gendered muse. Shakhova, for example, in an early poem describes her
muse as a “maiden-phantom” (deva-prizrak) (“Vdokhnovenie” [Inspira-
tion, 1839 ]) and ten years later as an androgyne (“Fantaziia,” [Fantasy,
1849 ]):
U , ,
) u! #.h
(No longer he, when she,
As the muse appears like an angel.)Fuks depicts her muse in “Razgovor s muzoiu” (Conversation with the
muse, 1834 ) as a rather unpleasant female acquaintance given to pout-
ing. Mordovtseva, who in her poem Staraia skazka(An old fairytale, 1877 )
calls Apollo her muse, in another poem (“Opiat’ vsia v chernom” [Again
all in black, 1877 ]) depicts a female muse who appears to represent death:
& #
# ,
*# ! ,
& u! #! .h
(Again all in black
All in crepe and mourning trim
O sorrowing muse! you come to me.)Interestingly, in the twentieth century Anna Akhmatova similarly iden-
tifies her muse with death and suffering (“Kogda ia noch’iu zhdu ee
prikhoda” [When at night I await her arrival], 1924 ).
) # $ u ,
!, #,
[.............]
. & u
,
*
!#u #.
+
$: “ u
'?” &
: “(”.h
(When at night I await her arrival
Life seems to hang by a thread
[.................]
And she has entered. After removing her veil,
She looked attentively at me.
I say to her, “Was it you who dictated to Dante
The pages of the Inferno?” She answers, “It was I.”)Literary Conventions 43