[Carl Copeland]

Pushkin’s imitation of Horace’s Ode 3.30 closely follows the form and content of Derzhavin’s 1795 imitation. Written in 1836, about five months before Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel, the poem became his testament. It could not have passed censorship due to its defense of “Freedom” and the belittling mention of the Alexander Column, which commemorated Tsar Alexander I, and was published posthumously with appropriate emendations in 1841.


                                        Exegi monumentum

I’ve raised a monument not made by human hands.
The people’s feet will keep the path to it well-trodden,
and with its unbowed head, far loftier it stands
     than Alexander’s soaring column.

I won’t die wholly. In the lyre that I revere,
my spirit will outlive my dust and cheat decay,
and I’ll be famed as long, in this sublunar sphere,
     as just one poet sees the day.

Soon word of me will spread throughout enormous Rus,
and mine will be a name each tongue will learn to speak:
the haughty son of Slavs, the Finn, the wild Tungus
     and, brother of the steppes, Kalmyk.

The people long will cherish me: my lyre has roused
the best of sentiments within the hearts of all,
and in my cruel age, it’s Freedom I espoused
     and mercy’s boon to those who fall.

O be obedient, my Muse, to God’s decree:
demand no laurel wreathes, don’t cower from abuse,
treat praise and slander both with equanimity,
     and take no part in fools’ disputes.


Crib

                                        Exegi monumentum

I have erected to myself a monument not made by hands,*
the people’s path to it will not be overgrown,
it has risen higher, with unsubmissive head,
     than the Alexander Сolumn.**

No, not all of me will die: the soul in the sacred/cherished lyre
will outlive my ashes/dust and escape decay,
and I will be renowned while, in the sublunary realm,
     even one poet is alive.

Rumor of me will pass through all of great Rus,***
and each tongue existing within it will name me,
the proud grandson of Slavs and the Finn and the now-wild
     Tungus and the Kalmyk, friend of the steppes.****

And long will I be pleasing to the people for the fact
that I, with my lyre, roused good feelings,
that in my cruel age I lauded Freedom
     and called for mercy to the fallen.

To the command of God, O Muse, be obedient,
without fearing offense, without demanding a wreath/crown,
accept praise and slander with equanimity,
     and don’t argue with a fool.

* “Not made by hands” is a single Russian word, “nerukotvornyi,” a calque of the Greek “acheiropoieta.” In Orthodox iconography, it refers to icons of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that are said to have come into being miraculously and so were not created by human hands. Pushkin may have been influenced by Vasily Ruban’s use of the word in a 1770 poem to describe an enormous natural rock chosen as the pedestal for an equestrian statue of Peter the Great. Today that monument is known by the name Pushkin gave it: the Bronze Horseman.

** The Alexander Column was unveiled in St. Petersburg’s Palace Square in 1834 to commemorate Alexander I’s victory over Napoleon. The monument—a freestanding column of red granite mounted on a pedestal and topped by a statue of an angel—is 155 feet, 8 inches high.

*** “Rus,” a name for the territory ruled by Kiev in the ninth to twelfth centuries, is here extended to the empire ruled by St. Petersburg in the nineteenth century, including Poland and Finland. “Rus” became “Rossia” in Russian by way of Byzantine Greek.

**** The “haughty son” (actually “grandson”) of Slavs may refer to the Poles, who were typically portrayed by Russians as haughty. They would then represent the western limits of the Russian empire, with Finns in the North, Tungus in Eastern Siberia and Kalmyks in the southern steppes.


Original

                              Exegi monumentum

Я памятник себе воздвиг нерукотворный,
К нему не зарастет народная тропа,
Вознесся выше он главою непокорной
     Александрийского столпа.

Нет, весь я не умру — душа в заветной лире
Мой прах переживет и тленья убежит —
И славен буду я, доколь в подлунном мире
     Жив будет хоть один пиит.

Слух обо мне пройдет по всей Руси великой,
И назовет меня всяк сущий в ней язык,
И гордый внук славян, и финн, и ныне дикой
     Тунгус, и друг степей калмык.

И долго буду тем любезен я народу,
Что чувства добрые я лирой пробуждал,
Что в мой жестокий век восславил я Свободу
     И милость к падшим призывал.

Веленью божию, о муза, будь послушна,
Обиды не страшась, не требуя венца,
Хвалу и клевету приемли равнодушно
     И не оспоривай глупца.

[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Carl—

This is a smooth, lovely, and seemingly effortless rendering of Pushkin’s homage to Horace in Second Asclepiad, a very difficult meter. It is fascinating to compare Horace’s self-congratulatory poem with Pushkin’s political call to arms. I can see the seeds of Pan-Slavism in this poem.

I smiled at Pushkin’s sly implied comparison of Tsar Aleksandr I to the Biblical pharaoh and of himself to Moses. I like how Pushkin follows Horace stanza-by-stanza (making two stanzas out of Horace’s third stanza).

I wondered about the word пиит in S2L4. Is this an archaic form of поэт?

Very impressive work, Carl!

Glenn

[Carl Copeland]

Thanks, Glenn!

The “sly comparison” of Alexander I and his brother, Nicholas I, to the Biblical pharaoh is a very sharp observation. I hadn’t actually gotten that far in my thinking.

It does sound like a political call to arms and would have been considered the height of insolence by Tsar Nicholas I, who had appointed himself Pushkin’s personal censor, but it’s interesting that Pushkin was no revolutionary by this time in his life. He did continue to hope that mercy would be shown to the exiled Decembrist revolutionaries, many of whom were his friends.

Yes, “пиит” is an elevated, archaic form of “поэт” and was perceived as such even in Pushkin’s day, I believe. It came into Russian from Byzantine Greek, whereas “поэт” was borrowed from French or German.

[Carl Copeland]

I didn’t realize that the meaning of “Александрийский столп,” which I translated as “Alexander’s column,” was in dispute. Michael Wachtel summarizes the debate in his indispensable “Commentary to Pushkin’s Lyric Poetry, 1826-1836”:

“This line has tormented commentators. In Russian (and in Pushkin’s Russian) the word александри́йский means “of Alexandria.” It is conceivable that this is simply a Gallicism formed from the name Alexander (Meilakh 2005, 350–52), but the normal way to say “Alexander Column” is “Александровская колонна.” This twenty-five-meter-high column, a monument to Tsar Alexander, was begun in 1829 and completed in 1834. (Pushkin intentionally left the capital to avoid having to witness the official unveiling ceremonies; see Jakobson, 346.) It was the highest structure in Petersburg, making it a logical subject of comparison. Given that Pushkin was known to detest Tsar Alexander (who had, after all, exiled him), it would be logical that Pushkin was comparing himself, another Alexander (see the “непокорной главой” of line 3) to the tsar. If the word really connotes Alexandria, it would suggest the Diocletian Column in Alexandria (built in AD 297), measuring twenty-six meters. It has further been argued that Pushkin, by metonymy, means the lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, in which case it would develop logically from the “pyramids” (in Horace and Derzhavin), another of the ancient wonders. Be that as it may, there is no question that Zhukovskii (who had attended the official unveiling of the Alexander Column and written an enthusiastic endorsement thereof) assumed that the line would be read as a reference to the tsar. When he prepared the first publication of the poem after Pushkin’s death, he changed it to “Наполеонова столпа” a reference to the Colonne Vendôme in Paris (erected by Napoleon in his own honor), which the Alexander Column was meant to “answer” (and dwarf). The word “столп” (as against “колонна”) has an archaic coloration (Alekseev 1967, 69–71).”

I’m inclined to think Pushkin disguised his insolent mention of the Alexander Column so that he could always say he meant the “Alexandrian column.”

[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Carl—

Very interesting background material. Of course, Pushkin would have some difficulty using the Alexandria (Diocletian’s) Column as an excuse, since it was a meter taller than the Alexander Column. If his памятник is higher than the Alexandrian Column, even with his head unbowed, then it is that much higher than the Alexander Column. If he meant the Lighthouse of Alexandria, would he have used столп instead of маяк or башня?

Knowing that Pushkin intended this poem as a taunt to Tsar Aleksandr I makes his comment in stanza 2, “I won’t die wholly: . . .I’ll be famed as long . . .as just one poet sees the day.” suggest that by comparison, Aleksandr will be relegated to the list of less memorable tsars. How clever of Pushkin to dress up his insults as homage to Horace.