Oblomov, Part Three, Chapter 6

"It's so kind of you!" said Oblomov, going over to her and taking her gently and playfully by the elbows.

This chapter illustrates the contrast between Ilya’s default position of an easy life and his turbulent passion for Olga. It seems that, when his life was unbearably dull to the point of being painful, he had no problem giving free reign to the passion of love as it burned within him. Though it was turbulent, it was better than a non-existence. It’s perhaps ironic that his love for Olga inspires him to get off the divan and improve his life, and that improved life—domestic bliss at his new home with Agafya—is beginning to feel more desirable than the turbulent passion. But it’s not just that passion, it’s the perceived judgement of those around the couple. He’s afraid that he and Olga will be judged harshly for their impropriety and that’s causing him no end of anxiety. An anxiety-free existence with Agafya and her elbows seems rather attractive in its place.

Poetry

I’m reading Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook alongside Oblomov and I read a chapter that discussed the poets’ use of vowels and consonants. Some of it was beyond me, but on reading chapter 6 today I was struck by some of the translator’s choices of vocabulary and the contrast that he creates. Look at the different vibes in this paragraph:

Compare flow gently day by day, drop by drop with mighty, roaring torrent, surging forward. I don’t know about you but I feel this contrast quite vividly. Maybe it’s more to do with imagery than sound, but I can’t help but feel that the sounds add to the imagery even if they don’t create it. I’ve give you the Russian below as well. I’ve read it out as an audio file and compared some of the vocabulary.

Он с громкими вздохами ложился, вставал, даже выходил на улицу и все доискивался нормы жизни, такого существования, которое было бы и исполнено содержания, и текло бы тихо, день за днем, капля по капле, в немом созерцании природы и тихих, едва ползущих явлениях семейной мирно-хлопотливой жизни. Ему не хотелось воображать ее широкой, шумно не сущейся рекой, с кипучими волнами, как воображал ее Штольц.

Listen to the Russian and English texts here with some analysis

It’s certainly interesting to ponder the use of language and it adds another layer to the art of the translation. Magarshack translates the same passage thus:

It doesn’t quite have the same feeling of contrast for me. What do you think? Is Ilya slipping back to his old ways? Is Olga going to start getting a sense of his distancing himself?

Video Review

Here’s my video review of the chapter, recorded right after reading it. You readers are getting these videos before my YouTube viewers and hopefully without ads. I say hopefully as I’ve not turned on ads for these videos until they’re public on YouTube, but YouTube may very well put them in anyway for their own business needs.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you in the next chapter!