The French publication of Turgenev’s Poems in Prose [Stikhotvoreniya v proze] during the writer’s lifetime: organization of the cycle

Abstract

The article considers the French edition of Ivan Turgenev’s Poems in Prose [Pofmes en prose], published during his lifetime, as a cycle of miniatures different from its contemporary version printed in Russia. The detailed textual analysis indicates minor differences in translation of several poems – caused, apparently, by their so-called untranslatability – and more serious ones in the order and organization of the poems. The latter could have been Turgenev’s own intention, given the potentially different readership type and the profound contrast between the European and the Russian consciousness. Consequently, the French cycle is missing 20 vignettes, which is only logical in some cases (e. g. The Russian Language [Russkiy yazyk]), and highly curious, from a scholar’s viewpoint, in others (e. g. several spiritually/religiously charged poems like The Monk [Monakh] and Christ [Khristos], etc. were excluded). The study emphasizes that the French collection is a translation of the Russian edition, and, despite its own inner dramatics, follows the writer’s idea realized through the special cyclical strategy of Senilia.