He [Percy
de Prey] called for wine - but the remaining bottles
had been given to the mysterious pastors whose patronage the
adjacent clearing had already lost: they might have dispatched
and buried one of their comrades, if the stiff collar and
reptilian tie left hanging from a locust branch were his.
(1.39)
As I pointed out before, those mysterious pastors, a
dozen elderly townsmen who do not understand Van and who speak a
totally incomprehensible jargon, seem to be the Apostles. Their
comrade whom they dispatched and buried must be Judas. In his
essay on Leonid Andreev, Nekto v serom ("Someone in
Grey," 1907), Voloshin discusses Andreev's play Zhizn' cheloveka
("A Man's Life," 1907) and his novella Iuda Iskariot (Judas
Iscariot, 1907).
According to the Bible
(Genesis 11: 1-9), the confusion of tongues was a result of the
construction of the Tower of Babel. In his poem Voina
("The War," 1923) Voloshin mentions proklyat'ye Vavilona
(the damnation of Babel):
И Демон бездн воскликнул,
издеваясь:
"Снимается проклятье Вавилона!
Языков разделенью
Пришёл конец: одни и те же речи
Живут в устах врагов:
Но смысл имён и ёмкость слов
Я исказил внутри."
And the Demon of abysses mockingly exclaimed:
"The damnation of Babel is cancelled!
The confusion of tongues is over:
the same speeches live in the lips of enemies,
but I distorted inside
the meaning of names and the capacity of words."
Presently Greg overtook
them, bringing the cufflink - a little triumph of meticulous
detection, and with a trite 'Attaboy!' Percy closed his silk
cuff, thus completing his insolent restoration. (1.39)
In VN's novel Invitation to a Beheading
(1935) Cincinnatus' lawyer Roman Vissarionovich is upset having
lost his cufflink (later found by Emmie):
-- Запонку потерял, --
воскликнул он, быстро, как пёс, дыша. -- Задел обо что... должно
быть... когда с милой Эммочкой... шалунья всегда... за
фалды... всякий раз как зайду... я, главное, слышал, как
кто-то... но не обратил... смотрите, цепочка очевидно... очень
дорожил... ну, ничего не поделаешь... может быть ещё... я обещал
всем сторожам... а досадно...
-- Глупая, сонная ошибка, -- тихо сказал Цинциннат. -- Я
превратно истолковал суету. Это вредно для сердца.
-- Да нет, спасибо,
пустяки, -- рассеянно пробормотал адвокат. При этом он глазами
так и рыскал по углам камеры. Видно было, что его огорчала
потеря дорогой вещицы. Это видно было. Потеря вещицы огорчала
его. Вещица была дорогая. Он был огорчён потерей вещицы.
(chapter 3)
This is an allusion to Iudushka ("little
Judas") Golovlyov's words (as imagined by Iudushka's
mother) in Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel Gospoda Golovlyovy
("The Golovlyovs," 1875-80):
— А помните, маменька,
у брата золотенькие запоночки были... хорошенькие такие, ещё он
их по праздникам надевал... и куда только эти запоночки девались
— ума приложить не могу!
"Do you remember, mother, brother had the cute
golden cufflinks that he wore on holidays?... where those
cufflinks can be, it's beyond me!"
On his deathbed Iudushka's brother Pavel (who
does not want to leave anything to Iudushka) asks the priest how
much would it cost to build a Tower of Babel:
— Нет, а какое-нибудь средство
выдумает. Он намеднись недаром с попом поговаривал: а что,
говорит, батюшка, если бы вавилонскую башню выстроить — много на
это денег потребуется?
According to the Evangelists, Judas hanged
himself. Leonid Andreev is the author of Rasskaz o semi
poveshennykh ("The Seven who were
Hanged," 1908). After the execution a black wet worn down galosh
lost by one of the hanged men (Sergey Golovin) lies in the snow:
И чернела в снегу потерянная
Сергеем мокрая, стоптанная калоша. One is
reminded of the stiff collar and reptilian tie left hanging
from a locust branch after the pastors left the adjacent
clearing.
After reverently
inspecting the Silentium [Greg's
motorcycle], a dozen elderly townsmen, in dark
clothes, shabby and uncouth, walked into the forest across
the road and sat down there to a modest colazione
of cheese, buns, salami, sardines and Chianti. (1.39)
In VN's story Oblako, ozero, bashnya*
("Cloud, Castle, Lake," 1937) Vasiliy Ivanovich opens in the
train a little volume of Tyutchev, whom had long intended to
reread:
Разместились в пустом вагончике
сугубо-третьего класса, и Василий Иванович, сев в сторонке и
положив в рот мятку, тотчас раскрыл томик Тютчева, которого
давно собирался перечесть ("Мы слизь. Речённая есть ложь",-- и
дивное о румяном восклицании); но его попросили отложить книжку
и присоединиться ко всей группе.
My sliz', etc... ("We are
slime...") is the corrupted line from Tyutchev's poem Silentium
(1830):
Mysl' izrechyonnaya est' lozh'. ("A
thought once uttered is untrue.")
As I pointed out before, Greg Erminin's arrival
on a black pony in Ardis the First (1.14) seems to be a parody
of Christ's riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
According to Tyutchev, Jesus
Christ ("the Heavenly King") v rabskom vide (in
disguise of a slave) walked throughout the length and breadth of
Russia blessing the land:
Эти бедные
селенья,
Эта скудная природа —
Край родной долготерпенья,
Край ты русского
народа!
Не поймёт и
не заметит
Гордый взор иноплеменный,
Что сквозит и тайно светит
В наготе твоей
смиренной.
Удручённый ношей
крестной,
Всю тебя, земля родная,
В рабском виде Царь небесный
Исходил, благословляя.
These poor villages,
this sorry nature!
Long suffering is native to you,
land of our Russian people!
The proud foreign glance cannot comprehend
- would not even notice! -
what shines secretly
through your humble nakedness.
Burdened by his cross,
throughout your length and breadth,
in the rags of a slave, the Heavenly King has
walked,
blessing you, my native land! (1855; transl. F.
Jude)
The pastors' modest colazione brings
to mind Ada's petite collation du matin:
She was having sa petite
collation du matin alone on a private balcony.
...Her plump, stickily glistening lips smiled.
(When I kiss you here, he said to her
years later, I always remember that blue morning on the
balcony when you were eating a tartine au miel; so
much better in French.)
The classical beauty of clover honey,
smooth, pale, translucent, freely flowing from the spoon and
soaking my love's bread and butter in liquid brass. The crumb
steeped in nectar.
'Real thing?' he asked.
'Tower,' she answered.
...Van, getting no answer,
left the balcony. Softly her tower crumbled in the sweet
silent sun. (1.12)
'Ada girl, adored girl,' cried Van,
'I'm a radiant void. I'm convalescing after a long and
dreadful illness. You cried over my unseemly scar, but now
life is going to be nothing but love and laughter, and corn in
cans. I cannot brood over broken hearts, mine is too recently
mended. You shall wear a blue veil, and I the false mustache
that makes me look like Pierre Legrand, my fencing master.'
'Au fond,' said Ada, 'first
cousins have a perfect right to ride together. And even dance
or skate, if they want. After all, first cousins are almost
brother and sister. It's a blue, icy, breathless day,'
She was soon ready, and they kissed
tenderly in their hallway, between lift and stairs, before
separating for a few minutes.
'Tower,' she murmured in reply to his
questioning glance, just as she used to do on those honeyed
mornings in the past, when checking up on happiness: 'And
you?'
'A regular ziggurat.' (2.8)
Ziggurat (among the ancient Babylonians and
Assyrians) is a temple of Sumerian origin in the form of
pyramidal tower.
"Pierre Legrand" seems to hint at the tsar Peter I
("Peter the Great"). According to Merezhkovski (the author of Peter
and Aleksey, the third part of the trilogy Christ
and Antichrist), Peter I was the Antichrist.
Some scenes of the novel are set in Rozhdestveno, Prince
Aleksey's castle on the banks of the Oredezh'. In 1916 VN
inherited Rozhdestveno from his uncle Vasiliy Ivanovich. In his
poem Kitezh (1919) Voloshin, too, mentions Peter the
Antichrist:
Антихрист-Пётр распаренную глыбу
Собрал, стянул и раскачал,
Остриг, обрил и, вздёрнувши на дыбу,
Наукам книжным обучал.
On the other hand, M'sieur Pierre is the
executioner in Invitation to a Beheading.
*in the literal translation: "Cloud, Lake,
Tower" (towers play an important role in Ada's philosophy)
Alexey Sklyarenko