Uvar Ivanovich wagged his digits and gazed enigmatically into the distance.
Note on the Text
The present translation is based on the Russian text published in Volume 8 of the 28-volume edition of Turgenev’s Complete Collected Works and Letters, published in 1960–68.
Notes
p.3, Kuntsevo: In the nineteenth century a summer resort for Muscovites, some twelve miles west of the city. Now incorporated into Greater Moscow.
p.6, Dantan: Jean-Pierre Dantan (1800–69), a French sculptor whose work often caricatured major figures of the day.
p.9, Long live Marya Petrovna: Popular song to words (1833) by N.M. Yazykov (“Licentious and loving and lucid/My spirit is cheerful”).
p.9, Vous me comprenez: “You understand me” (French).
p.10, Oberon’s horn: The legend of Oberon was best known through Christoph Wieland’s poem (translated into Russian in 1787) and Carl Maria Weber’s opera (1826).
p.11, not love as pleasure but love as sacrifice: Theme found frequently in Arthur Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation (1818).
p.13, Stavasser: Pyotr Andreyevich Stavasser (1816–50), Russian sculptor.
p.15, Hélène: Yelena. The Russian upper classes often used Frenchified versions of their Russian forenames.
p.16, pension: Boarding school.
p.16, school of junkers: Abbreviated name of a school founded in 1823 to train young noblemen for service in the Guards.
p.17, eralash: Card game similar to bridge.
p.17, frondeur: “Political rebel” (French).
p.17, mein Pinselchen: “My little simpleton” (German).
p.18, Corps of Cadets schools: Schools established in Petersburg, Moscow and other towns by Alexander I.
p.19, the Academy: The Imperial Academy of Arts, founded as a separate institution in 1764.
p.20, Paul… Zoé: French version of “Pavel” and “Zoya”.
p.20, La Dernière Pensée de Weber: A waltz, purportedly the last complete work composed by Carl Maria Weber (1786–1826). In fact it was composed in 1824 by Carl Gottlieb Reissiger (1798–1859) (Danses brillantes Op. 5).
p.22, Timofei Nikolayevich: T.N. Granovsky (1813–55), Professor of History at Moscow University. Once a fellow student of Turgenev at Petersburg University, he became famous for his public lectures.
p.23, Schelling, the German philosopher: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854). His work was a major influence on Turgenev.
p.28, Schiller: Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), German poet, philosopher, historian and playwright.
p.31, Raumer’s History of the Hohenstaufen: work by the German historian Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer (1781–1873), first published in six volumes 1823–25.
p.33, Lenochka: Familiar form of “Yelena”.
p.37, Arbat and Povarskaya Street: Major streets in Moscow.
p.39, silver roubles: Silver roubles were some three- and-a-half times more valuable than paper roubles.
p.41, contrabombardon: Officially the bombardon contrabass, a brass instrument patented by the Belgian inventor and musician Antoine-Joseph (“Adolphe”) Sax (1814–94) in 1845. The Great Exhibition was held in Hyde Park in 1851.
p.42, dans mon gros bon sens: “With my crude common sense” (French).
p.42, devant les domestiques: “In front of the servants” (French).
p.45, Don’t Go Away: Romance (1858) by Anton Antonovich Derfeldt (Dörfeldt) to words (1842) by Afanasy Fet.
p.47, êtres sans cœur: “Heartless beings” (French).
p.50, Addio: “Goodbye” (Italian).
p.51, Nevsky Prospect: Major street in Petersburg.
p.52, self-sleeper: This was the name (Russian samoson) given by Turgenev to a sofa in his own home at Spasskoye.
p.52, Illuminatus: Member of a group founded in 1776 by the German mystic AdamWeisshaupt (1748–1830).
p.52, Swedenborgianism: The theological writings of the Swedish philosopher and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).
p.53, Andryusha: Familiar form of “Andrei”.
p.53, The events of 1848: There were revolutions throughout Europe in that year.
p.54, aga: Turkish military functionary.
p.59, Eastern Question: This question dominated European diplomacy throughout the nineteenth century. It related to the future of the Ottoman territories in the Balkan peninsula, of which Bulgaria was one.
p.59, Feuerbach: Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–72), a German philosopher.
p.60, Why are you silent, my friend Horatio? Open your prophetic lips: generalized reference to Act i, Sc. 1 of Hamlet, in which Horatio repeatedly ignores the Ghost’s instruction to speak, and Act i, Sc. 5, in which Hamlet exclaims, “O my prophetic soul.”
p.62, Venelin: Yuriy Ivanovich Venelin (1802–39), eminent Ukrainian researcher into the history, language and folklore of Bulgaria. He lived in Russia from 1825.
p.62, King Krum, Khrum or Khrom of Bulgaria: Variant spellings for the Khan of Bulgaria (755–814; reigned 803–14).
p.63, Wer: “Who?” (German).
p.65, Max to Agatha: Characters in Weber’s opera Der Freischütz (1820). The reference is to Act ii, Sc. 3.
p.66, empty vessels… pour into us, o living water: A parodic reference to the Slavophile philosophy of Alexei Khomyakov (1804–60), Konstantin Aksakov (1817–60) and Ivan Kireyevsky (1806–56).
p.67, The Mozdok Steppe: Folk song first published in 1833.
p.70, Even Themistocles ate on the eve of the battle of Salamis: Themistocles was an Athenian general (c.528–462 bc) who defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 bc.
p.72, Sergiyev Posad: Town north-east of Moscow, famous for its Trinity Monastery.
p.76, partie de plaisir: “Outing” (French). In Chapter 21 of The Professor (1845–46) Charlotte Brontë translates the French phrase literally as “party of pleasure”.
p.76, Tsaritsyno: Palace and park with lakes (“ponds”) built for Catherine II in what are now the southern suburbs of Moscow. The palace, or “castle” was abandoned in 1785 and quickly became a ruin.
p.77, Quelle bourde: “What a blunder!” (French).
p.78, Ihre Hand, Madame: “Your hand, Madam!” (German).
p.79, Milovidova: Russian for “bellevue” or “belvedere”.
p.79, alexandriika: Brightly coloured cotton material.
p.80, In the waves naught to be seen: Actually the fifth verse of the folk song ‘Down Mother River Volga’.
p.80, Niedermeyer’s ‘Le Lac’: Setting by the French composer Louis Niedermeyer (1802–61) of ‘The Lake’ (‘Le Lac’), published by Alphonse Lamartine in 1820.
p.80, Allons: “Let’s go” (French).
p.80, Ô lac! l’année à peine a fini sa carrière: “O Lake! Scarce has the year completed its full course” (French). The first line of the second stanza of ‘Le Lac’.
p.83, I am Offizier, an official: In his drunken state the German mistranslates Offizier as official (chinovnik) instead of officer. High officials in the Russian civil service were accorded ranks which equated to military ranks. For example, Major Kovalyov in Gogol’s story The Nose is actually a civilian.
p.83, einen Kuss: “One kiss” (German).
p.83, potsaluishnik: A garbled form of a Russian colloquial variant of the noun “kiss”.
p.83, Der Sakramenter: “The brass-necked fellow!” (German).
p.84, Hören Sie das, Herr Provisor: “Do you hear that, Mr Vicar?” (German).
p.84, Einen Kuss will ich: “A kiss is what I want” (German).
p.84, Herrje: “Jesus Christ!” (German).
p.84, Mein Gott!: “My God!” (German).
p.85, Count von Kieseritz himself: The name
appears to be based on that of the real-life Georg von Kieseritzky, a German who became a hereditary Russian nobleman in 1864.
p.108, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich: Second son of Tsar Paul I, whose renunciation of his claim to the throne led to a constitutional crisis in 1825. He was de-facto viceroy of Congress Poland from 1819 to 31.
p.110, Trema Bisanzio: “Tremble, Byzantium” (Italian). Alamiro’s words from Part ii, Sc. 3 of Donizetti’s 1836 opera Belisario. The opera was staged in Petersburg in 1839–40.
p.111, exalting them into pearls of creation: Adapted quotation from Part 1, Chapter 7 of Gogol’s Dead Souls.
p.111, en canaille: “Like the rabble” (French).
p.111, consort of the fine-fleeced ewes: Luis Sundkvist has pointed out that this is a heavily adapted quotation of a line by Turgenev’s friend, the poet Afanasy Fet. Fet’s poem is a translation of André Chénier’s ‘L’impur et fier époux que la chèvre désire’ and was sent by Fet to Turgenev just before he began work on On the Eve.
p.116, Sortez, s’il vous plaît: “Please leave” (French).
p.116, Et vous, madame, restez, je vous prie: “And you, madam, stay if you please” (French).
p.117, chief secretary: Post bringing with it the rank of Grade 6 on the fourteen-rank civil service Table of Ranks.
p.118, English Club: Prestigious Moscow club founded in 1772. Its former building on Tverskaya Street is now the Museum of the Revolution.
p.118, Collegiate Councillor: Grade 6 on the Table of Ranks.
p.118, Order of St Stanislaus: Originally a Polish order, it was incorporated into the Russian orders of chivalry in 1831.
p.118, pères de comédie: “Theatrical fathers” (French).
p.119, un vrai stoïcien: “A true Stoic” (French).
p.119, à bras ouverts: “With open arms” (French).
p.119, Manège: Indoor riding academy built 1817–25 in the centre of Moscow. It is now an exhibition hall.
p.121, comme il faut: “Proper behaviour” (French).
p.123, Prechistenka: Major Moscow street.
p.123, Reval: Now Tallinn, capital of Estonia.
p.123, des poses plastiques: A form of popular entertainment, featuring models, often semi-naked females, re-enacting works of art. First seen in London in 1846.
p.123, Moscow News: Newspaper published 1756–1917, closely linked with Moscow University. In the nineteenth century it appeared three times weekly.
p.123, Das ist ein Mann: “That is a man!” (German).
p.124, the occupation of the Principalities by Russian forces: The Turkish principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (now Romania) were occupied by Russian forces in July 1853.
p.128, Kuznetsky Bridge: Fashionable Moscow shopping street.
p.129, pieniądze: “Money” (Polish).
p.131, termolama: Silk-like material.
p.135, aut Caesar, aut nihil: “Either Caesar or nothing” (Latin). Motto adopted by Cesare Borgia (1475–1517) in 1499.
p.135, Grote: George Grote (1794–1871), British banker, historian and radical politician. His major work, a twelve-volume History of Greece appeared 1845–55. Bersenev can only have read it in English as no translation was published until 1855.
p.139, Werther: Goethe’s highly influential novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).
p.149, ces femmes – qu’on me les montre: “These women – show them to me!” (French).
p.149, Pythagoras: Greek philosopher (570–495 bc), famed for his eloquence.
p.150, Vous rêvez, mon cher: “You’re dreaming, my dear fellow” (French).
p.151, sukhari: Rusk-like biscuits.
p.151, Nous avons changé tout ça: “We’ve changed all that” (French). Slight misquotation of a famous line from Act ii, Sc. 6 of Molière’s play (1666) Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in Spite of Himself).
p.151, Nikolenka: Familiar form of Nikolai, used here sarcastically.
p.152, Rosenstrauch’s: Fashionable Moscow shop owned by Wilhelm (Vasily Ivanovich) Rosenstrauch (1792–1870).
p.153, Un laquais! Quelle humiliation!: “A footman! What a humiliation!” (French).
p.155, Massacre of Sinope: Name given in Britain and France to the sinking by the Russian navy, on 30th November 1853, of twelve Turkish ships sheltering in the port of Sinope on the Black Sea. Shore batteries were also destroyed and some 3,000 Ottomans killed.
p.157, vous me faites mourir: “You are killing me” (French).
p.157, des vils laquais: “Vile lackeys” (French).
p.160, This was a man: Antony’s final line (on Brutus) in Act v, Sc. 5 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Turgenev had helped Afanasy Fet with his 1859 translation of Shakespeare’s play, but does not use Fet’s version of this line. The quotation was one of Turgenev’s favourite Shakespeare quotations.
p.163, Diesen Insaroff vorziehen – und wem: “To prefer this Insarov – and to whom?” (German).
p.168, With God upon the distant road: The first line of the seventh poem in the cycle Songs of the Western Slavs, published by Alexander Pushkin in 1835.
p.168, we must sit down: A traditional Russian custom which persists to this day.
p.171, Zara: Now Zadar in Croatia.
p.171, England and France had declared war on Russia: They did so in October 1853.
p.172, there’s a white sail: An echo of Mikhail Lermontov’s famous lyric ‘A Solitary Sail White Gleams’ (1832).
p.172, Aufgepasst: “Look out!” (German). Venice was under Austrian rule from 1797 to 1866.
p.174, Canaletto… Guardi: Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768), known as Canaletto, and Francesco Guardi (1712–93) were famous Venetian painters of Venetian scenes.
p.174, Riva degli Schiavoni: “Quay of the Slavs” (Italian).
p.175, St Mark leaping from heaven… to save a tortured slave: The Miracle of the Slave (1548) by Jacopo Tintoretto (1518–94).
p.175, man in the green chlamys: The man in the painting is actually wearing a red chlamys.
p.175, Titian’s Assumption: Painted 1516–18 as an altarpiece for the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, where it is to be found today. However, between 1818 and 1919 it was housed in the Accademia.
p.175, a severe sacred painting by Cima da Conegliano the Elder: Probably The Incredulity of St Thomas (1502–4). The painter was forty-three-year-old Giovanni Battista Cima, also called Cima da Conegliano (c.1459–c.1517). Various other painters, including his son, came from Conegliano.
p.175, cameriere: “Waiter” (Italian).
p.175, frutti di mare: “Fruits of the sea” – i.e. seafood (Italian).
p.175, La traviata: Opera by Giuseppe Verdi, first performed in Venice in March 1853 and in Russia in 1858–59. It is based on La Dame aux camélias, a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Turgenev was generally critical of Verdi’s work.
p.176, camellias: Women who resembled the consumptive heroine of La Dame aux camélias became known as “camellias”. Turgenev uses the word in the Epilogue to Nest of the Gentry.
p.177, Lasciami vivere… to die so young: The first phrase does not occur in the libretto to Verdi’s opera; the second phrase comes from Act 3.
p.181, Osservatore Triestino: Daily newspaper published in Trieste from 1784 to 1933.
p.182, Silistra taken: Lupoyarov’s information is, predictably, incorrect. Silistra, an Ottoman fortress on the Danube in north-eastern Bulgaria, was besieged by the Russians between March and June 1853, but not taken.
p.182, Marino Faliero: Marino Faliero (1285–1355) was the Doge of Venice when he was beheaded for attempting a coup d’état.
p.182, Decapitati pro criminibus: “Beheaded for his crimes” (Latin). Faliero’s portrait was removed from the Hall of the Gr
eat Council in the Doge’s Palace and replaced with a black shroud bearing this inscription.
p.182, I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs: Opening line of the fourth and final canto of Byron’s Childe Harold (1818).
p.182, Boustrapa and Palmerston: Boustrapa was the nickname of Napoleon III (1803–73), composed of the initial syllables of three cities (Boulogne, Strasbourg, Paris), where he tried to foment insurrection, twice unsuccessfully and once successfully. Lord Palmerston (1784–1865) was the British Foreign Secretary (1830–41 and 1846–51), noted for his anti-Russian, pro-Turkish views.
p.182, Palmerston has become Prime Minister: Lupoyarov’s information is again wrong: Palmerston did not become Prime Minister until 1855.
p.182, L’avenir – le gendarme de Dieu: “The future – the gendarme of God” (French). Partial quotation of the last line of Victor Hugo’s poem ‘On loge la nuit’ (‘One Spends the Night’), published in the collection Les Châtiments (Chastisements) in 1853.
On the Eve (Alma Classics) Page 19
