s sestrami” (My sisters and I used to). Among other changes, he re-
moved the last six lines of the poem without any indication to readers
that he had done so. It now ended: “Gliadit’ budto khochet skazat’:
‘Verno prazdnik u nikh!’“ (She looks as if she wanted to say, “They are
really having a holiday”). In this way Zotov eliminated the only remain-
ing reference to the fact that the young woman was a seamstress—thus
making the poem incomprehensible—along with the speaker’s sug-
gestion that God did not intend this woman to be ground down by
poverty. I have not found this poem subsequently reprinted in any form.
In some cases Zotov went beyond obscuring a poem’s meaning to re-versing it, a fate that befell “’Vy ulybaetes’?.. .’“ (“You’re smiling?.. ,”
no. 152 in the notebook, first published in Otechestvennyi zapiski,no. 8
[ 1852 ], see appendix), an elegant, restrained, but effective critique of the
treatment of young women in society. Like “Byvalo, s sestrami,” the
poem consists of a frame narrative and story.^44 In the frame narrative, a
woman, abstractedly playing with a wedding ring, notices a man smil-
ingly observing her. She shows him the ring, inscribed 1730 , and tells
him its history. It belonged to a young woman whose parents married
her off to an unpleasant, elderly fool, despite the fact that she loved
another man. The young woman, too constrained from birth even to
protest, died soon after, mourned only by the man who loved her. We
return to the frame narrative, in which the narrator’s interlocutor merely
responds, “No sto-vos’mnadtsat’ let!... Ona b stara byla” (But 118
years!... She would be old!).
The man’s response to the narrator’s story indicates that only young,attractive women interest him, not discussions about their freedom—
or survival. His response also allows the reader to realize that the poem
is set in 1848 — 118 years after 1730 , the date inscribed on the ring.
Khvoshchinskaia, by having the poem take place in the year of European
revolutions, underlines women’s lack of freedom in society and the need
for change.^45 She further emphasizes that need by suggesting that the
narrator shares the fate of the ring’s original owner. Not only does the
narrator often pensively play with the ring, which she says is dear to
her, but also when she shows it to the man she says, “Vzglianite: mozhet
byt’ ono i vas zaimet / Napomnit vam samim den’ svetlyi il’ pechal’nyi
...” (Have a look: Perhaps it will interest you as well / Remind you of a
bright or sad day.. .). The narrator’s emphatic use of “i vas and vam
samim” in two successive lines, the placement of “pechal’nyi” in the
strong position at the end of the line, and the suspension points at the
end of the line, suggesting that there is something she cannot say, all
Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia 129