s tan- guage has become the standard against which all Russian poets willy-nilly measure themselves, To me this seems adequate recompense for the admittedly hard work the course requires. Originally this text was developed for Northwestern University freshmen to teach them, among other things, about poetics and the structure of language in general. But there is ‘no reason to limit its clientele only to their level. Upperclassmen as well as graduate students of comparative literature may also benefit from The Language of Pushkin in that it can quickly give them an insight into Russian poetry they might never gain from merely reading about it or struggling with it only in translations. (A series of such courses for the comparatist would indeed provide a breadth of poetic experience we can only dream about for our students in graduate studies today.) And for all levels of stu- dents and for those who wish to teach themselves, this course provides an immediate sense of the rewards knowledge of a foreign language can bring.In the United States today, and in the world at large, the universality of English has put our students at a serious disadvantage: they lear foreign languages only grudgingly because their experience convinces them that it is not necessary to speak in another lan- guage to be understood. It is my most profound hope that The Language of Pushkin, by demonstrating how indispensable a knowledge of Russian is for an appreciation of Pushkin’s poetry, will serve in some small way to convince our students that com- petence in foreign language, however difficult it may be to achieve, is worth struggling for. They will see, I hope, that indeed not everything can be done in English, and draw the appropriate conclusions for their own lives. In the lengthy process of composing this text I have accumulated many debts: to the National Endowment for the Humanities, who funded the project; to Northwestern University, for granting me leave to work on it uninterruptedly; to my colleagues Daniel Garrison, Aino Paasonen, Tilde Sankovitch and John Wright, who in preparing their own freshman seminars in other languages generously shared their experiences and expertise with me; to the chairman of my department, Irwin Weil, for many of the pictures which adorn the text; to Mrs, Natalie Hector, for her painstaking and expert composition of the printed text; and finally to those first brave students of mine, whose enthusiastic reception of The Language of Pushkin made all my efforts worthwhile. Henry R. Cooper, Jr. Chicago, January 1980 Assuming three one-hour lessons a week for nine weeks, and independent study in the tenth, eeePREFACE TO THE SECOND, REVISED EDITION So many things have happened since the first publication of this course, and its first trial by students, that, as the Evangelist says, “if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." Obviously, I will not even try, and in the spirit of prefaces to second, revised editions, I will be brief. Thanks to a committee of colleagues at Indiana University, I have once again the opportunity to teach a poem by Pushkin to those who know no Russian. This time, however, I will have more time to do so, for the Indiana University semester (fif- teen weeks) is fifty percent longer than the Northwestern quarter. On the other hand, the aegis under which this course will be presented is the new TOPICS Curriculum of the College of Arts and Sciences, which foresees enrollments not of fifteen per section, as in the Northwestem Freshmen Seminars, but eight times that number. So the extra time will be welcome, as welcome as the opportunity has been to revise and reconsider, recast and rewrite (this time on-line, however, never to re-keyboard again). And the extra numbers may prove a stimulus, since underlying this effort is (1 admit) a mission- ary zeal: to introduce as many as possible to the pleasure of poetry, the beauty of Rus- sian, the genius of Pushkin, and the wonders of both St. Petersburg and Russia, which, after a long and horrible hiatus, have come back to life again themselves. Once again I have debts to acknowledge: to Professor Irwin Weil, my colleague at Northwestern and my friend over many years, for lending me again the beautiful St. Petersburg prints that grace this volume; to Professor Howard Aronson of the University of Chicago, a steadfast friend who would never let me forget this course, but urged again and again that I revive it; to Dean Mojton Lowengrub and Associate Dean Russell L. Hanson of Indiana University, for their confidence in allowing me to make "The Language of Pushkin" a TOPICS course; to Honors Division director Lewis H, Miller, for the opportunity to offer this under the title "Russian through Pushkin" as an honors course; and finally to Indiana University itself, my happy home of thirteen years, where academic liveliness is set in great natural beauty and nurtured by abundant collegiality. Henry R. Cooper, Jr. Bloomington, IN, June 1994ener “The Bronze Horseman"PART I: THE LESSONS Elghteenth-Century View of Nevsky Prospect, St. PetersburgADVICE TO USERS OF THIS MANUAL The first eleven lessons of The Language of Pushkin cover many of the essential cle- ments of Russian grammar. We start off by learning how to read and write cyrillic let- ters and pronounce Russian words. Then come the principles of verbal conjugation (relatively simple in Russian) and noun-adjective-pronoun declension (quite complex). In Lesson 12 we actually start to read The Bronze Horseman in Russian. Thereafter grammar lessons alternate with reading assignments through Lesson 27. The final assignment of the course is given then: to read without further instruction the last part of the poem, relying only on your own knowledge of Russian and the interlinear English pony (not a translation!) accompanying the Russian text. (Both the complete Russian text of the poem and the complete English translation by Oliver Elton are located in Part II of this book.) A word on vocabulary is in order here at the start, It is not necessary to memorize lists, of vocabulary words. While that might be the legitimate assignment of a language course, it is not the goal of this course. Our aim here is to learn endings, so that we can understand how words fit together. Meanings on the other hand will always be provided for all the words used in a lesson; in addition, at the end of this book, in Part I, there is a glossary containing every word of the poem, Therefore, except in the case of a few basic and frequently repeated words, meanings need not be learned. But pay strictest attention to endings! Finally, a word on pronunciation: Russian is a living language, and requires a certain mode of pronunciation to sound acceptable to a native speaker, We will study at the outset the basic rules of pronunciation, so that you might approximate the sound of each word and phrase. (Besides, it would be impossible to appreciate some of the art- istry of the poem if you did not know how it was supposed to sound!) In no way, however, will we practice speaking the language independent of the poem. For those interested in hearing the poem as read by a native speaker of Russian, two tapes have been prepared for this course and are available in the Language Laboratory (Ballantine Hall 120) for listening or copying for personal use. The first contains the full text, read at normal speed; the second the text read by the same speaker, but with great pauses between verses to permit analysis (and/or repetition) by the student. Use of these tapes is optional.LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION Who precisely Alexinder Sergéyevich Pishkin (1799-1837) was and how he came to write The Bronze Horseman (1833) need not remain a secret for the reader of English. A great variety of studies in our language outline Pushkin's life story and the creative history of all his works.* For our purposes here the salient features of his biography are that he was born into an ancient and aristocratic Russian family which claimed descent from an African (proba- bly Ethiopian) who had been brought to Russia during Peter the Great's reign (the beginning of the eighteenth century). Pushkin spoke French, not Russian, at home, and in the traditional account learned Russian only when his Russian nurse began to tell him fairy tales. Though he was educated with the generation that would ultimately take “he best of these, in my opizion, ae John Bayley's Pushkin: A Comparative Com- mentary (Cambridge, 1971), which is healthily irreverent and closely reasoned; and D.S. Missky's Pushkin (Dutton, 1963), which, though more traditional, is most readable. Other good books on Pushkin are: Emest J. Simmons, Pushkin (Oxford, 1937), S.H. Cross, ed., Centennial Essays for Pushkin (Harvard, 1937), Henri Troyat, Pushkin: A Biography (Pantheon, 1950), David Magarshack, Pushkin (Chapman and Hall, 1967), and Walter N. Vickery, Alexander Pushkin (Twayne, 1970). Translations of The Bronze Horseman into English can be found in: Avrahm Yarmolinsky, ed., The Poems, Prose and Plays of Alexander Pushkin, Oliver Elton, trans, (New York: Random House, 1936): 95-110 (this version, the first englishing of the poem, was originally published in The Slavonic and East European Review {London}, 13 [1934]: 2-14, and is included here at the end of the present volume); Edmund Wilson, The Triple Thinkers: Essays on Literary Subjects (New York: Har- court, Brace and Co., 1938), which provides Wilson’s rendering of the poem in prose Walter Amdt, Pushkin Threefold (New York: Dutton, 1972); Alexander Pushkin, Selected Works in Two Volumes, Vol. 1 Poetry, "The Bronze Horseman,” trans. Irina Zheleznova (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1974): 84-97; D.M. Thomas, trans. and intro., The Bronze Horseman: Selected Poems of Alexander Pushkin (New York: The Viking Press, 1982): 247-57; Burton Raffel, trans., intro. and notes, Russian Poetry under the Tsars: An Anthology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1971): 6-103; Charles Johnston, trans., Narrative Poems by Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov (New York: Random House, 1979, 1983): 38-53; and again Walter Amdt, trans., Alexander Pushkin: Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry (Ann Arbor MI: Ardis, 1984): 423-38. Last but far from least is Waclaw Lednicki’s monograph, Pushkin's Bronze Horseman (Berkeley, 1955), which examines the poem in depth from many points of view.part in the first Russian revolution, the "Decembrist Revolt" of 1825, he himself was cn the whole conservative politically. Socially, however, he led a dissolute life until he married in 1831. His wife, infinitely his inferior intellectually, was fond of the glitter of court life: with her flirtations and affairs~one may have been with Tsar Nicholas I himself--she poisoned Pushkin’s last years. And indeed it was she who, in 1837, prompted him to challenge the Baron Georges D'Anthés to a duel in which the poet was morally wounded. From his very first published poem, Ruslan and Ludmila (1820), Pushkin was acclaimed Russia’s greatest writer. He composed not only verse (Eugene Onegin, 1831, and The Bronze Horseman, 1833, are the best poetic pieces), but dramas (Boris Godunov, 1825, and The Little Tragedies, 1830),, and prose as well (The Tales of Belkin, 1830, and The Queen of Spades, 1833), All are masterpieces of Russian litera- ture. In the first half of the 1820s Pushkin’s writings were characterized by liveliness and expansiveness: his Russian biographer, Prince Mirsky, calls the first chapter of Eugene Onegin, which was composed in 1823, as bubbly and light as fine champagne. But as the decade wore on, a more sombre tone set in, Pushkin's later works became more spare in language, pessimistic in outlook, and even more profound in their examination of the ironies of human life. Perhaps in no other single work does Pushkin more clearly express his mature pes- simism than in The Bronze Horseman, the epic he wrote about the devastating flood which inundated St. Petersburg in the fall of 1824, Russia's northern capital, a city built by Peter the Great in an inaccessible Finnish swamp at great cost to Russia in blood and treasure, furnished the poet with the ideal landscape for this drama, In the brooding metropolis on the menacing river he pitted a man against nature, an individual against government, love against death, peace-of-mind against insanity, in fatefully uneven battle. His hero, Eugene, a deliberate echo of the happier protagonist of Push- kin’s early masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, as well as a clear reflection of the poet him- self, stands as the first in a long line of mad Russian heroes that would fill the works of Gogol and Dostoevsky. Pushkin’s anti-hero~the river, society, the great statute of Peter-catches in a few brilliant images all that oppresses and terrorizes human life. Every aspect of the poem—the crisp langauge, employing always just the right word, the strong rhythm of each verse, the masterful use of alliteration and rhyme, the color- ful metaphors—contributes to the dynamism of the work so that readers are compelled to take part in the tragic destruction of Eugene. The Bronze Horseman is not only Pushkin’s most mature work, but, as John Bayley notes, it manages to present an his- toric reality more sharply than that reality actually could have been perceived by an eyewitness, Pushkin’s poem is among the last of the great verse epics of the European tradition, which began with Homer (The Odyssey, The Iliad) and reached heights in Vergil, Dante, Tasso, Milton, Goethe, Byron and Mickiewicz. It stands with them at the very summit of poetic achievement. In order to appreciate the unique and untranslatable beauty of The Bronze Horseman, we must now descend from the lofty realms of literature to the tangled ways of gram- mar, Following here below is a list of words--grammatical terms-~-we will be using 2constantly in the course of the next several weeks in our survey of Russian. Many will probably be familiar. If not, now is the time to lea what they mean, for it is only with a firm knowledge of grammar that we will be able to cmplete our task in the brief time we have. Please note that all the examples are drawn from The Bronze Horseman. Parts of Speech and Other Grammatical Terms NOUN A word which indicates a thing (river), a person (Peter), or a quality (hatred, love, greatness). Nouns comprise the largest group of words in a language. PRONOUN A word than can stand in for a noun, usually to avoid having to repeat the noun (river=it, Peter=he, hatred, love and greatness=they, these, those; also, she, their, my, I, you, us, what, who, etc,). Pronouns are usually few in number. ADJECTIVE A word that limits or qualifies a noun (a blue river, Peter the Great, deep hatred, unbounded love, world-wide greatness). Nouns, pronouns and adjec- tives are particularly characterized by their ability to change: river, rivers, river's, rivers’; he, his, him; great, greater, greatest. (Russian has far more possibilities than English in this regard.) The total of all the changes of a noun, adjective or pro- noun is called the DECLENSION of that word. VERB A word which expresses action, existence or occurrence. In the INFINITIVE form in English (that is, a form with no subject [see below] to ‘limit it), it is usually preceded by "to" (to ride, to be, to happen). In its FINITE form, the verb has a sub- ject ‘limiting’ it, usually a noun or a pronoun (Peter rides. The river is here. What happened?). Verbs change, too, for time (TENSE: He rode, he is riding, he will ride); and for person (FIRST PERSON: I ride, we ride; SECOND PERSON: Thou ridest [archaic now in English but not in Russian), you ride; THIRD PERSON: He rides, she rides, they ride, Peter rides, Peter and Eugene ride). A TRANSITIVE VERB is one that can take an object (see below) (Peter rides the horse); an INTRANSITIVE VERB does vot take an object (Peter rides every day). The total of all the forms a verb can have is called the CONJUGATION of that verb. (English has far more possibilities than Russian in this regard.) ADVERB An adjective (often in English with -ly at its end) which modifies a verb or another adjective (He rode quickly. Their beautifully constructed shape). PARTICIPLE An adjective formed from verbs and sometimes, especially in Russian, capable of retaining an object (The sleeping horseman. The closed door). GERUND In English the verb in -ing without any auxiliaries, used to avoid two finite verbs in the same sentence (Standing by the lions Eugene thought of Parasha= Eugene stood by the lions and thought of Parasha). CONJUNCTION A word which joins words, clauses or sentences. A COORDINAT- ING CONJUNCTION joins equal things (Eugene and Parasha, one way or another); a 3SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION makes a phrase dependent on another (I know that the horseman is coming). PREPOSITION Usually a little word which indicates a relationship between two or more things (of, to, for, under, from, about). PREDICATE The heart of any sentence, the predicate is the finite (conjugated, ‘limited by a subject’) verb of the sentence (Eugene runs down the street). SUBJECT The noun or pronoun which governs the action of the verb (Eugene runs down the street. I love you.) OBJECT That which feels the action of the verb, The DIRECT OBJECT feels it directly (Peter built St. Petersburg. I love you.); the INDIRECT OBJECT is in a slightly more peripheral relationship to the action of the verb (Peter gave an order [direct object] to the soldiers [indirect object].). Nouns and pronouns can also be the OBJECT OF A PREPOSITION (with Parasha, against the embankments). In English this relationship is not very obvious most of the time, except when we use a pronoun (with me, to her [we would never say-or at least we should never say—-with I, to she, though we sometimes slip in a fit of being super correct and say grammatically improper things like ‘with you and I* instead of the correct "with you and me*]). In Russian this relationship is very important: prepositions GOVERN nouns, adjectives and pronouns and cause their forms to change very obviously. We will spend a lot of time with this feature of Russian. One further note on the last three definitions: a sentence, in order to be a sentence in the conventional meaning of that word, must have a predicate. It almost always has a subject, though the subject may be understood rather than stated ("Stopt™ is a full- fledged sentence: its predicate is the verb "stop" and its subject is understood to be you"). A complete sentence need not have an object, however, either direct or indirect, nor any other complements (adverbs, conjunctions, etc.). Assignment Read the complete translation of The Bronze Horseman by Oliver Elton (in Part T1). Identify each word on the first page as to what part of speech it is and what role it plays in its sentence or clause.LESSON 2: THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET I Russian has ten vowels: the five we are accustomed to from our own language (a, ¢, i, ©, u; these are sometimes called the "hard" vowels in Russian); and the same five preceded by a "y-glide” (these are sometimes called "soft vowels"), The five hard vowels are: Printed Italics Script Approx. Pronunciation Aa 4a AO (an) 39 a9 a 3 (eh) Bu We te ay Oo Oo & oO (aw when stressed, ‘uh when unstressed) vy vy $y (00) Note that the vowel BI in Russian has no script capital form: that is because it never starts a Russian word. Note too that the vowel O in Russian has two possible pronun- ciations, depending upon its being under stress. (Contrast those two possible pronun- ciations’ with the number of pronunciations of "o" in English: close, lose, lost, thorough, and so on.) ‘These join with consonants to form words. Three Russian consonants that look like their English counterparts and sound very much like them are:Printed Italics Script Approx. Pronunciation Ke Ke K*« (kah) M« Ma A wm (ehm) tr tm IU me (teh) Note that the italic t (7m) does not look like its English counterpart. Read the following words out loud until you can pronounce them with ease. Notice that the stressed syllable in a multisyllable word is marked by an acute (°) accent. Since there is one and only one stress in a Russian word, all the © 's not under stress must be pronounced uh." For example, the word for "this"—-STo—should be pro- nounced *éhetuh." This phenomenon is know in Russian as *vowel reduction” and it is very important. Printed Script Printed Script ro (that) ao kot (cat) 10% ‘ro (this) 3g" Tox (flow) nine Tam (there) WAM — Ta (thus) WWase~ ym (mind) ye Mbt (we) mir ryt (here) rman Tat (thou, you) rt:‘The five “soft vowels” are: Printed Ttalics Script Approx. Pronunciation aa Ceiba tee pct (yah) Ee Ee (yeh when stressed, Ee ee when unstressed) ae 4u Uw (ee) Be fe OE oa») (always stressed) 0» oo Ww (yoo) Note that Russian E has two pronunciations, depending on whether it is stressed. ‘When it is not stressed, it is pronounced very much like Russian H. Pronounce the following words out loud. Pay particular attention to the stress, and to the corresponding reduction of O and E. Printed —— Script Printed. Script re (those) Wie rere (aunt) ade en (eat) 2AL ina git) AMO fama (by them) Wanye mat (same) USE ether) ee rmx (teak) ALAMaro (Mitya, Winn Kur (whale) LOL acc.) tio (by her) £407 maxér (model) free Note that Russian « and # have a "hook" in front of them. This must always be writ- ten, even it if means breaking the connection with the letter preceding them. What is the difference between the two sets of vowels (the five hard and the five soft)? First off, they sound different: ana ah-yah a eh-yeh oe aw-yaw yo 00-yoo Note that the pair six differ not because of a "y-glide" but because they are pro- nounced in different parts of the mouth, "br" in the back of the throat, "#" in the very front of the mouth, binH itveat The second big difference between the two sets of vowels is the impact they have on consonants preceding them. Listen how the "soft vowels® tend to "soften" (technically speaking, palatalize) the consonants in front of them: ra-ta tab-tyah Tote teh-tyeh Teeth tih-tee Tote tawetyaw ty-T too-tyoo Three other letters form part of the Russian vowel system, though they are not vowels themselves.‘The first is "short ee": Printed htalics Script ‘Approx. Pronunciation na Aa Ww Ww no separate sound ‘This functions like the in English diphthongs: boy, day, guy, etc. ana eye-yi(pes) 2A-e (wh)ey-yea (though I walk) via (much the same as ih-ee) ona (b)oy-yoy yao (ouie-Cuey The other two letters are the "hard sign and the “soft sign": Printed ealics Script Approx. Pronunciation be Be r ‘no separate sound be be - ‘no separate sound ‘The “soft sign” is placed after a consonant to soften (palatalize) it when no vowel fol- lows: Marrs (to wash), Tema (darkness). ‘The “hard sign* is placed between a consonant and a "soft vowel” to prevent the vowel from softening (palatalizing) the consonant. This is extremely rare in Russian (and in fact there have been moves to eliminate the "hard sign” in Russian altogether); in any event, we do not yet have enough letters to give an example of this phenomenon. Assignment: Learn the letters in this lesson in both their printed and written forms. Write out at least five times (do not print) all the Russian words that occur in this les- son.LESSON 3: THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET IT ‘The three Russian consonants you have already leamed have roughly the same pronun- ciation as k, m, and t in English (but remember that x, a, and T are written quite dif- ferently in Russian). Several other letters of the cyrillic alphabet appear familiar, but they have altogether different pronunciations from their English look-alikes: Printed Italics Script Approx. Pronunciation Bo pe BE (veh) Ha Hen Hw (enn) Pp Pp —P pr (chr, trilled) ce Ceo tw (es) Xx Kx LY xz (khah, guttural) Practice reading these letters by pronouncing the following words, which are all drawn from The Bronze Horseman. Remember to reduce unstressed O to “uh” and unstressed E to "ee". Identify each word as to part of speech (j.e., noun, adjective, verb, etc.). pec (spring) maar (to find) petep (wind) Heat (Neva River) BeTKHA (ancient) wecTfich (to rush) sHHMATR (to hear) rome (now) BofictpeHbIA (military) pate (company) Bont (to enter) padrica (to penetrate) nop (thief) pesers (to howl) Bpema (time) pexa (river) mace (all, everything) —_poxos6a (sinister)syerasaTh coer Bon cect cHHHe cxaKaHHe CKHTATECS xopo cKPBITECR cmeutrrs umpire ‘CMOTPETS cMaTEeRBE orpasta crponmat (to get up) (to go out) (to howl) (sled) (world) (one's own) (to sit down) (radiance) (galloping) (to wander) (soon) (to hide) (to replace) (to pacify) (to watch, look) (confusion) (country) (shapely) Pocctta Pye cHosa Tors erpax capa oom xoTk (to drop) (Russia) (hand, arm) (again) (to take off) (to descend) (dream, sleep) (term) (ancient times) (to become) (to clench) (verse) (element) (to stand) (fear) (ewilight) (son) (although) (* the initial ¢ here must be sounded like an "f* to ease the pronunciation)< te Ly Kfiyet yAhncad riser ansase; Ai haper Socongp ele tuuee eae PO pea gliaed ae? eccmn” Ly ae Reese eas ee Be A page of Eugene Onegin in Pushkin’s handwriting, ‘with two (self?) porraitsStill other consonants look a bit familiar, or they bring to mind the Greek letters used in mathematics, or in the names of fraternities and sororities: Printed Italics Script Approx. Pronunciation B 6 56 igvatign (beh) tr re FT xv (gheh) a qa z (deh) 33 33 3 os (zeh) ax Ta A (ell) 1. Tn GJ we (peh) 2% o¢ 9 » (eff) (Note that, like « and 4, 4 too has a "hook" before it.) Practice reading these letters by pronouncing the following words, which are all drawn from The Bronze Horseman. Remember to reduce the pronunciation of O and E. Identify each word as to part of speech. Can (dance ball) rae (where) Canon (balcony) repoa (hero) “Cer (run) rnas (eye) Cémarh (poor) “rom (year) Gesmua (abyss) pani (granite) Gesnyinaia —(moonless) Tpab (count) Geperosof (shore, adj.) Tpositrs (to threaten) Gecnoxbiomih (restless) TpoM (thunder) Gatmmit — (pale) rpomdaa (mass, hulk)Soratsit GombHOR 60a ponte 6yactso Gore nopéra “apyr ayea Esp6na sa6bra (rich) (sick) (fear) (to wander) (debauch) (to be) (road) (friend) (thought) (Europe) (worry) samHponite (to feast) sap (dawn) 3axoxoTare (to begin to laugh) semnit a0 an66a sonor6a amr 364 xopa6as aamnéna nea (earth) (evil) (anger) (golden) (to go) (hut) (ship) (icon lamp) (ice) TpOxoTaHEe (rumbling) mat (to give) neuen (money) “atpaxnit (bold) aera (children) agnro (a long time) nHcaTe (to write) wore (to sail) mobéna (victory) mépecta (story) noréna (weather) “*nombire (to raise) m6smHO late) noarft (to go) nomHBIA (full) nopduponécupia —_(purple-bearing) uorén (flood) ost (poet) apfispax (apparition) upHor (refuge) mpopy6ire (to chop through) cocraaaits (to compile) cTpoftremt (builder)auxoséTs (to rejoice) dfaicxat (Finnish) mo6itrs (to love) nar (flag) esa (foam) ep (feather, pen) (* Russian does not like the sounds "g", "z", “d" (or, as above, "v") at the end of words or syllables or before certain consonants. Therefore it “devoices" (i.e., reduces, changes) them as follows: "g" becomes "k", "2" becomes "s", "d” becomes "t", and *v" becomes "f". This change is not reflected in spelling, only in pronunciation.) (** Notice the use of the “hard sign” in this word, to prevent the « from softening [palatalizing] the preceding 2.) Finally, there are letters in Russian which look unlike anything you have ever seen. With these letters we conclude the alphabet. Printed ttalics Script Approx. Pronunciation Kx Rw NO me (zheh) Ha uy YU w (tseh) aa ar uy 1 (chen) mo ou Yow (shan) m a aw UM oe (shchah)Practice reading these letters by pronouncing the following words, which are all drawn from The Bronze Horseman, Remember to reduce the pronunciation of O and E. Identify each word as to part of speech. bexits comua xmaTb wKenSTh ABO xnuD yp napéna naps wac uacosoa apye shoei permHHA (to run) (divine) (to wait) (to desire) (lively) (life) (newspaper) (tsaritsa) (tsar) (hour, time) (sentinel) (more brightly) (important) (vernal) sosBpamitsca (to retumn) sosmyménbe (upsetment) “puepammmn (yesterday's) rpe6én “rpa6ex pope (oarsman) (pillaging) (palace) RepmasHaiA (majestic) emt wemoBeK vepnérs syxouen, agate mana ompen mEHpOKO Mom mort cenit (boat) (person) (to grow black) (to read) (Finn) (to sense) (hat) (Swede) (overcoat) (widely) (noise) (powerful) (moon, month) (younger) (mossy) (motionless) (unhappy) (food) (almost) (punch) (fresh)emt (still, yet) Teron (vain) sanomftrs (to found) Taménbia (heavy) xaaaGumie (cemetery) xfoxiaa, chun) (* Note devoicing of "d" to "t’, "zh" to "sh", “v’ to "f*.) Assignment: Lear all the consonants; write out (do not print) at least twice each Rus- ‘sian word in the lesson. The Russian cyrillic alphabet in its usual order can be found in Part Hl.LESSON 4: VERBS The Russian verb system is relatively simple: the verbs "to be" and "to have" are rarely used; there are few irregular verbs; there are only three tenses; and the words derived from verbs (participles and gerunds) are easily recognized, Russian verbs possess one feature, however, which the English, French, German, and other non-Slavic verbal systems do not have: aspect. Simply put, aspect involves the distinction between verbs where the action is stressed (this is called the imperfecrive aspect), and verbs where the result is stressed (this is called the perfective aspect). Consider for example, the following: “As I was paying the bill (i.e., counting out my money to settle up], the waiter realized he had made and mistake.* Or: "Did you pay your bill? I paid." Both of these would be the imperfective aspect in Russian, because the act of paying is what is important, not the result of paying. On the other hand: “After I paid my bill, I left the restaurant." Or: "I'd pay him a thousand dollars to leave me alone." These would both be perfective verbs in Russian, because the result of the action is stressed in both cases. Note that English tense does not give a ready clue to Russian aspect: tense and aspect are two different ways of looking at actions. First, let us concentrate on the mechanics of the verb. ‘Then as we begin to read the poem, we will deal with the implications of aspect. The past tense of the Russian verb is quite simple; as it is the only tense used in the the first eleven lines of the poem, we start with it here. Past Tense cron (masculine) tc (the -m is dropped to ease pronunciation) ctoina (feminine) Hecnh crosto (neuter) necné cTOmTH (plural, all Hecaht genders)“The infinitive forms for these verbs are: croare--to stand Hectt-to carry In that both these verbs are used to stress their actions ("the act of standing,” and “the act of carrying"), they are considered to be imperfective verbs. Verbs ending in -T» are much more common than those ending -T#. To form the past tense, however, with both verb types the ending is removed and an -m is added unless the resulting consonant cluster is unpronounceable (then we just have the stem of the verb). Additional endings are also added to indicate gender and number. Just as in the English simple past (¢.g., I went, you went, she went, they went), we do rot distinguish person in the Russian past tense, We do, however, distinguish gender (in the singular), and we do have one ending for all genders in the plural. So "he carried" in Russian is slightly different from "she carried,” and “we/you all/they carried" slightly different from any singular form. At this point it would be useful to lear by heart the Russian personal pronouns: Personal Pronouns 8 Singular Plural (not capitalized) I (Ist person) var we ret thou, you (2nd person) Bet you (familiar) (poiite/plural) ow he, it ond she, it (3rd person) conf they ond it With just two verbs and these pronouns, we can make up sentences: Ou croks, Bar cro&mH? Msi croimm siece (here). Ond cro&ma Tam (there). A cTo&a, « croana. Tpit cTowt, Tbr cToama. Ox6 croano. Onf croaau. Mérp croar anecs. Tlérp a Esrenwf ctoka anece. Tlapéma crokna tam, TTapéma 4 Mama tam, Kro (who) wéc? 9 xéc, a ecm’. Mii necaft. Hesé Hecn4, TMapauma 4 HHA Hecht.Assignment: Conjugate the imperfective verbs ziademe (to gaze) and df-mams (to think) in the past tense using the above subjects. Many Russian verbs are reflexive, that is, they have a particle added on to the end of them, -ca (sometimes reduced for pronunciation’s sake to a simple -cb after a vowel, bbut not always). Reflexive means that the action of the verb is reflected back on the subject (-ca is related to "self* in English). Happily, in Russian one word suffices for all persons (unlike English "myself," "himself," "yourself" or "yourselves," etc.), Reflexive Verbs onéTs (to dress {someone]) 8 ona (I dressed [someone]) ouétsca (to dress oneself, a ontaca (I dressed myself, to get dressed) I got dressed) on onéstca (he dressed himself, he got dressed) Some times the Russian reflexive has no direct reflexive equivalent in English, and so ‘we must translate using a different English verb (though the underlying sense is still reflexive): necta (to carry) on Hee ond Hecma, HecTice (19 flow) on Héccs Hesé wecnics (poetic) Hesé necmics (standard) It is possible to understand the English "to flow” as “to carry oneself along," or "to be carried along,” so that the Russian reflexive is not completely without motivation. ‘There are some Russian verbs (always intransitive--that is, they never take a direct object) that are reflexive without having any reflexive meaning at all, for example:ctpemfrrsca (to rush) oft crpemfinex (he rushed, was rushing) Gofteca (to be afraid) abi Goatmuch (we were afraid) Assignment: Conjugate cmpesdurecn in the past tense using all the subjects of the exercise above. (Remember: use ~. in the accusative the -2 becomes simply a-0: moa becomes mod, c, the feminine genitive singular is different: «oem, meoéi, caoea, Assignment: Write out the declension of these possessive pronouns in all three gen- ders. ‘The plural possessives are also declined in the same fashion, except that they have first syllable stress. Therefore: Ben. naw + e2b = niweco dat. eau + eny = euemy Exceptions a, b, and c also apply: a. in the locative the H- disappears, so naw + 0 HOM = 0 niweM; eau + One = 0 edeusen b. in the accusative the -a becomes -y, so adénua becomes xfuy. ¢. the feminine genitive is different: xdwen, scauen. Assignment: Write out the declensions of all these pronouns in all three genders.Reading 1, The figure Pushkin describes so triumphantly in the first twenty lines but fails to name (ineffability of the name being one of the attributes of a god!) is of course Peter I (1672-1725), one of only three Russian rulers to be called “the Great” (the first was Ivan TI, in the fifteenth century and the last was Catherine Il, at the end of the eight- eenth). At the very beginning of the eighteenth century Peter ordered the construction of St. Petersburg, to serve both as an impediment to Swedish ambitions in the area and as a “window on Europe," allowing Western technology to enter a very backward Rus- sia. Discussion Questions: What third reason does Pushkin give for the foundation of St. Petersburg? Might there be a fourth reason in the ambition of Peter? 2. Pushkin’s language in these first twenty lines is remarkably spare, simple and yet vivid, Elton’s prolix translation conveys nothing of the poem’s straightforward diction. Discussion Questions: Compare the original with the English translation. Where do they differ? What has been lost in translating from Pushkin’s Russian to Elton’s English?The “idol on the horse of bronzeame LESSON 14: ADVERBS, GERUNDS, PARTICIPLES, THE PASSIVE VOICE Grammar ADVERBS in Russian are usually just the neuter adjective without its final -e: zopvestion proudly nécuno luxuriantly panto lonely GERUNDS There are two kinds of verbal forms in Russian that are rarely if ever used in speech but very often used in the written language. These are gerunds or verbal adverbs, and participles or verbal adjectives. Both are used to give variety in sentences. For example, if a sentence has one subject governing two verbs, one may either connect the two verbs with “and” or, to vary matters a bit, make one of the verbs into a gerund: ‘The Neva senses spring days and rejoices. The Neva, sensing spring days, rejoices. If, as in this example, the action of the first verb is simultaneous with the action of the second verb, Russian uses the present gerund, which is essentially the finite stem of any imperfective verb + -a (or, in certain situations, -a): Hest, ufa eeuaa dieu, muxfem, (ufanm means “to sense," and its finite stem is ¥y-) If the action of the gerund precedes the action of the main verb, then a past gerund is used. ‘The Neva broke its ice and is carrying it to the seas. ‘The Neva, having broken its ice, is carrying it to the seas. In Russian this form is derived from the infinitive stem of the verb (usually a perfective verb) + -6 Basomds 120, Heeb nectm e20 k MopAM, (e240mém means “to break," and its infinitive stem is ea4oma-)PARTICIPLES Participles are a bit more complex, but for the time being we need con- cern ourselves with only one kind (there are four kinds of participles in all, but the other three, when they occur in the poem, we will learn merely as vocabulary items). Participles are in general adjectives formed from verbs. The most common in the first ninety-six lines of our poem is the past passive participle. It usually ends in a very dis- tinctive set of adjective endings: waa, -man, -nnoe, -wxole, and it is always derived from a verb (so that the regular adjective 6eaafnwoa2, "moonless," is not a participle). ‘The past passive participle in Russian means the same thing as the past passive participle in English: cnpirammioro—cupérare hidden—to hide ORHMIGHHBIA--ORHBATE enlivened—to enliven mpoctpénerscrx—mpocrpetith shot through--to shoot through nobexnéinias—notemitrs conquered—to conquer THE PASSIVE VOICE The Russian passive voice (usually avoided in spoken Russian, but often found in written Russian, where it is just as misused as its counterpart in English) is formed from these past passive participles and the verb “to be" (except, of course, in the present tense, where the verb "to be” in Russian is implied but not used). In a passive voice construction, Russian favors use of shortened forms of the above past passive endings: -/oma2 becomes -#, -unaa becomes -xa, -1a0e becomes -H0, lind -Hibie becomes -iat. Rece 6fdem ebpod sasorcen, sasaorcline—Ias0onEHAD Here will a city be founded. to found~-founded Bece cyaucdenh om péirrt OKO, cyOLiTI+-—cYACDRHDID Here it is fated to open a window. to fatefated Assignment: Read and prepare lines 21-42 for the next lesson.LESSON 15: LINES 21-42 Grammar Identify: line 12, weédos line 24, eomecca line 15, npupbeon line 29, ceoa line 17, noetvo line 32, xopa6 at line 18, ust line 38, e@ line 22, empan line 41, yaptajen Reading I. Partly because Peter hated Moscow—-he was almost murdered there as a child--he moved his capital to St. Petersburg even before the city was completed. Moscow became:the "second city” of Peter's empire, and though its star never went out, it certainly did dim until 1918, when the young Soviet government retumed the seat of government to the Moscow Kremlin (where they felt more secure from attack). Push- kin's simile of Moscow as the dowager is very appropriate then, as is his semi- personification of the young city rising proudly where once only wretched Finns scurried for their meager catch of fish. Discussion Questions: The entire first section is tense with oppositions: What are some of them, and what role do they play in Pushkin’s story? 2. Verses 26, 28, and 29 give a good idea of the phenomenon some critics call alliteratio Pushkiniana, the poet's uncanny ability to repeat sounds for effect but without affectation. Later, too, in Part Il of the poem we will encounter his use of words to reproduce the sound of a bronze horse's hooves on city pavement (onomatopoeia). In fact, though it is not always immediately evident, Pushkin con- sistently manipulates (but does not distort!) his Russian for acoustical impact: he rear- Tanges, repeats, omits expected words and phrases, inserts unexpected ones, until they yield just the sound combinations~and make just the effecthe wants. Discussion Questions: What is the relationship of sound to meaning in ordinary speech and in a literary work like a poem? Assignment: Read and prepare lines 43-58 for the next lesson.LESSON 16: LINES 43--58, IMPERATIVES, IRREGULAR NOUNS Grammar IMPERATIVES The imperative (the command form: do this! don't do that!) in Rus- sian is an easy form to recognize. In most cases it consists of the finite stem + -2 for the singular and the finite stem + -ame for the plural. cmos cmo- Cmoa! Cmoame! xpacosdmsca xpacj- ca — _Kpacfticn! Kpaciramece! A kind of imperative can be formed with first and third person verbs merely by placing nycr, “let,” of 0a, "may," in front of them: Trycrre sb Gioiceue 206 $dym! Let the Finnish waves forget! Ta ysuuplimen cmucxctia ¢ mosea! May the element reconcile itself with you! IRREGULAR NOUNS Russian has many irregular nouns (that is, nouns that do not fol- low the "regular" patterns of declension we have learned thus far). One such noun is the important word 2uiun, meaning “banner, flag.” Despite its -« ending, suds is neuter (it belongs to a very small but crucial group of neuter nouns all ending the same way, such as awa, "name," and eptaa, *time"). The only forms of its irregular declension that occur in the poem are the following; as always, you need only to be able to recognize them for our purposes: Irregular Noun sxduerThe nominative and accusative singular are sxducx, and the nominative and accusative plural are saméxa. All the other cases in the singular (i.¢., genitive, dative, locative) are one and the same form: sadmexu. The instrumental, however, does have the char- acteristic -m ending: zuiwewem. In the plural all you need to know is the genitive, which is the regular zero-ending: 21asPx. Two other slightly irregular nouns are aockjm, "rag," whose plural is sockSmraa, and dpye, “friend,” whose plural is dpyzeA. Assignment: Decline the noun fiu1, “name” in the same cases a8 above. Note that the stress in the plural is on the last, not next-to-last syllable. Reading 1. These lines begin Pushkin's famous apostrophe to St. Petersburg, among the best known verses in Russian literature. Using the device called "anaphora" (repetition of the initial word or phrase of a verse, in this cate 2060, "I love") he links together verses 43-83 (almost half of the Introduction) in a great paean to St. Petersburg’s charms. Yet, oddly enough, he never mentions the city by its proper name: perhaps here, too, he is attributing a godlike quality to this northern wonder; or maybe more simply he is avoiding the distinctly un-Russian sound of Caxam-ITemep6$e, the city's official name from 1702 to 1914 (when it was in fact changed to the Russian Tlempoe pad; in 1924 it was renamed again, in honor of the Russian revolutionary and first head of the Soviet Union, JTewmazpéd; and in 1991 it was changed back to the original Casaem-Iemep6pe). In any event Pushkin does humanize the city to some extent by identifying it closely with the pleasures of his own life. We as his readers have a warm sense of the life of the capital and the many beauties visible to the obser- vant eye. For us the city becomes mai, “thou,” the form of address used only with close friends and family. But in this characterization, as earlier in the depiction of the unnamed Peter, we are being set up by the poet. The more we appreciate the charms of the Introduction, the harsher will be the contrast with the story to come. 2. It is useful to note that lines 43-58 contain only one period, thus technically making all the verses one sentence. Such length contrasts sharply with the first twenty verses of the poem. The rhythm of the section, alternately slowing down and speeding up the reading of individual verses (¢.g., lines 43, 44, 49 are slow, while 53-54 and 55-56 are very quick), moves the reader easily through this lengthy run-on, however. And at the end, thanks to the "enjambement” or jumping from line $7 to 58, the pace leaves the reader breathless but with a clear sense of how short the "white nights" of summer in Petersburg must be. Assignment: Read and prepare lines 59-74,“The Bronze Horseman”LESSON 17: LINES 59-74 Grammar Identify: line 62, deetowu line 71, cmpor line 67, actsocrrt line 72, smamen line 70, cdnoo6 pasnyio Reading 1, The apostrophe continues with two more lengthy sentences, each introduced by a067%. As in most epic enumerations, here, too, Pushkin elects to list certain things in a certain way, so that his reader comes away with a particular picture, and not just a jumble of isolated impressions. One picture clearly is of the civilized orderliness of Peter's capital (e.g., in line 71). Discussion Questions: In what ways in this selection does Pushkin convey the orderli- ness of St. Petersburg? Has he prepared his reader for this in earlier verses? What contrast is he making? 2. Once again, too, Pushlin's alliteration is at work, with great effect. Lines 64-66 furnish only the most outstanding example. Assignment: Finish the Introduction to the poem by reading and preparing lines 75-96.LESSON 18: LINES 75-96, POETIC DEVICES Reading 1. The fourth and final part of the apostrophe to St. Petersburg makes a very specific reference to a season (spring) and ends with a suggestion of the Neva’s power and tur- bulence. As we look back over this apostrophe, we notice that each of its sections has some seasonal identification. Discussion Questions: What are these seasonal identifications? What is the sig- nificance of the order of seasons Pushkin gives? 2. Likewise the river flows at both the beginning and end of the section, first with majesty, then with wild joy. And again, if we look back, we notice how consistenlly Pushkin keeps the river at the center of our attention, often defining the city merely as the river's banks or fringes. This relationship of nature's elements to humanity's ordered creation--superior to inferior~is then clinched in lines 84-91, where the city's vulnerability is balanced against the river's captivity. The balance is precarious: Push- ikin's final address to St. Petersburg is couched in terms of a prayer that it not be upset. Discussion Questions: Explain why lines 92-96 have such a sinister ring to them. How has Pushkin prepared us for them? Assignment: Reread the Introduction of The Bronze Horseman in Russian, paying par- ticular attention to Pushkin's use of poetic devices (you may also wish to compare the translator's use of them), Look up the following terms in a dictionary of poetics (The Princeton Dictionary of Poetry and Poetics is one of the best), write out the definition, and give at least one example of each from the Russian text of the poem: alliteration, anaphora, assonance, irony, metaphor, metonymy, personification, simile, symbol, synecdoche, trope.The St. Petersburg Stock ExchangeLESSON 19: MISCELLANEOUS GRAMMAR, Grammar The grammar for the beginning of the body of the poem involves very litle beyond what you have leamed already. Note the following few points: 1. Adverbs can be used as the predicate adjective in impersonal sentences in Russian, In the present tense they comprise the entire sentence, TI630H0. Tt is late. Temnd. Ibis dark. ‘The past tense is formed with the neuter form 66140, the future with 6fdem. B60 nbsdno. Tt was late. Bfdem memib. Tt will be dark. 2. The past passive participle in Russian usually ends, as you have learned, in -waal, - HHA, -HHOe, -Hxbie for the long forms and -x, -Ha, -40, -H®t for the short forms. ‘There are a few verbs that use a different set of past passive endings, one in -m-. For example, 2a66ure, "to forget,” has: sa6errsia sa6érr (forgotten) sa6srras sa6erra sa6ErTOe 3a6srTO ‘a6crraie saGerret (Don’t forget that the forms and endings on the left are used attributively, that is, before a noun, and can be put into any case, while the short forms on the right can be used only predicatively, that is, after the verb "to be".) 3. Some masculine nouns end in -2: Eeztraua (Bugene), 2ep0a (hero) For the most part they are declined like soft masculine nouns (see nadine, “flame,” above). Assignment: Read and prepare Part I, lines 1-26. aLESSON 20: PART I, LINES 1-26, POETIC STRUCTURE Grammar Identify: line 6, ceoea line 17, sunfeucu line 9, ea line 21, ca¢rmom line 13, amenem line 25, ma Reading 1, The one season not clearly delineated in the apostrophe of the Introduction becomes the setting for Pushkin’s tale of Petrograd. Note his continuing reticence in regard to naming the city, but his free use of the river's name. The masterful simile of the Neva as a sick man thrashing about on his bed confirms the image of the neatly ordered city having only a tenuous hold on the wild river as it flows through Petersburg’s midst. 2. Naming becomes a problem for "our hero," as well, when Pushkin launches into a lengthy digression on Eugene's last name and current circumstances. Discussion Questions: How does Pushkin shape our perception of Eugene in his des- cription of him in this section? Assignment: Read the following essay on the systems of poetry. In a page or two of good English prose explain how a sub-verbal, verbal or super-verbal system contributes to the elaboration of a poetic idea in the Introduction. Be prepared to read your paper aloud in class, and to tum it in for a grade. ‘The essence of poetry, at least according to Yuriy M. Lotman, the most outstanding of Russian/Soviet structuralist critics (he died in 1993), is repetition, that is, the more or less regular reappearance of certain elements in any given text. If we accept that definition of poetry-and there are many who do not-then what follows is incontestable. Each set of repeating elements comprises a system. Such systems may contain elements found only in the poem, or they may be subsystems of some larger system extending beyond the poem. In any great poetic text there are usually many systems--perhaps this is what we mean when we speak of the “richness” of a poem or its "density." Careful readers can perceive and appreciate them on many different levels of their experience, It must also be noted that translation destroys all but the most prosaic of these systems, and that even when a good translation manages to create new systems of its own, the original arrangement of systems of the translated poet is nonetheless impossible to reconstruct in the new language. We speak, then, of the systems of repeated elements of poetry. But where are some of those systems? If we limit ourselves to a printed text like The Bronze Horseman, then we might say that there are three basic ones: the sub-verbal system, the verbal system, and the super-verbal system. The verbal is perhaps the easiest to comprehend: it isthat set of words (typographically separated units of letters) which make up the poem. Yet even this simplest of systems can be broken down further into other systems: 1 the system of words arranged, as Pushkin wrote them (j.e,, the text) 2. the systems of words Pushkin considered but rejected (i.e., drafts and variants) 3. the system of words arranged in alphabetical order (i.e., a com- plete concordance of the poem, a dictionary of case use, verb use, etc., in the poem) 4. the system of words arranged in alphabetical order according to the dictionary form of each word (infinitives for verbs, nominative singular for nouns, etc.; Pushkin’s vocabulary) 3. the system of words as a subsystem of the larger group of all Russian words (Pushkin’s peculiar vocabulary, archaisms, neologisms, variant forms) 6. the system of repeated words identical initial words (anaphora) a b. identical words (on, Heed) ¢. the same words with different endings (6epecd, epecds) d. the same root, but different grammatical function (cmpouxo, cmpou) This very last group, of course, we may not wish to consider as verbal at all: it is only part of a typographically discrete unit that is being repeated (so it could be system 1 of a new, sub-verbal series of systems). And suppose we wanted to consider repetitions of not the root but the ending (weédy, cocé8y, so system 2), or the case (deopyde, Géwer, system 3). For these categories we have sub-verbal systems, and they are as plentiful as the verbal ones. In addition to those just mentioned we might also have: the system of stressed syllables (i.e., the rhythm of the poem) the system of unstressed syllables (i.e., the meter) the system of repeated consonants (alliteration) the system of repeated vowels (assonance) the system of repeated syllables in line-final position (i.e., ryme) ie ee eee the system of repeated syllables in line-intemal positions (i.e., internal rhyme) 10. the system of sound pattems (¢.g., the first two and half lines of the poem: aiiuuyyo aaouiiio iaie which we might call the "sound texture" of the line) 6LL, the system of breaks within and between words (syilabification, punctua- tion, enjambement) This last system in its turn brings us to consider not only items smaller than words, but combinations of words, i.e., super-verbal systems of the poem. These are perhaps the most numerous of all: 1 the system of words and pauses (line 11) 2 the system of words and parts of other words (puns) 3. the system of two words forming a semantic unit (there are many systems possible here: noun-adjective, preposition-object, subject-verb, number-item, etc.) 4. the system of multiple word groups where all words are identical ae 93 and 94) the system of multiple word groups where one or more but not all Words ae identical (no scuticroin, minum 6epezds/no oorcue eno. 6epecae) 6. the system of words forming it ‘images (metaphors, similes) 1 the system of words creating contrasts (irony, oxymoron) 8. the system of words forming individual ideas (independent clauses) 9 the system of words forming complex ideas (paragraphs) As you can see, this last set of systems can be extended almost indefinitely, for while there is a limited number of possible sub-verbal combinations available in any given language, and even a limited number of verbal combinations (j.e,, words), the number of multiverbal combinations is for all practical purposes infinite. Now the role of the poet in all these myriad systems is to select some systems and exclude others. By selective repetition (and sometimes by obvious exclusion) the poet makes his or her point. That point leads us to the final major system, one which is inherent in the super-verbal system above, that is the system of the poetic ideas of the text, the thoughts the poet is trying to put across to the reader. If it is possible to have a magnitude of infinities, then this last system is even “more infinite” than the super- verbal system, for its only limits are the human imagination. In each poetic text, of course, it is not an infinite system, but a discrete one, which is made up of those ideas communicated to us by the other systems of the poem. And now we return to The Bronze Horseman. The system of poetic ideas of the entire poem is made up, in part, of the system of poetic ideas of the Introduction (here, as elsewhere in poetry, the sum of the ideas of each part is less than the sum of all the poetic ideas of the poem). Even without elaborate analysis we as readers can have some notion of the system of poetic ideas of the Introduction because we are (just now, in Russian) literate, have some literary experience, and possess intuition. But as we become more aware of the individual systems which make up the system of the poetic ideas of the Introduction, our insight and appreciation of those ideas deepen, We most likely will never exhaust the total system of ideas of the Introduction (much less of the opoem as a whole), if for no other reason than those ideas are always being intuited at different times and by different people (i.e., they are meshing with other systems). But we can grasp a few of the major ones, and hope, as time goes by and our experience (especially with Russian) grows richer, we will grasp still more,LESSON 21: MISCELLANEOUS GRAMMAR Grammar 1, The past gerund for a very few Russian verbs is irregular. Instead of endit (Gas, eaaomde), it ends in - (nprauéd). ‘The meaning, however, remains the same. 2. A few verbs in Russian have no -a in the masculine singular of the past tense because the infinitive stem (from which the past tense is formed) ends in a consonant (like x2c, "carried," from the beginning of the course). All the other forms have the - a. Some other verbs in this category are 2ews, "to lie down,” and mow, "to be able,” AR Be MON MO2 Abe moe meen moeAb accent mozale 3. Ymo (pronounced wuno) means both "what" (loc. case is o vem, “about what?") and “that” as a subordinating conjunction ('Ymo on Ooia Séden, "that he was poor"). 4. The dative case of the reflexive particle -ca/-ce (which is in actual fact the accusa- tive case, but in a contracted form) is ceté, "to/for oneself. It cannot be attached to the verb the way ~ca/-cb are. 5. To form the conditional mood in Russian is very simple: add the never changing particle 601 to any past tense form. On moe. He could, he was able. On moe Ooi. ‘He would be able. 6. The relative pronoun xambpei (who, which, that; it declines just like a regular adjective), changes depending on whom or what it is referring to. If, for example, it refers to something masculine and singular, it is masculine and singular; if it refers to something plural, itis plural; and so on. Its case, however, depends upon its role in its ‘own clause. Examples will come from the text. 7. You may have already noticed peculiar usages involving numbers and the words that follow them: emo sem one hundred years dea 2600 two years ras na dea, a mpu for about two or three days The general rule is that | and all compound numbers above 20 ending in one (21, 31, 41, 101, 1,000,001, etc.) are followed by the singular form of the noun. The numbers2,3, and 4 and all of their compounds above 20 (22, 53, 784, etc.) are followed by the genitive singular form of the noun. All other numbers (5-20, 25-30, 100, 1,000, 1,000,005, etc.) are followed by the genitive plurcl. Remember: this is only a gener- alization, but it will work for reading the poem. In the expressions above you should be aware that the third of them is anomalous, since du is not the genitive singular (Qua would be): poets have on occasion such license. Assignment: Read and prepare Part I, lines 27-48, ”LESSON 22: PART I, LINES 27-48 Grammar PURPOSES CLAUSES ‘Imo6/umnb6s: introduces purpose clauses in Russian ("in order to," "so that") and the subjunctive (which is not a separate form in Russian, but simply the past tense), used after verbs of wanting, wishing, desiring, commanding, etc.: On scenda, umo6 sémep He ais, He wished that the wind would not howl. Reading 1, In the very first verse of this section Pushkin with one word returns us from the digression and description of his hero to Eugene's actions. But the depiction of the young man continues, this time fleshed out with his thoughts as reported by the poet. Discussion Question: How satisfied is Eugene with his current situation? What are his ambitions? 2. At certain times of the day (usually late at night), the authorities used to open the bridges of St. Petersburg to let boat traffic pass. When the weather was particularly bad they would leave the bridges open all day 2s well, to prevent damage to them by the river. In the modern city the bridges are still opened at night, but they are mechan- ical draw bridges, so more or less impervious to damage during bad weather. But in Pushkin's day the bridges were actually roadways built on boats joined side-by-side (ie., pontoon bridges), and they were very vulnerable to damage. So quite frequently they were floated out of harm’s way during storms or periods of unusually high water. ‘This is what Pushkin is referring to when he writes "they took down the bridges.” The practical effect of this maneuvre was to retum the city to its original state, a patchwork of islands with no communication between them except by boat. Assignment: Read and prepare Part I, lines 49-71 A pontoon bridge in St. PetersburgLESSON 23: PART I, LINES 49-71a Grammar Identify: line 51, Oa00 u x00pe line 62, noxopoxam line 53, yempoum line 65, wmo6 line 56, npoadem line 67, cnmet line 61, pyxa c pyxoa line 70, nacma®m Reading 1. We get closer to Eugene's thoughts at the beginning of this section because in his hero's so-called "poetic meditation” Pushkin does not introduce each clause with wno. Discussion Questions: What is the significance of the word nputom in line 54? 2. Finally we are treated to a direct quotation from the mind of Eugene. It shows him concerned with job security, setting up a home, starting a family, constant com- panionship, and a peaceful end-in short, with a perfectly mundane existence. In no uncertain terms Pushkin wants his reader to compare Eugene with Peter the Great (he makes several poetic parallels 10 that end). Eugene, the latter-day denizen of St. Petersburg, Peter's metaphoric grandchild, becomes then another element in the earlier equation of founder, city, and river. Discussion Questions: How does Pushkin suggest the parallel between Eugene and Peter? What does Eugene come to represent in Part I of the poem? Assignment: Read and prepare Part I, lines 710-93,LESSON 24: LINES 71b-93 Grammar INFINITIVES An infinitive can be used in Russian together with a dative case noun or pronoun to convey the notion of "should": mo sane dears? What should I do? apha ne conaadérre ¢ Bbocued crmuxctien. ‘Tsars should not co-rule with God’s creation. Reading 1. The narrow Gulf of Finland, into which the Neva debouches through several mouths at St. Petersburg, can, if the wind blows from the west, focus an enormous weight of sea water against its eastem shores. Where there are openings, the gulf water will push inland. Such was the situation on the night of the sixth and during the early morning of the seventh of November 1824 (old style), when an unusual combina- tion of meteorological events conspired to drive the Neva back against itself. ‘The river waters then had no place to go but over the granite embankments of the city and up through the storm sewers. On the mainland part of the city there was significant damage, but on the islands there was chaos and massive loss of life and property as the waters washed away everything in their path. 2. Having prepared his readers for this eventuality during the preceding 150 verses, Pushkin finally releases the river from the fetters the city has imposed on it. Rising up from its sickbed, it becomes a ravening beast, before which all flee. Discussion Questions: What is the significance of lines 92-932 What is the simile so apt? Assignment: Read and prepare Part I, lines 94-123.The St. Petersburg Flood of 1824LESSON 25: PART I, LINES 94-123 Grammar Identify: line 101, 2poa6a cnectraaie aocmét line 111, yap line 114, os2panae line 123, dma mowyupad nape Reading 1. Pushkin reaches Vergilian heights of poetic expressiveness in his description of the flood’s devastating effect upon Petersburg. Consider the "I's" and the *v's" of lines 94-96, the epic list of lines 98-103, the image of coffins floating down the streets. The tsar of line 107 who ruled "with glory" was the popular Alexander I (1801-1825), the hero of the Napoleonic wars. He, too, acquires epic proportions as he sadly surveys the havoc in the capital city of his realm. Despite his impotence (so much in contrast to Pushkin's depiction of Peter), Alexander sends his generals to rescue the panic- stricken populace as a brave gesture in the face of evil fortune. Discussion Questions: What does the adjective "Vergilian" imply? Alexander was an actual (not metaphoric) granchild of Peter I. How does Pushkin compare him with his distant progenitor in the matter of St, Petersburg and the river? Assignment: Read and prepare Part I, lines 124-145a. perroLESSON 26: PART I, LINES 124-145a Grammar Identify: line 128, dea sea line 135, nodmaieé.s line 140, nasederds Reading 1, The focus once again returns to Eugene, but a very different figure from the reflec- tive, unambitious young man we left in line 68. The night has passed, the storm has struck, and evidently Eugene, awakened to the destruction all around him, has run out of his safe room to get to the house of his beloved in Kolomna, an area on one of the exposed islands across the river. He makes it only as far as Peter's Square, where he is forced to take refuge from the rising waves by clambering up on one of the marble lions, which protect a house facing that square to the present day. From astride his lion he confronts the angry river. Discussion Questions: What do we understand about Eugene’s mental state from Push- kin’s description of him in this section? - ‘Assignment: Finish Part I by reading and preparing lines 145b-163,‘The Kazan’ Cathedral and a portion of Nevsky Prospect in Pushkin’s time (the 1820s)LESSON 27: PART I, LINES 145b-163 Reading 1, Two things are visible from the lions in front of the Lobanov-Rostovsiry house: the Neva and the great bronze statue of Peter I, which rises in the center of Peter's Square. Eugene, maddened by the storm, thinks he sees Parasha's house float by on the river, with its fence and willow in front, Discussion Questions: How does Pushkin answer in the affirmative his bitter question in lines 152-154? 2. The final nine verses of Part I at last bring all the protagonists of the poem together: Eugene, ‘nailed, as it were, to his marble lion,’ the troubled Neva, and ‘the idol on the bronze horse,’ Peter himself, with his back to Eugene, towering over the river. Discussion Questions: What is the significance of the adjective in line 160? What is Eugene momentarily transformed into atop his marble pedestal? Why is the statue of Peter called an idol? If Tke Bronze Horseman were a play, how do you think Pushkin would end this scene? What does your answer say about the dramatic tension inherent in this moment? Assignment: During the last week of this course, read and prepare on your own Part I, lines 1-222, of the poem. There will be no class meetings to discuss the poem, but you have been given all the grammar necessary to understand each form in this section. All unfamiliar vocabulary has been inserted for you interlinearly in the text, to save you the trouble of looking up every word. Of course each word in Part I] is defined in the glossary if you need a meaning. Note, however. that the insertions, like the glos- sary entries, are just the “dictionary-look-up" forms of the words in the poem, not their direct translations, ‘The purpose of this final assignment is not for you to translate Part TH but rather to understand it in Russian. So make sure you know how the Russian phrases fit together. You may find Elton’s translation a useful ‘crutch’ for this pur- pose, but by now you should realize how profoundly inaccurate in terms of poetics even a far better translation that his can be. Enjoy the Russian; do not limp along in the English. The Final Examination: This will be a two-hour test which will consist exclusively of commenting on passages of Part II which I will select. You will be given exactly the same text as included in this book, with all its insertions, and asked, as in the Discus- sion Questions throughout the book, to write briefly about Pushkin's use of words or phrases, his point in a particular passage, or the poetic significance of some verse(s), A rereading of the Introduction and Part I, as well as your class notes, plus a con- scientious preparation of part Hl, are all you need to do well in this examination.3a mum necémcea Bedduux médnoiti Ha sebuxo-créuyuyem Kone,