Chinese Gretchen in Russian Literature: on the Genesis and Attribution of M. Shkapskaya’s Poetry Book Tsa-Tsa-Tsa

Abstract

This article examines in detail Maria Shkapskayas poetry book Tsa-Tsa- Tsa (1923) and its handwritten genesis. It explains the role and significance of ancient Chinese poetry for this literary piece of work. The problem is to attribute the texts that make up the book and find out their translated or stylized basis. The general thesis is that all the poetic texts of the book are translations: the names of Tao-Yuan-Ming, Du Fu, and Bo-Juyi indicated by Shkapskaya in the manuscripts are reported. One of the texts in the book is attributed as the Sixth Poem from the Shi ju gu shi ( Nineteen Ancient Poems ). The removal of the names of Chinese authors (not only in the book published in 1923 but also in the manuscript of 1921) and the alignment of the thematic word series silk, crane, thousand, spring that organize the book into a single text indicate a tendency to blur the border of the own-alien text (even though the book was treated by the author as translation from the Chinese, in autobiographies and correspondence). This trend leads to the appearance of a central artistic image of the book (it is a feature of M. Shkapskayas poetic books). It is the image of a lonely, longing woman. The mention of the spinning wheel connects this image with the popular (especially in Western European literature) image of Gretchen. This way the poetry book Tsa-Tsa-Tsa goes beyond the narrowly translated work and reveals some features of chronologically later literary trends (such as postmodernism and metapoesis).