Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin (1833)

 

Eugene Onegin

Alexander Pushkin is apparently a big thing in Russia and even I have heard the name mentioned, though I have never read anything from him before. As I understand it, he primarily wrote in verse and “Eugene Onegin” is his attempt at writing a novel in that format.

The main character of “Eugene Onegin” is the title character. Eugene is a dandy and a playboy who lives a dissipated life. When he inherits an estate he gets into serious money, but also relocates to the countryside. Here he meets a number of people. Lensky is a young poet, he befriends. Olga is a pretty, airheaded girl whom Lensky intends to marry, and Tatyana is Olga’s more bookish sister.

Tatyana is infatuated with Eugene, but when she spills her heart to him, he gently, but firmly, rebuffs her. She is severely shaken by that. Eugene is upset with Lensky for pressing him into boring company and takes his revenge by showing excessive attention on Olga. This upsets Lensky who challenges Eugene to a duel. Lensky looses, Olga quickly marries someone else, and Eugene disappears.

Years later, Tatyana, seemingly gotten over the affair, marries a general or prince or something like that and then meets Eugene Onegin again. Now he realizes what he has lost, but that door is now closed and there is no way he can get her back.

For a story written in verse, this is reasonably tangible and accessible. It has an actual plot! Not perhaps the most exciting plot, it does lean heavily into romantic clichés, but quite lucid considering the format.

I have never entirely understood the idea of poetry or fully appreciated it. Poetry seems suited to express small, profound truths or emotions, such as haiku poetry, or intimate sensibilities, such as streams of thought, but that also seems to be more modern use of the format. Traditionally, the rhymes and strict rhythmic syntax are useful for singing and proclamation, i.e. an oral presentation of the text and therefore practical more than arty.

Pushkin seems to place himself in between these positions. He wants to tell a story as a novel, but rather than using the far more flexible standard prose form, he restricts himself to the rules of the verse. It is difficult for me not to see this as an affectation. An ambition of writing a Homerian story, suitable for declamation or to present the story in the more elegant and charming format of verse.

Personally, I am not charmed by verse. It looks restrictive and makes expressing the story far more challenging, but maybe that is the point; to show he can do that. In which case it becomes a self-gratifying project. Well, what do I know, I do not understand poetry.

I understand that for Russian speakers, Pushkin’s work should be quite an experience, taking the language to another level. I do not speak Russian and therefore read an English translation, so I am simply impressed that the translator managed to find suitable rhymes and stick to the format even in translation. That cannot have been easy. Unfortunately, I am not getting any big revelation of use of language or what can be done in verse. That part went over my head.

The book is surprisingly easy to get through. The verse form at least has the advantage that the reading becomes rhythmic and makes reading an almost automatic exercise. The lack of obscurity in the text also made for an easy read and I am grateful for that.

This is not stuff that roams through my mind for a long time. Rather, it was a book to get through and I happy it was easy. Poetry buffs may have a different opinion, but that is their issue.