Мария Визи - A moon gate in my wall: собрание стихотворений

143

It was first published in the anthology of Russian emigre poetry Sodruzhestvo, Washington, 1966, p. 119, without the title. The fifth line in the third stanza read: "отойдя от домов, что, друг к другу придвинувшись, хмурятся."

144

No such line was found in John Dos Passos's collection of poetry A Pushcart at the Curb (1922). Perhaps it comes from one of his novels, or is incorrectly cited from his poem «La Rut' du Temps Passe», where the poet speaks of "shuttered windows of forgotten houses.

145

A misprint in the collection («глядеть в окошко узкое острожье.») is corrected in the present edition.

146

With a notation in the manuscript: «Мое, не записанное и альбом.»

147

Павловск: a city of palaces and parks built at the end of the 18th century near St. Petersburg, a countryside residence of Russian Tsars.

148

With a notation in the manuscript: «Во время болезни.»

149

Клана Морозова: a classmate at the Harbin Commercial Schools.

150

The epigraph is taken from Alexander Pope's poem "Oce to Solitude."

151

Tungchow (Tongzhou in contemporary transcription): a small town on the river Baihe not far from Beijing. The North China American School was located bevond the city wall of Tongzhou.

152

Р.Х.: Christinas. М.К.: Liudmila Nikolaevna Kocheneva, married name Bokova, a classmate at the Harbin Commercial Schools.

153

M.M.: Mania Mutovina, a classmate at the Harbin Commercial Schools.

154

With a notation in the manuscript: «Written in class.» Julius Caesar's De bello Gallico was studied in Latin class at the North China American School.

155

Tang Che Ssu (Tanzhesi in contemporary transcription) was one of largest temples in the vicinity of Beijing, built in the 3rd century A.D. and later restored several times.

156

With a notation in the manuscript: " I." Варим: Barim (Baling in contemporary transcription), a station on the west line of the Chinese Eastern Railway, located among Xing'ang Mountain Range, a settlement and a popular resort for Harbin Russians.

157

With a notation in the manuscript: "3."

158

With a notation in the manuscript: «СМУ. Голубой цветок — цветок счастья».

159

For П.Д. see note on poem 24.

160

For П. see note on poem 24.

161

For Hermosa see note on poem 36.

162

For Галя see note on poem 17.

163

With a notation in the manuscript: «Из Claremont'a — в письме в Париж о Харбине. Это во СМУ.» The poem was probably addressed to Elena Mosolova; see note on poem 21.

164

With a notation in the manuscript: «Когда-то очень давно: Харбин. СМУ. Vespers.»

165

For Галька see note on poem 17.

166

For К.Н.М. see note on poem 198.

167

For Helen Stanley see note on poem 99.

168

For Р.J. see note on poem 24.

169

Сунгари: Sungari, or Sunghuajiang, is a large tributary of the Amur river; Harbin is located on the right bank of the Sungari.

170

With a notation in (he manuscript: "2. Стихотворение А. Раевской.” А. Раевская was a pseudonym of Mary Vezey, under which she published several short stories in Harbin and Shanghai. The second line of the last stanza has a variant in the manuscript: «твоя душа металась.»

171

With a notation dated 5 February 1985 in the manuscript: «Написано много лет тому назад…»

172

Variant in the last line in the manuscript: «я не коснулась на земле.»

173

With a notation in the manuscript: «Тема с вариациями».

174

Variant in the last line in the manuscript: «голых и мерных и торчащих в небо.»

175

Variant in the last two lines in the manuscript: «давнишний, тот, что ты забыл,/но тот, который был?»

176

Published in the journal Kharbinskie kommercheskie uchilishcha Kit. Vost, zhel. dor., San Francisco, no. 4, 1952, p. 52. The last line first stanza read: «о от славных подвигов людских»; the second line of second stanza: «давно погибли без следа»; and the last line of the third stanza: «во что-то верить на земле».

177

Variant in the third line of the first stanza in the manuscript: «тянулись в него тополя».

178

Variant in the last line of the third stanza in the manuscript: «и легкой славы не просил».

179

With a notation in the manuscript: «Это Женьке, конечно.» Женька: see note on poem 193.

180

Published in the newspaper Russkaia zhizn' (San Francisco), where the last three lines of the first stanza and the first three of the second stanza are as follows: «исхоженные много тысяч лет, / и в то же время — скрыты от взора /мильоны неразведанных планет. // Так много раз с востока солнце встало /и снова встанет мириады раз;/а мы с тобой заботимся о малом».

181

With a notation in the manuscript: «Посвящается Александре Ивановне Долговой, учительнице русского языка и классной наставнице приготовительного класса гимназии Таганцевой в Ст. Петербурге в году 1912. Она как-то задала классу написать стихотворение; я принесла свое: «Буря зашумела, ветер поднялся…» Она спросила: «Ты сама это написала?» — «Да», — и попросила принести альбом. Прочтя, написала «Будущему поэту». Помню и благодарна всю жизнь».

182

For an English variant of the Russian poem «Жена Лота», see poem 533.

183

The first four stanzas were published in the anthology of Russian émigré poetry Sodruzhestvo, Washington, 1966, p. 114, where the second line of the first stanza read: «потерявшие в радость веру».

184

Variant in the first stanza in the manuscript: «Спустилась мочь легко и глухо,/Луны сверкнуло острие, / сосна, как черная старуха, / глядится в прошлое свое». The manuscript also has two lines which were left out: «Шли облака толпой веселой, / глотали солнце на пути».

185

Шаньнун: shanshui (Chinese), literally mountains and rivers, i.e., landscape, nature.

186

With a notation dated 19 May 1994 in the manuscript: «Его последняя весна. For Max Angell, a patient at UC Hospital.» The UC Hospital was a Medical Center at the University of California where Mary Vezey worked for some time.

187

In one of the manuscripts this poem is en titled «Брату.» For B.B. see note on poem 54.

188

Published in the anthology of Russian emigre poetry Sodruzhestvo, Washington, 1966, p. 116. Variant in the last line in the manuscript: «Ночь, апрель, залив Шимоносэки».

189

Корратри: Corraterrie, a street in Geneva. For В.В. see note on poem 54.

190

Dr. Boldrey: Dr. Edwin Barkley Boldrey, professor, at the time Chairman in Neurogical Surgery at University of California, San Francisco, one of the first neurosurgeons involved in brain tumour research. Mary Vezey worked at his assistant secretary.

191

For Женька see note on poem 193.

192

For Володя see note on poem 54.

193

Bai-d'Along: a bay in Vietnam. Баб-Эль-Мандеба: Bab al Mandab, the strait between the Red Sea and the Ciulf of Aden.

194

Variant in the last line in the manuscript: «летних дней золотой убор!»

195

Discarded titles: «Пустыня" and «Lost Tribe.»

196

Originally entitled: «Случай в джунглях.» Variant of the third line of last stanza in the manuscript: «мерещилось, что отныне.» Ибо: Ibo or Igbo tribe in Riafra, an eastern region of Nigeria. In May 1967, Biafra, led by Oxford-educated Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared its independence from Nigeria. The Civil War of 1967–1970 ended in Biafra's surrender; a million people, mostly children, died of starvation, during an economic blockade.

197

With a notation in the manuscript: «Когда-то давно… в 60-х гг., что ли? или раньше…» and a further notation dated 19 May 1994: «Серенада?»

198

With a notation in the manuscript: «Когда-то, кажется, и 1960-x гг.»

199

Variants in the third line оf the second stanza in the manuscript: «погрустишь, что серебряный свет», and in the first line of the third stanza: «И уйдешь бесцельно шагать».

200

Published in the new spaper Russkaia zhizn’ (San Francisco), 16 February 1973.

201

Variant in the second line of the last stanza in the manuscript: «его не уловят ни в слове, ни взоре.»

202

Published in the new spaper Russkaia zhizn’ (San Francisco), 29 January 1976.

203

Дочь: see note on poem 217.

204

For Куоккала see note on poem 228.

205

Published in the new spaper Russkaia zhizn’ (San Francisco), 29 January 1976.

206

Низам: Nizam, the Giderabad kingdom, the largest vassal state of British India.

207

Published in the almanac Perekrestki (Philadelphia), no. 6, 1982, p. 19.

208

Variant in the last line of the fourth stanza in the manuscript: «все плоды тяжелого труда». Хана: «Chinese vodka» in local Sino-Russian jargon.

209

Налой: a colloquial obsolete form of «аналой».

210

With a notation in the manuscript: «NB. This is the title of a book published in 1977, either in Canada or USA, надо было бы это как-то «отметить», «n'est pas?» The title is taken from the novel of a contemporary Canadian writer Margaret Craven I Heard the Owl Cal My Name, Toronto, 1967. According to an ancient Indian belief, an owl calls the name of a person about to die.

211

For Галя (Иванова) Горохова see note on poem 17.

212

Published in the almanac Pcrekrestki (Philadelphia), no. 5, 1981, p. 37. Козельск: the city of Kozel'sk, Kaluga Region; many of its ancient churches built in the 17th-19th centuries were destroyed after the Russian revolution. Оптина Пустыня: Optina-Vvedenskaia-Makarieva Hermitage with Optina-Troitskii Monastery nearby, founded in the 15th century.