Русское зазеркалье
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My subjective opinion is that Sarukhanov’s characters with their ‘hearts of the rich’ can hardly earn sympathies of an average Russian. It is the ‘poor and condemned,’ to use Dostoyevsky’s phrase, who win our hearts. We are not really sorry for the rich, thrown in the mud. Would the artist attribute ‘hearts of saints’ to his protagonists he undoubtedly would make us love them. The problem is, saints are not upset by the command to go down. This is what they are doing all the time, anyway. It reminds me of a short talk between the Russian Tsar and Bazil the Blessed, fool for Christ, in Boris Godunov, Modest Mussorgsky’s famous opera. Why does the beggar reject monarch’s humble request to pray for the salvation of tsar’s soul? Another question that we might want to discuss later on.
The whole of the second verse can basically be seen—or, rather, heard—as the voice of the Russian liberal intelligentsia, moaning about the fact that the ‘only civilised people in this wild country’ (sarcasm on my side) are forced to ‘go down’ by the Driver, be this Driver Nicholas I, Joseph Stalin, or Vladimir Putin. The pro-Western liberal intelligentsia in Russia will be lamenting until the second arrival of Christ. If Christ Himself asked those people to follow Him, to join Him in the Heavenly Kingdom, and to please leave behind all their petty thoughts and bad mental habits, this being the only condition for their rise—they would still say the strict Driver had forced them to go down. Does it sound too ecclesiastical? I cannot help it.
There are two things that reconcile me with this song, though, one of them being sweet memories of my adolescence. All these songs—along with some understanding of them—have been ‘transmitted’ to me by one of my teachers, a person of whom I think very highly, so they cannot be really bad, however sentimental it may sound. The second reason is the third verse of ‘Skripka-Lisa’ that asks us to
[g]et to the very bottom, come what may; let Sorrow and Darkness haunt you.
We have only one life, and we ought to remember that the ditch [into which we can fall] is pretty close.
This, finally, is very Russian. An average member of the pro-European liberal intelligentsia wouldn’t really try to get to the very bottom of things; he or she wouldn’t bravely face Sorrow and Darkness haunting him or her. Neither would he or she be very much concerned with whether he or she ends up in the ditch of evil thoughts and deeds or not. ‘It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile,’ according to Gordon Sumner commonly known as Sting. It takes being Russian to embrace what you cannot escape from; it takes being Russian to know the depths of one’s own depravity and not to fall into them. It also takes being Russian to actually fall into the ditch of your depravity, to get to the very bottom of it, and to morally resurrect.
Your questions are most welcome.11
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[Сноска
– You do look so very Alice-in-Wonderland, dear! – шестидесятилетняя женщина за столом директора в бледно-жёлтой блузке с V-образным вырезом осветилась улыбкой. Наверняка она имела в виду мою причёску и волосы до плеч, и ещё мою длинную юбку до середины голени, и белую блузку, вот это вот всё; кстати, лет десять назад я чёлки не носила. Да и два года назад: что я только не выделывала со своими волосами два года назад… Я невольно коснулась волос, тоже улыбаясь:
– You see, Mrs Walking, I am old enough to stop experimenting with my hair… It’s Mrs Walking, isn’t it?
Миссиc Уолкинг кивнула, подтверждая, что это именно она и есть. Через её cтол мы пожали друг другу руки, верней, просто соединили их и слегка встряхнули, как тут и принято пожимать руки.
– Pray take your seat, – предложила директор. Она мне явно нравилась, и не только своей приветливостью. – You were quite a success today, do you know that? I was impressed, too. You know, I was just passing by the door, when I caught some words of your lecture, so I stopped for a minute—you don’t mind my involuntary eavesdropping, do you? – Я прикусила губу, удерживая улыбку. Eavesdropping, положим, наверняка было не такое уж involuntary, но пусть: я бы то же самое сделала. Может быть, у них микрофон установлен в каждом классе, так что вовсе и не надо стоять под дверью, достаточно нажать на кнопку. – Did you like your group?
– I did, – ответила я: в конце концов, это было наполовину правдой. – I am only sorry we never went so far as to actually discuss the song. They attacked me with all sorts of general questions about Russia and personal questions about myself.
– What did they ask you, for instance?
– Things like… how does it feel to live here, and whether I really am a monarchist, or whether I really am Russian, the whole thing being probably just a hoax, an artistic performance of some sort, or whether there might be some reasons why I am afraid to criticise the Russian president even here, considering the Skripal case, or why I disagreed with the artist when he was just saying the truth, namely, that Russian life is hell, or whether I was serious when talking about Christ wishing to rise the Russian intelligentsia to Heavenly Kingdom or just meant it as a figure of speech, and whether I really am an Orthodox Christian believer…
– And are you?
– I have never thought of myself in these terms, but the moment they asked me that question, I clearly and very distinctly saw that I am—not perhaps as a regular church-goer, but ideologically so, – призналась я неожиданно для самой себя, осознавая то, что говорю, в тот самый момент, когда проговаривала. – One must have a safe place within one’s mind in order to stand against… erm…
– The atrocities of this world? – нашла директор меткое выражение. Какая умная женщина, правда!
– Yes, exactly! As for my course, I think it is almost impossible to bridge the gap between the two cultures in question: I actually had a feeling I was speaking Mandarin Chinese, not English.
– Your English is very good, and as for this gap, the task is in itself very challenging, – сгладила директор острый угол, отнюдь не желая пускаться в рассуждения о том, что строительство мостов между культурами – задача вообще почти невозможная, а вовсе не только challenging. Тысячелетняя культура избегания неудобных для вежливого разговора глубин: нам этому у них столько же лет учиться. – It was a very lucky phrase of yours when you said that touching on any of your songs inevitably results in dealing with Leo Tolstoy, five hundred years of Russian serfdom, and God knows what else. All in all, you are a very bright lady… ‘young lady,’ I was on the verge to say, but—how is it that you are only twenty seven—or eight?—and sound so very much older? Forgive me this utterly tactless question, Alice, dear—do you mind my calling you by your Christian name?
– Not at all, Mrs Walking! («А себя-то, между прочим, не предложила называть по имени! – тут же смекнула я. – Как они тут умело выстраивают вертикаль “начальник-подчинённый”! Мягкой поступью, так что и не заметишь…») It’s not tactless, and the answer is…
– That you are Russian, – закончила она за меня. – I suppose this mykat’ of yours that you mentioned today is the central concept of your national identity. Well, our girls must seem juvenile to you… Allow me to give you a warning, though, will you? Be alert with them, never relax! Take them seriously, adolescent as they seem to you or perhaps as they also really are! It is nonentities who get very offended if someone says to them that they are nonentities. You have only eight or nine lectures ahead of you, so nothing very bad will probably happen—and yet, and yet… You are young, you are proud, you are admirably adamant in your principles—so be careful! For the time being, I will inform Sir Gilbert about your brilliant start—do you know that he comes the day after tomorrow, by the way? And now, one thing more: do you mind if we go over the text of your first lecture and look at all the inaccuracies? I mean, not really inaccuracies, just some unlucky phrases…