Eugene Onegin ( without commentary )

4 8

Notes to Eugene Onegin [These are Pushkin1 s notes, pp. 281-93 of the 183 7 edition. My own notes to them will be found in the Commentary, to which refer the bracketed citations.~\ 1. Written in Bessarabia. [One: 11: 14.] 2. Dandy [Eng.], a fop. [One: iv: 7.] 3. Hat a la Bolivar. [One: xv: 10.] 4. Well-known restaurateur. [One: xvi 15.] 5. A trait of chilled sentiment worthy of Childe Harold. The ballets of Mr. Didelot are full of liveliness of fancy and extraordinary charm. One of our romantic writers found in them much more poetry than in the whole of French literature. [One: xxi: 14.] 6. "Tout le monde sut qu'il mettoit du blanc, et moi qui n'en croyois rien je commencai de le croire, non seule-ment par rembellissement de son teint, et pour avoir trouve des tasses de blanc sur sa toilette, mais sur ce qu'entrant un matin dans sa chambre, je le trouvai ?? Eugene Onegin brossant ses ongles avec une petite vergette faite expres, ouvrage qu'il continua fierement devant moi. Je jugeai qu'un homme qui passe deux heures tous les matins a brosser ses ongles peut bien passer quelques instans a remplir de blanc les creux de sa peau." (Les Confessions de Jean-Jacques Rousseau.)

Grimm was ahead of his age: nowadays people all over enlightened Europe clean their nails with a special brush. [One: xxiv: 12.] 7. The whole of this ironical stanza is nothing but a subtle compliment to our fair compatriots. Thus Boileau, under the guise of disapprobation, eulogizes Louis XIV. Our ladies combine enlightenment with amiability, and strict purity of morals with the Oriental charm that so captivated Mme de Stael (Dix ans (TexiT). [One: XLII: 13.] 8. Readers remember the charming description of a Petersburg night in Gnedich's idyl: Here's night; but the golden stripes of the clouds do not darken. Though starless and moonless, the whole horizon lights up. Far out in the [Baltic] gulf one can see the silvery sails Of hardly discernible ships that seem in the blue sky to float. With a gloomless radiance the night sky is radiant, And the crimson of sunset blends with the Orient's gold, As if Aurora led forth in the wake of evening Her rosy morn. This is the aureate season When the power of night is usurped by the summer days; When the foreigner's gaze is bewitched by the

Northern sky Where shade and ambrosial light form a magical union