Pushkin, “From Pindemonte” (1836)
 

Pushkin’s “Monument” raised the question of his politics, and “From Pindemonte,” written seven weeks earlier, gives a good idea of where his head was politically in the last year of his life. The idea of rights without guarantees seems naïve to us, but Pushkin’s indifference toward political power is common in Russia to this day: the sense that an individual can or should have a say in government is very weak.

Pushkin originally titled the poem “From Alfred Musset,” but crossed that out in the manuscript and substituted the Italian poet Pindemonte (1753-1828). The title is usually thought to be a mystification designed to slip the poem past the censors as a translation, though Pushkin does seem to have had lines from Musset and Pindemonte in mind (see Wachtel’s note below). Pushkin underlined “words, words, words” and added the footnote “Hamlet.”


(From Pindemonte)

I set no store by loudly vaunted rights
that stir so many minds to giddy heights.
I never grumble that the gods refuse
me pleasures of debating revenues
or keeping kings from warring endlessly.
It matters little if the press is free
to lead fools on, or keen censorial eyes
may look askance at publishing designs
of some buffoon—it’s all just words, words, words.
For other, better rights my spirit yearns
and other, better freedoms. We depend
on rulers or the people—in the end,
what difference is there? Let them be.
                                                       To none
to give account, to serve yourself alone
and never bend your conscience, thought or knee
to gain a livery or authority,
and at your whim to roam from place to place,
in awe before divine creation’s grace,
and tremble with a rapturous elation
at wonders of the arts and inspiration—
that’s joy, and those are rights! …


Edit
And what do I care > It matters little


Crib

(From Pindemonte)

I don’t dearly value loud rights
which have made more than one head spin.
I don’t grumble that the gods have denied
me the sweet lot of disputing taxes
or hindering kings from warring with each other;
and I’m little troubled if the press freely
deludes simpletons, or keen censorship
restricts a buffoon’s journalistic designs.
It’s all, you see, words, words, words.
Other, better rights are dear to me;
another, better freedom is my need:
to depend on a king, depend on the people—
isn’t it all the same to us? Let them be.
                                                       To no one
to give account, to serve and please
only oneself; for power, for a livery,
not to bend [one’s] conscience, thoughts or neck;
at one’s whim to roam here and there
feeling wonder at the divine beauties of nature,
and, before creations of the arts and inspiration,
trembling joyfully in raptures of emotion.
That’s happiness! Those are rights …


Original

(Из Пиндемонти)

Не дорого ценю я громкие права,
От коих не одна кружится голова.
Я не ропщу о том, что отказали боги
Мне в сладкой участи оспоривать налоги
Или мешать царям друг с другом воевать;
И мало горя мне, свободно ли печать
Морочит олухов, иль чуткая цензура
В журнальных замыслах стесняет балагура.
Все это, видите ль, слова, слова, слова.
Иные, лучшие, мне дороги права;
Иная, лучшая, потребна мне свобода:
Зависеть от царя, зависеть от народа —
Не все ли нам равно? Бог с ними.
                                                  Никому
Отчета не давать, себе лишь самому
Служить и угождать; для власти, для ливреи
Не гнуть ни совести, ни помыслов, ни шеи;
По прихоти своей скитаться здесь и там,
Дивясь божественным природы красотам,
И пред созданьями искусств и вдохновенья
Трепеща радостно в восторгах умиленья.
Вот счастье! вот права…


Note from Michael Wachtel’s Commentary to Pushkin’s Lyric Poetry, 1826-1836

Pushkin may have been paraphrasing – though not translating – passages he found in both Pindemonte and Musset … The opening passage of Pindemonte’s “Le opinioni politiche” (“Political Opinions”) reads:

Sotto qualunque reggimento uom viva
Benché regni il terror, benché la gente
Frenin tiranne Leggi, o Re tiranni,
Quanto de’ mali, onde il cor nostro geme,
Scarsa parte è ciò mai, che i Re, o le Leggi,
O ponno in noi causare, o sanar ponno!

(Under whatever regime man lives / Whether terror reigns, whether the people / Are curbed by tyrant Laws or tyrant Kings, / How much of the evils, from which our heart groans / How small a part it is that Kings or Laws / Can cause in us or remedy.)

The relevant Musset poem, “La Loi sur la Presse” (“The Law on the Press”), first published in September 1835, begins “Je ne fais pas grand cas des hommes politiques” (“I don’t think much of politicians”).

Hi, Carl—

I am at such a disadvantage discussing Pushkin with you. It seems as though Pushkin, at different times, adopted almost every political position. I know he studied under Kunitsyn and was familiar with the ideas developed by Locke and Montesquieu of power arising from a social contract, but in this poem he seems surprisingly cynical about these views. Was this because the Reign of Terror and Napoleon had disillusioned him? He claims to have no interest in political theory, but he seems to have understood it very well. Pushkin satirizes the aristocracy in Евгений Онегин with his presentation of the title character as a “superfluous man.” The speaker in this poem sounds like a superfluous man—bored, disillusioned, cynical.

A few questions:

L5: Does the Russian мешать mean “to keep s/one from doing s/thing” or “to interfere?” Is the speaker preventing kings from fighting with each other or is he meddling in their squabbles?

L6: I’m hearing this as tetrameter (those pesky personal pronouns!) I’m not stressing “I.”

L13: Your crib renders «Бог с ними» as “Let them be.” Would “God be with them” or “God bless them” be more literal? (Or is this a Russian idiom that I’m ignorant of? Perhaps you are reluctant to let this non-believing narrator invoke God?)

Very nice work, Carl. I need to do some more homework to find out more about Pushkin’s political views.

Glenn

Thanks, Glenn!

Everything to everyone, yes. But the drift of his thought followed a familiar pattern: he grew more conservative and religious with age. In the 1830s, he was a monarchist with especially strong views about the high calling of the nobility, to which he belonged. He was still regarded as unreliable, though, and kept under observation.

The Reign of Terror, of course, occurred before Pushkin was born and didn’t prevent him from writing his youthful revolutionary and anti-religious verses. Napoleon, the arch-enemy of Pushkin’s schooldays, seems later to have inspired a grudging admiration.

The most dramatic event in Pushkin’s abandonment of liberalism was the failure and exile of the Decembrist revolutionaries in 1825. He knew many of them, and several were close friends, though they didn’t take him into their confidence, and the degree to which he sympathized with their views is a matter of debate.

He’s cynical about politics and the ability of reforms to make people happy. He’s not bored, though, or cynical about the joys that can be found in the private sphere, and it infuriated him when he felt the authorities were intruding into that sanctum sanctorum.

I should add that by this time almost everyone agreed on the need for one reform: the abolition of serfdom. That included those in power and those who had serfs, like Pushkin. But no one knew how to go about it, and it would be the elephant in the room for another quarter century.

I understood Pushkin to be saying that he doesn’t regret not being a diplomat or advisor who could help prevent wars by influencing the king. My wording here is the best I could come up with.

I was worried about that. In Russian, the meter would tell you to stress “I,” but it’s not as simple as that in English, where we’re used to substitutions. I’m trying out a new wording.

It’s an idiom that has a dismissive sense: anything from “Let them be” to “the hell with them.” It might even be translated as “God be their judge,” but I felt the most neutral sense was wanted here. It didn’t seem appropriate to bring God in, though the N is clearly Pushkin, and Pushkin’s thoughts were increasingly turning to religion at this point in his life.

I think it's a really good translation, Carl. It comes out trippingly. And singingly. I'd just quite like you to find alternatives to "elation" and "inspiration", only because I think the rhyme falls on the ear with a clunkingly dead tone.

Unreasonable of me, probably!

Cheers

David

Thanks, David. I always appreciate your opinion. “-ation” is admittedly a very easy rhyme, but the equivalent Russian ending is as well. There’s no way around the word “inspiration” here, and I’d really have to go out of my way to avoid rhyming it. Sorry.

Hi, Carl—

I can make the new L6 pentameter if I stress “if.” You could make it even less metrically ambiguous by subbing “whether” for “if.”

Glenn

Thanks, Glenn, but if you don’t stress “if,” you get three consecutive unstressed syllables, which is normally considered impossible in meter. If we don’t allow promotions of conjunctions, prepositions and the like, we’ll get about six more tet lines, and L12 will shrink to trimeter!

[I posted in the wrong thread]