Il Blog per il centenario della nascita di Sviatoslav Richter
K. P a u s t o v s k i j S. R i c h t e r
Konstantin Georgievič Paustovskij
Константин Георгиевич Паустовский
1892 ~ 1968
Pages 72-74, from:
THE IMAGERY OF NATURE IN THE PROSE WORKS OF K. PAUSTOVSKY
by KAREN ETRESIA
HELENA KRAMER
submitted in accordance with the requir working for the degree of
Doctor of Literature and Philosophy in Russian
at the
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
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In an account of his personal attachment to the Meshchora region, Paustovsky depicts the impact that the ‘backwoods’ (1982, 3: 244) had on his discovery of new meanings of words depicting the concepts of touch, smell and visual sense. Paustovsky’s prose works are characterised by different writing styles. In his short stories and novels the topics are conveyed through the characters’ words or actions, through which they present their own interpretations. In his essays such as those contained in The golden rose.
Paustovsky assumes the role of the narrator and performs a directing function by expressing his own opinions and those of fellow Russians with regard to the state of Russian forests. During the first summer that he spent in the Meshchora region he was reacquainted with the language of this region, and with the natural phenomena typical of Central Russia. He explains how one word describing forests, namely ‘backwoods’, had a profound influence on his writing and enriched the forest imagery in his works.
Первое лесное слово, какое меня совершенно заворожило, было – ‘глухомань’ […] я впервые услышал его […] от лесников. С тех пор оно связано в моем представлении с дремучим, замшелым лесом, сырыми чащами, заваленными буреломом, с йодистым запахом прели […], с зеленоватым сумраком и тишиной. (1982, 3: 244)
The first forest word that completely charmed me was ‘backwoods’ […] For the first time I heard it [...] from the forests guards. Since then, my imagination would associate it with a thick, moss-covered forest, with damp thickets, heaped up with wind-fallen trees, with the iodic smell of rotten stumps […] with a greenish twilight and silence.
Besides demonstrating how the woodlands of the Meshchora region enriched his use of the Russian language, the author also considers how the woodlands have been a major inspiration to Russian composers, painters and writers. Paustovsky uses the example of Tchaikovsky, and a pianist, Sviatoslav Richter, to illustrate the influence of woodlands on their music. In A tale of woods one may find a number of quotations where this is stated in respect of Tchaikovsky:
Он никогда не ждал вдохновения. Он работал, работал, как поденщик, как вол, и вдохновение рождалось в работе … больше всего ему помогали леса […]
[…] Он без остатка отдaл свое сердце России – ee лecaм и деревушкам, околицам, тропинкам и песням. Но с каждым днем его все больше мучает невозможность выразить всю поэзию своей страны […]
Он знал, что сегодня, побывав там, он вернётся – и давно живущая … тема о лирической силе этой лесной стороны перельётся через край и хлынет потоками звуков. (1982, 3: 7-8)He never waited for inspiration. He worked, worked, like a day-labourer, like a bullock, his inspiration thrived while he was working … most of all, the forests helped him […]Without keeping anything back he gave his heart to Russia, to its forests, its hamlets, village fences, paths and songs. But with each day the impossibility of expressing all the poetry of his country tormented him […]
He knew that today after he has been there [Rudoy Yar] he will go back – and the long living …theme on the lyrical force of this forest land will flow across the country and will surge with flows of sounds.
The quoted passages show that Tchaikovsky was deeply influenced by Russian nature and strove to convey the essence of the Russian forests. These excerpts also serve as illustration of a vital link between the forests and Russian culture; as they are shown as an inspiration of art.
A similar link of nature to the nation’s culture features in the short story ‘A log hut in the forest’ ("ИЗБУШКА В ЛЕСУ") 1960 link AUDIO where the author describes the close relationship of the pianist Sviatoslav Richter with the Russian forests. A first person narrator, one can assume that it is the author, tells a story of a boat trip on the Oka River. During this trip he meets an old buoy-keeper, Shashkin, who shows him a wooden house in the forests on the shores of the Oka River where Richter used to play his piano during the summer holidays. In these woodlands the pianist was able to give free rein to his performance. Sashkin tells the narrator that, through listening to Richter, he was able to understand the way in which music can make a person aware of ‘godliness’, of something that transcend the everyday existence of people. Shashkin’s story is as follows:
Так вот слушайте, как я до понимания музыки дошел. Простo, скажу, по счастливому случаю […] Ночь была июньская, как сейчас, […] Он был густой…, можно сказать, лес – весь стоит в темноте, в росе, в тишине […] и вдруг […] будто меня обожгло: из леса, из той темноты и тишины зазвенели будто сотни колокольчиков. Таким, знаете, легким переливом, а потом рассыпались по лесу, будто голубиная стая по грозовой туче. И запел лес […]. (1983, 6: 556)Listen how I reached the understanding of music. Just, I will say through a happy event […] It was a night in June as now […] it was dense, the forest … everything stands in darkness, dew and silence… And suddenly I felt as if something burnerd me: from the forest, from this darkness and silence rang as if a hundred small bells. With such a light modulation and spread out over the forests like a flock of doves along a storm cloud.
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