Gleb Shulpyakov. Gods muffled tread

Gods muffled tread
"Foreign Literature" # 8

Gleb Shulpyakov

Publication date: August 31, 2004

The issue concludes with the publication of Yana Simon’s essay “After all, we are different” (translation from German by N. Fedorova) - the best, in my opinion , material in the last six months in the magazine. The story of the German "burglar", "courier" and "brother" Felix S. ends badly: on his pajama pants in the cell. Simon herself, they say, will be in Moscow in early September (through the mediation of the Goethe Center ), so questions about the text can be asked directly to the author during a personal meeting. Inquiries - all in the same center.

The “meat” of the issue is Graham Swift’s novel “Light of Day ,” which even Leonid Motylev’s translation cannot save. The British version of a tortured and escheated essay from the author of "Last Orders". The only thing worse is McEwen's Amsterdam . Hurry up to see.

The hero is a retired cop, a private detective. Performs small but fateful tasks: to catch a wife (husband) with her lover (mistress), to record what he saw. The life of the wards often depends on the results of the investigation, but not enough to make a detective intrigue out of it.

He doesn't sculpt.

The hero’s task is to make sure that his mistress has flown away forever and that the husband is not lying, that “it’s all over” for him. It turns out that nothing is over, and when the young lady from Croatia flies far, far away, the wife reads in the eyes of her unfaithful husband that her husband is with her only physically, but in spirit there, behind the clouds.

And cracks him over the head with a frying pan.

In this whole story, the main character, an unscrupulous retired cop and a cook of which there are few, plays a rather strange role as a spy, as a result of which I don’t know how he falls in love with the murderer, then still an ordinary language teacher.

And having fallen head over heels in love, he waits for her to come out into the “light of day.”

Although she seems to have a life sentence.

The novel is written in abrupt phrases, which, apparently, are intended to imitate the brutal speech of a police bloodhound. Because the book is spoken in the first person. However, this guy’s train of thought is completely intellectual, which, as you understand, does not correspond to the syntax.

And this is quite understandable - the thoughts are the author’s!

Further. The entire novel is built on time jumps, that is, the author constantly looks into the future, hinting to the reader that the most interesting things are ahead. “Last Orders” was constructed in a similar way, which in its filmed form looked very good with such editing.

But there is “no resolution” in “Light of Day,” so it is clear why Swift made significant hints, promising a fantastic ending. He did this with one mercantile goal: so that the reader would reach the finale.

Having arrived, the reader spits on the floor in frustration, but the goal has been achieved - the book has been read (or rather, flipped through), which means everything is in order.

The only joy in the novel is the small touches of everyday London life that will warm the soul of every Englishman. And so it’s a waste of time.

But this time the section “Deep into the Poem” is extremely strong, where is presented Cavafy’s famous poem “Waiting for the Barbarians” . For the dark time of late August - the best reading. Especially in anticipation of the September invasion.

With translations everything is clear - it’s worse there, better here, but the greatness of the original, like an sew in a sack, cannot be hidden, since the poem is “semantic”, which means that it is not too catastrophically “lost” during translation.

Another thing is the preface. Be sure to read Irina Kovaleva's clear and insightful introductory article, which provides valuable guidance on how to read the text. The poem, as you remember, is written in the form of a dialogue, “question-answer”. So, it turns out that the questions and answers in the text were composed by Cavafy in different sizes: 15-syllable and 12-syllable.

Which was not always taken into account in Russian translations.

The 15-syllable in post-ancient poetry replaced the hexameter and is associated for the new Greek primarily with “Lamentation for the Fall of Constantinople,” so it is reasonable to assert that Cavafy’s poem is talking specifically about the decline of Byzantium, and not about the invasion of the Huns or Visigoths. And psychologically, the situation of “waiting”, “inaction”, “hope”, “disappointment”, “emptiness”, “deafness of the gods” is more characteristic of the kings of Constantinople than the emperors of Rome. These are purely “Byzantine”, “late” qualities.

In terms of poetry, the magazine is also at its best and publishes nice poems by the Frenchman ("Frenchman", "poems" are very rare!) Jean-Claude Penson in translations by Alexander Davydov. Here is a rare case when genuine poetry is born out of the dull life on campus. Even despite the elaborate metaphors:

When insomnia frays the brain
working like a busy millstone
I fight with her in combination
garlands of words in Alexandrian rhythm
so that this verse lulls me to sleep
a nurse pressing her to her breast

then I try my face
imagine sign after sign -
the eastern path to acquiring emptiness

so putting yourself to sleep as usual
waking up I see decrepit Alexander
walks on three legs
but if his stick is young, it taps out jazz rhythms
perhaps it's better than portraying it
the gods' thudding tread