Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenn Wright
I’m a bit confused, though. In line 9 it says that we see the guards “на место” of the sainted women. Are the guards real people standing in front of and hiding the iconostasis where, presumably, the women are depicted, or have the women been painted over? I presume the former, since the N speculates that perhaps the purpose of the guards is to protect the picture from thieves or mice. Michael Wachtel’s note helps clarify this.
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The way I read it was that Pushkin was contrasting the actual crucifixion (lines 1-6) with the modern situation (lines 7ff). My impression was not that the women had been painted over or removed, but that they were simply not in the [picture, icon, whatever it was]; the guards have, as it were, taken their place.