Question by davito53000: How would you comment the poem “The grey-eyed King” by Anna Akhmatova?
Answers and Views:
Answer by B Frank
If you do not read the original Russian–as I do not–one of the first problems in commenting is deciding which translation to use and, if possible, to determine how accurate it is to the original language. One way to go about this is to compare two different translations. I have included two translations below. I would suggest you base you comment on two questions, or rather two sets of questions.
1. Which of the translations do you prefer, and why? In this brief poem, believe it or not, there are five characters. How are the poems alike and how do they differ in their presentation of (a) the king, (b) his wife, (c) the speaker of the poem, (d) her husband, who tells her of the king’s death, and (e) her daughter?
2. There are a number of peculiar wordings in the poem. What might be the possible explanations of (a) the initial address to “inescapable pain”/”glorious grief,” (b) the husband’s reporting on the death of the king “quietly” or “tranquilly,” (c) his getting his pipe from the mantelpiece and going off to work at his midnight shift, (d) her daughter’s gray eyes=”my daughter,” not our daughter, (e) her address to her daughter about “your king,” and (f) the rustling poplars outside? Obviously the husband is a working man, not a companion of royalty, and hence, in a sense, representing the working class. Furthermore, he is obviously less grief-stricken than his wife: he reports the tragedy “quietly/tranquilly” and casually goes about his work, smoking his pipe. Their gray eyes obviously lead one to associate the daughter with the king, and the report of the queen’s grief is obviously related in some way to the speaker’s pain/grief.
Finally, the poem was written in 1910. You might want to recall just a bit about Russian history at this point in time. How would you expect the poet to relate to (a) royalty, (b) the working class, and (c) their women?
This is the way I would beginn commenting on the poem. I wonder how you will comment on it.
* * * * *
Glory to you, inescapable pain!
The gray-eyed king died yesterday.
The autumn evening was sultry and red,
My husband returned and quietly said:
“You know, they brought him back from the hunt,
They found his corpse by the old oak tree.
I pity the queen. He was so young!..
In just one night her hair turned white.”
He found his pipe on the mantelpiece
And went out to his nighttime shift.
I’ll go and wake my daughter now,
I’ll look into her little gray eyes.
While outside the rustling poplars say:
“Your king is no longer upon this earth
Translated by Tatiana Tulchinsky, Andrew Wachtel, and/or Gwenan Wilbur
*******
Hail glorious grief! For yesterday died–
Passed away irreplaceably the king with gray eyes.
That evening in autumn was scarlet and sad,
My husband came home and tranquilly said:
“From the forest they brought him, he was hunting, you see,
They found his body by an old oak tree.
Poor Queen! So youthful she was! So gay!…
In one night she has aged and her hair turned gray.”
On the fireplace ledge he found his pipe,
Then left for his work in the midst of the night.
I’ll rush to my daughter, I’ll tell her to rise,
I’ll be looking intently inside her gray eyes.
The poplars are rustling by the window tonight:
“You won’t see your king anymore–he has died.”
–Translated by Alexander Shaumayan
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