Reinventing Romantic Poetry : Russian Women Poets of the Mid-nineteenth Century

Obéis! fais ton coeur impitoyable et sourd;

Brise tous tes bonheurs, ferme à jamais ton âme!

h

(She must [.. .]

Remain unaware of all joy and all human love,

[................]

Obey! Make your heart pitiless and deaf;

Crush all your joys, forever close your soul!)

Pavlova’s depiction of the sublime in terms of horror and assault is com-

parable to Pushkin’s in “Prorok” (The prophet, 1826 ).

u

 

 



,

     ,

      u,

 #     u 



! u

 

 



!   #

     

$ ,

[.............]

             :

!

, , 

#,    

,

    

     .

h

(And he pressed himself to my mouth,

And tore out my sinful, idle, crafty tongue,

And put the sting of the wise serpent

Into my frozen mouth

With a bloody hand

[.........................]

And the voice of God called to me, “Arise, prophet, and behold and hear

And be filled with my will.”)

Like Pushkin, Pavlova implicitly compares her prophet’s experience

of the sublime with that of the poet.

Car Dieu ceindra ton front d’ardentes auréoles,

Sur tes lèvres viendront de sublimes paroles,

Et tu devras frémir à tes propres accents:

h

(For God will encircle your forehead with blazing haloes,

Sublime words will come to your lips,

And you will have to shudder at your own voice: )

In the second section of “Jeanne d’Arc,” which consists of three stan-

zas, Pavlova shows Joan in battle, a figure of horror as well as a victim.

Karolina Pavlova 153