Bryusov-lyrics' Genre in a Translation Dialogue with French Symbolism

Kartasheva Anna Olegovna Postgraduate, Moscow University named after A.S. Griboedov 111024, Russia, Moscow, Highway Enthusiasts str., 21 Anna.kartasheva@internet.ru Other publications by this author

Ustinovskaya Alena Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0001-5381-0777 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Romano-Germanic Languages, Moscow State University for the Humanities and Economics Losinoostrovskaya str., 49, Moscow, 107150, Russia alyonau1@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

V.Y. Bryusov played a crucial role in the development and renewal of genre processes in Russian poetry of the late XIX – early XX century. As M.L. Gasparov notes, Bryusov realized the function of a "defeated teacher", who was surpassed by "winners-students", and in this respect continued the lines of Zhukovsky and Trediakovsky. "At the beginning of the Russian XVIII century," Gasparov writes, "Trediakovsky is such an unrecognized teacher, and at the beginning of the XX century - Bryusov. You don't have to reread it, you can condemn it for its coldness and dryness, you can prefer Blok, Mayakovsky, Yesenin, Pasternak, to whom you like. But it is impossible not to admit that without Bryusov, Russian poetry would have had neither Blok, nor Pasternak, nor even Yesenin and Mayakovsky – or would have had them unrecognizably different. It was impossible for anyone to pass Bryusov's school" ^{[4, p. 5]}.

The method of realization of this teaching, mentoring role was the extensive manner of development of V.Y. Bryusov's creativity noted by D.E. Maksimov: he sought to cover the maximum number of forms and genres in original and translated works. In particular, D.E. Maksimov points out that "Bryusov often used an extensive method - capturing all new areas and leaving what he had just conquered. Bryusov's poetry was open to a variety of spheres: both life and book. He used huge layers of historical and spiritual experience accumulated by mankind, finding in them what was close to him and necessary. He loved to travel through culture – through centuries and countries – and during these trips he rarely stayed in the same place" ^{[10, pp. 21-22]}.

The development of these layers involved the creation of original samples of poetry representing various cultures, and translations of poems, also organized on the principle of extensive development of achievements of various cultures.

Of interest is the genre of ekphrasis, embodied by V.Y. Bryusov through Verlaine's translations. Leonid Andreev points out the impressionistic nature of Verlaine's poetry: in his poems there was a visualization of paintings, paintings embodied verbally. "The collection "Gallant Festivities" clearly showed that the objective part of the "landscape of the soul" can grow to the limits that arouse doubt about the impressionism of certain works that draw such "landscapes". Impressionism opens up the real world as a source of impressions, and this discovery of reality may not stay within the boundaries of the impressionistic method proper, it may push these boundaries – up to realism" ^{[3, p. 87]}. A well-known example of an ecphrasis translation is the translation of the 1869 poem "On the Grass", referring to two famous paintings by French artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet, who created the paintings "Breakfast on the Grass" in 1863 and 1866, respectively ^[9].

In the poem "On the Grass", neither the author nor the translator put the ecphrasis in the title and genre markings: the astute reader is invited to catch the allusion on his own. A much more interesting variant in terms of genre is the poem "Paris Crocs", which is also a translation from Verlaine, while the name contains the designation of the genre, which Bryusov preferred to reproduce in transliteration. The word "croquis" used by Verlaine translates as "sketch, sketch" ^[5], however, Bryusov, as a translator, decided to title the poem with the word "crocs", and the adjective "Parisian" agreed with him indicates the neuter gender of this noun, that is, Bryusov interpreted it by analogy with such nouns as "jury", "derby", etc.

According to the National Corpus of the Russian language, the word "crocs" was in use in the XIX – early XX century and was used, as a rule, in the plural: "If not portraits from them, then at least outlines, crocs I want to take off" (1877, from the Notes of F.F. Vigel) ^[12], "Major-General of the retinue E. V. Protasov-Bakhmetyev arrived from the detachment operating under Elena; he told the details of the latest cases, with an explanation of them on the terrain maps compiled by himself" (Diary of D.A. Milyutin) ^[12]. We see the same in fiction, for example, in N.A. Leskov's "Damn Dolls": Art was dear to me to the extent that I was completely carried away by it, and when I finished my crocs, I silently drove up to the duke and handed him my book, but, imagine, he was so impolite that he pushed it away with his hand and said sharply: "I did not demand that it be served to me" ^[12]. From 1907 to 1912, inclusive, the NCRA records dozens of uses of the word "crocs" as part of the heading name in the "Petersburg Newspaper" - "Sketches and crocs", which also implies the use in the plural. In the 1930s and later, the word "crocs" was also recorded in the plural, and in most cases is used in relation to military affairs. Only in the usage of A.T. Tvardovsky, the NKRYA notes "crocs" (also pluralia tantum) in the meaning of "drafts" - "crocs of the first chapter", etc.

V.Y. Bryusov, thus, creates a precedent for the use of the word "crocs" in the unique, neuter gender, singular. Such a usage is not noted in the NCRA in principle, which suggests the uniqueness of the Bryusov context. The name "Paris kroki" indicates his perception of the word "kroki" as an analogue of the word "sketch" or similar. This word should be considered as a unique genre definition of a poetic ekphrasis-sketch. It is not by chance that Bryusov distances himself from the accepted use of "crocs" (in the case of using this word in the plural, the poem "Paris Crocs" should be titled), thereby noting the uniqueness

Further, in addition to the unique genre definition, the author of the translation made some significant changes in the text compared to the original. In Verlaine's original text, the moon "applied its zinc spots / on the obtuse corners / and on the tips of the chimney lids / in the form of an inverted five" - that is, it means a triangular chimney lid shaped like an inverted Roman numeral V. At Bryusov 's we see:

The moon put spots on the walls

The angle is blunt.

Like the number five, bent back,

Black smoke rose above the sharp roof.

^{[4, p. 19]}

Thus, in the form of a triangle, the poet sees smoke, not the tip of the pipe, and the image of the inverted Roman numeral V itself is not obvious, since Bryusov separates the single construction of Paul Verlaine: the moon does not cast spots on the chimneys, and the smoke is a separate, independent way, which enhances the impressionistic component of the text: the view seems to move from one object to another, without lingering for a long time on anything. At the same time, it is difficult to imagine smoke in the form of an inverted V – these are rather rounded clubs resembling the Arabic numeral 5.

In the second stanza, the translator also makes changes to the text compared to the original. In Verlaine's text, "The sky was gray. The wind was crying / like a bassoon / In the distance, a cold and restrained cat / Meowed in a strange, squeaky voice." In this quatrain, two rather rarely used words are used: bise as the name of a certain type of wind: a northern or north-eastern cold wind, and matou is the name of an uncastrated domestic cat (in contrast to the gender–neutral chat, which can be designated both a cat and a cat) ^[1]. Translated by V.Y. Bryusov:

The wind was languishing, like the moan of a bassoon.

There was a firmament

Colorless gray. On the roof, calling someone,

Meowing plaintively, a frozen cat... ^{[4, p. 20]}

V.Y. Bryusov rearranged the ideas – first the wind is mentioned, then the firmament, and the transfer of the phrase used in the original from line to line (enjoebement) is also transferred from the image of the wind to the image of the firmament. The interpretation of the cat's image differs significantly: in Verlaine, he continues the theme of cold – like the cold wind from the northeast, the cat is cold and restrained, and his voice is not plaintive, but simply unusually high, squeaky. Using the name of an uncastered male, Verlaine thereby refers to a typical feature of castrati singers singing in unnaturally high voices. This feature of people is extrapolated to the cat, and the general image of a dank, damp and cold evening is complemented by the mournful sounds of unnaturally sounding cat meowing. Bryusov enhances the "pathetic" component of the image: the cat is calling someone, he is "frozen", his meowing is "plaintive". In addition, Bryusov's cat is abandoned, possibly thrown out by the owner, and Verlaine's cat, on the contrary, is cold and restrained, independent, his meowing is like a way of self–expression, in harmony with the general picture of the cold north wind and the gray sky.

The use of the rare words matou and bise is not reflected in the text of the poem – the reference to the lexicon of the original can be considered the use of the word "crocs" in the title, analyzed above. Unable to use the rare name of the cat (the corresponding lexeme is missing in Russian), Bryusov uses a rare word in the frame of the text, deliberately avoiding the unmarked "sketch".

The most significant change was made by Bryusov in the last stanza, in which the lyrical hero of the poem opposes himself to the whole picture drawn by him in the first two quatrains. In the original, "And I, I was walking, dreaming of the divine Plato / of Phidias / of Salamis and Marathon / under the blinking eyes of blue gas lanterns." Bryusov removes from the list of those about whom the hero dreams, Phidias:

And I, - I walked, dreaming of Plato,

In the evening hour,

About Salamis and the Marathon...

And the gas blinked at me with a blue tremor ^{[4, p. 20]}.

Bryusov in this case retains the rhyming of the original – Platon – Marathon and Fidias – gaz, which forces him to exclude Phidias from the list. Verlaine's lyrical hero is carried away by thoughts from the dank and cold night to the heroic battles of antiquity: the battles of Salamis and Marathon were glorified by the victories of the Greeks over the Persians. The great sculptor Phidias lived and worked at the same time when these battles took place, Plato lived and worked a little later, but was a representative of the same cultural paradigm. All the events and figures mentioned are connected with Athens: Plato and Phidias lived and worked in this city, Athenian troops participated in the battles of Salamis and Marathon, and the battles themselves took place near the city. So in the "Paris sketch" the image of another city – Athens – appears in the consciousness of the lyrical hero of the poem.

In general, V.Y. Bryusov, as a translator, strives to preserve the form of the original: in all three quatrains, the second line is the shortest, which the translator carefully transfers into his text. At the same time, the content of the text has been subjected to a number of changes, the overall strategy of which can be defined as a "dialogic attitude". Living beings in Verlaine's text (man, cat) exist as if independently, by themselves, without interacting with the outside world. The world of Bryusov's translation is dialogical: gas lanterns shine "to me", a cat calls someone, etc. This also draws antiquity into the space of dialogue – Salamis, Marathon, Plato – and correlates with the basic attitude of Impressionism as a current in painting: "Impressionism is not "the transformation of form into fluid time." not the victory of the temporal over the spatial, but the transition to another dimension, to the semantic space, where everything exists synchronously, simultaneously" ^{[11, p. 135]}. The same feature of Impressionism is also noted by M.G. Dyakova: "Considering the content of the artistic image in Impressionism, it is important to note its features such as ambiguity and understatement. The inclusion of cognitive interest in the process of perception of paintings by Impressionist artists is a necessary condition generated by the dialogicity of the figurative world. Therefore, it is the creative activity of the subject of perception that plays a key role in Impressionism, calling the viewer to participation, co-creativity, co-experience. And everything that is not in the picture should complement his consciousness, rather even his subconscious on the basis of association - exactly as it is perceived in life" ^{[7, p. 8]}.

Bryusov, therefore, approaches the genre of "crocs", "outline" with an understanding of the current processes not only in literature, but also in painting. By introducing a borrowed word into the title of a poem in the original grammatical interpretation, he forms a sample of a new genre that has not been continued in Russian literature. The extensive policy of the development of V.Y. Bryusov's creativity meant working with new forms, which, according to D.E. Maksimov, he "captured and left", that is, he did not set himself the task of creating many samples of the same genre. Referring to Verlaine's text, Bryusov enhances the impressionistic component, giving a new meaning to the concept of "crocs", which in the domestic usage was used as pluralia tantum and was synonymous with the words "sketches, sketches" in drawing or military affairs. Bryusov's "Crocs" is an internally dialogical polysemantic world in which various visual and mental images correlate: moonlight, smoke, sky, wind, cat, antique battles and gas lanterns. Additionally, the genre nature of the word "crocs" is enhanced by the proximity of translations of poems from the same Verlaine collection "Marina" (meaning a painting on a maritime theme) and "Impression of the Night", also depicting impressionistic paintings.