A Hero of Our Time

Notes

1

Belinsky, V. G. Notes of the Fatherland (St. Peterburg: 1841), vol. XIV, pp. 45-46.

2

Eikhenbaum, B. M. Lermontov: A Study in Literary-Historical Evaluation (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1981), p. 171.

3

Garrard, John. “Old Wine in New Bottles: The Legacy of Lermontov” in Poetica Slavica: Studies in Honour of Zbigniew Folejewski, edited by J. Douglas Clayton and Gunter Schaarschmidt (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1981), pp. 41-52.

4

Belinsky, V. G., and M. Yurievich Lermontov. Pro et Contra (St. Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Russkogo Khristianskogo Gumanitrnogo Instituta, 2002), p. 75.

5

Barthes, Roland. S/Z, trans. Richard Miller (London: Jonathan Cape, 1975).

6

As translated by Laurence Kelly in Kelly, Laurence. Lermontov: Tragedy in the Caucasus (London: Constable, 1977), p. 100.

7

Vasilchikov, Prince Alexander. As translated and mentioned by Richard Freeborn in Freeborn, Richard. “A Hero of Our Time” in The Rise of the Russian Novel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 39.

8

Kelly, Laurence. Lermontov: Tragedy in the Caucasus, p. 44.

9

Eikhenbaum, B. M. Lermontov: A Study in Literary-Historical Evaluation, p. 170.

1

Rus’: A term referring to an ancient people and their land, which are latterly represented by the Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian peoples and their territories.

1

dukhan: An inn in the Caucasus.

2

verst: An obsolete Russian measurement equal to about 3,500 feet.

3

troika: A carriage drawn by three horses harnessed side by side.

4

saklyas: Caucasian mountain huts.

5

Lermontov uses the word burka here, a felt cloak worn in the Caucasus.

6

bouza: A kind of fermented alcohol made from millet.

7

peaceable prince: The term for a local chieftain who took no sides in the war between the Caucasian tribes and the Russians.

8

peaceable prince: A tribal leader who cooperated with Russian forces in the Caucasus.

9

kunak: This means true friend, blood brother.

10

aul: A Caucasian village.

11

balalaika: A Russian stringed instrument with a triangular body and long neck.

12

dzhigits: Caucasian horsemen known for equestrian feats and trick-riding.

13

galloon: Braid or lace made of metal, typically used in military uniform.

14

chamois: A goatlike animal native to the Caucasus mountains.

15

abreks: A kind of freedom-fighter in the Caucasus. This word is also used to describe bandits and outcasts.

16

beshmet: A kind of quilted coat.

17

“Yakshi tkhe, chek yakshi!”: This means “A good horse, very good!”

18

gyaurs: Non-Muslims. The word is a Turkic version of the Persian word for infidel.

19

Karagyoz: A Turkic name, which literally means “black eyes,” but also refers to a Turkish shadow puppet, popular for many centuries in countries near Turkey.

20

Yok: This means “no” or “not.” It is said to be Tatar.

21

gurda: An expensive weapon made of high-quality steel.

22

Padishah: This was a title for the Sultan of Turkey.

23

There is a footnote here in Lermontov’s original: Я прошу прощения у читателей в том, что переложил в стихи песню Казбича, переданную мне, разумеется, прозой; но привычка—вторая натура. (Прим. Лермонтова.)

24

yashmak: A type of Turkish veil worn by women.

25

Urus—yaman, yaman!: This means “The Russian is bad, bad!”

26

peri: A term of endearment referring to fairylike creatures who are fallen angels.

27

muzhik: A male Russian peasant.

28

Russ: An older word meaning “Russian man.”

29

dear little: this refers to provincial Russian cities and has a slightly pejorative tone (hence the italics, which were in Lermontov’s original).

30

Krestovaya: This is a mountain, the name of which translates as “Mountain of the Cross.”

31

Nightingale-Robber: A figure from Russian folklore who wrought havoc and was able to render people immobile by whistling.

32

lezginka: A folk dance of the Lezgin people.

33

sazhen: An obsolete Russian measurement equal to seven feet.

34

thermalam: Fabric used for lining, usually linen or cotton.

1

dolman: A Hungarian jacket.

2

Balzac’s thirty-year-old coquette: This refers to Honoré de Balzac’s novel La Femme de Trente Ans (1834).

1

Rousseau’s confessions: This refers to Les Confessions by Rousseau.

1

izba: A traditional Russian log house.

2

fatera: This word means quarters.

3

slobodka: A settlement exempted from normal State obligations.

4

On that day the dumb shall cry out: A reference to the Bible, Isaiah 35:5-6: “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing.”

5

uryadnik: A Cossack NCO, a noncommissioned officer.

6

rusalka: A water nymph, frequently demonic, who lives underwater, often at the bottom of rivers.

7

La Jeune-France: A group of young French writers of the 1830s who are known to have exaggerated the theories of Romanticism. They looked up to Victor Hugo.

8

Mignon: A character in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.

1

The opening line of a short poem by Alexander Pushkin titled “The Cloud” (1835).

2

whist: A trick-taking card game played by four players. It was popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

3

fichu: A triangular scarf worn around the neck.

4

à la moujik: This means “in the peasant style.”

5

“Mon cher, je haïs les hommes pour ne pas mépriser, car autrement la vie serait une farce trop dégoutante”: “My dear friend, I hate men in order not to despise them, otherwise life would be a most repulsive farce.” (French)

6

“Mon cher, je méprise les femmes pour ne pas les aimer, car autrement la vie serait un mélodrame trop ridicule”: “My dear friend, I despise women in order not to love them, otherwise life would be a most ridiculous melodrama.” (French)

7

cherkeska: A Circassian tunic, worn over the beshmet.

8

Beshtau, Zmeinoi, Zheleznaya, and Lisaya: The translation, from Turkish and Russian, of these names: Five-mountains, The Snake, The Iron One, The Bare One.

9

“Mon dieu, un Circassien!”: “My God, a Circassian!” (French)

10

“Ne craignez rien, madame—je ne suis pas plus dangereux que votre cavalier.”: “Fear not, madam—I am no more dangerous than your cavalier.” (French)

11

Nogay wagon: The Nogays are an East Caucasian people.

12

C’est impayable!: “That’s priceless!” (French)

13

This is a reference to Pyotr Pavlovich Kaverin, a friend of Pushkin’s who served in the same regiment as Lermontov, and who is mentioned in the first chapter of Eugene Onegin.

14

Library for Reading: A journal of the 1830s and 1840s (Biblioteka dlya Chteniya), which published memoirs and foreign novels, among other things.

15

souls: Serfs in Russia were counted as “souls.”

16

From act 3, scene 3 of Woe from Wit by Aleksandr Griboedov. It is slightly misquoted by Lermontov here.

17

The cold observations… : A fragment from Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin.

18

vampire: The vampire referred to here is the hero of a story by John Polidori called “The Vampyre,” about a young man who negotiates society by wreaking havoc on the virtuous and encouraging the sinister.

19

son coeur et sa fortune: His heart and his fortune. (French)

20

arkhaluk: A Caucasian coat.

21

“É finita la commedia!”: “The comedy is finished!” (Italian)

1

stanitsa: A large Cossack village.

2

Boston: A card game.

3

faro: A card game that was popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, involving an entire pack of playing cards and any number of players.

4

stuss: A variant of the card game faro.

5

chikhir: A young red wine from the Caucasus.

6

uryadnik: This is a Cossack NCO, a noncommissioned officer.