FOREWORD
1. Rus’: A term referring to an ancient people and their land, which are latterly represented by the Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian peoples and their territories.
I. BELA
1 dukhan: An inn in the Caucasus.
2 verst: An obsolete Russian measurement equal to about 3,500 feet.
3 troika: A carriage drawn by three horses harnessed side by side.
4 saklyas: Caucasian mountain huts.
5 Lermontov uses the word burka here, a felt cloak worn in the Caucasus.
6 bouza: A kind of fermented alcohol made from millet.
7 peaceable prince: The term for a local chieftain who took no sides in the war between the Caucasian tribes and the Russians.
8 peaceable prince: A tribal leader who cooperated with Russian forces in the Caucasus.
9 kunak: This means true friend, blood brother.
10 aul: A Caucasian village.
11 balalaika: A Russian stringed instrument with a triangular body and long neck.
12 dzhigits: Caucasian horsemen known for equestrian feats and trick-riding.
13 galloon: Braid or lace made of metal, typically used in military uniform.
14 chamois: A goatlike animal native to the Caucasus mountains.
15 abreks: A kind of freedom-fighter in the Caucasus. This word is also used to describe bandits and outcasts.
16 beshmet: A kind of quilted coat.
17 “Yakshi tkhe, chek yakshi!”: This means “A good horse, very good!”
18 gyaurs: Non-Muslims. The word is a Turkic version of the Persian word for infidel.
19 Karagyoz: A Turkic name, which literally means “black eyes,” but also refers to a Turkish shadow puppet, popular for many centuries in countries near Turkey.
20 Yok: This means “no” or “not.” It is said to be Tatar.
21 gurda: An expensive weapon made of high-quality steel.
22 Padishah: This was a title for the Sultan of Turkey.
23 There is a footnote here in Lermontov’s original: Я прошу прощения у читателей в том, что переложил в стихи песню Казбича, переданную мне, разумеется, прозой; но привычка—вторая натура. (Прим. Лермонтова.)
24 yashmak: A type of Turkish veil worn by women.
25 Urus—yaman, yaman!: This means “The Russian is bad, bad!”
26 peri: A term of endearment referring to fairylike creatures who are fallen angels.
27 muzhik: A male Russian peasant.
28 Russ: An older word meaning “Russian man.”
29 dear little: this refers to provincial Russian cities and has a slightly pejorative tone (hence the italics, which were in Lermontov’s original).
30 Krestovaya: This is a mountain, the name of which translates as “Mountain of the Cross.”
31 Nightingale-Robber: A figure from Russian folklore who wrought havoc and was able to render people immobile by whistling.
32 lezginka: A folk dance of the Lezgin people.
33 sazhen: An obsolete Russian measurement equal to seven feet.
34 thermalam: Fabric used for lining, usually linen or cotton.
II. MAXIM MAXIMICH
1 dolman: A Hungarian jacket.
2 Balzac’s thirty-year-old coquette: This refers to Honoré de Balzac’s novel La Femme de Trente Ans (1834).
PECHORIN’S DIARIES
FOREWORD
1. Rousseau’s confessions: This refers to Les Confessions by Rousseau.
1. TAMAN
1 izba: A traditional Russian log house.
2 fatera: This word means quarters.
3 slobodka: A settlement exempted from normal State obligations.
4 On that day the dumb shall cry out: A reference to the Bible, Isaiah 35:5-6: “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing.”
5 uryadnik: A Cossack NCO, a noncommissioned officer.
6 rusalka: A water nymph, frequently demonic, who lives underwater, often at the bottom of rivers.
7 La Jeune-France: A group of young French writers of the 1830s who are known to have exaggerated the theories of Romanticism. They looked up to Victor Hugo.
8 Mignon: A character in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.
2. PRINCESS MARY
1 The opening line of a short poem by Alexander Pushkin titled “The Cloud” (1835).
2 whist: A trick-taking card game played by four players. It was popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
3 fichu: A triangular scarf worn around the neck.
4 à la moujik: This means “in the peasant style.”
5 “Mon cher, je haïs les hommes pour ne pas mépriser, car autrement la vie serait une farce trop dégoutante”: “My dear friend, I hate men in order not to despise them, otherwise life would be a most repulsive farce.” (French)
6 “Mon cher, je méprise les femmes pour ne pas les aimer, car autrement la vie serait un mélodrame trop ridicule”: “My dear friend, I despise women in order not to love them, otherwise life would be a most ridiculous melodrama.” (French)
7 cherkeska: A Circassian tunic, worn over the beshmet.
8 Beshtau, Zmeinoi, Zheleznaya, and Lisaya: The translation, from Turkish and Russian, of these names: Five-mountains, The Snake, The Iron One, The Bare One.
9 “Mon dieu, un Circassien!”: “My God, a Circassian!” (French)
10 “Ne craignez rien, madame—je ne suis pas plus dangereux que votre cavalier.”: “Fear not, madam—I am no more dangerous than your cavalier.” (French)
11 Nogay wagon: The Nogays are an East Caucasian people.
12 C’est impayable!: “That’s priceless!” (French)
13 This is a reference to Pyotr Pavlovich Kaverin, a friend of Pushkin’s who served in the same regiment as Lermontov, and who is mentioned in the first chapter of Eugene Onegin.
14 Library for Reading: A journal of the 1830s and 1840s (Biblioteka dlya Chteniya), which published memoirs and foreign novels, among other things.
15 souls: Serfs in Russia were counted as “souls.”
16 From act 3, scene 3 of Woe from Wit by Aleksandr Griboedov. It is slightly misquoted by Lermontov here.
17 The cold observations . . . : A fragment from Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin.
18 vampire: The vampire referred to here is the hero of a story by John Polidori called “The Vampyre,” about a young man who negotiates society by wreaking havoc on the virtuous and encouraging the sinister.
19 son coeur et sa fortune: His heart and his fortune. (French)
20 arkhaluk: A Caucasian coat.
21 “É finita la commedia!”: “The comedy is finished!” (Italian)
3. THE FATALIST
1 stanitsa: A large Cossack village.
2 Boston: A card game.
3 faro: A card game that was popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, involving an entire pack of playing cards and any number of players.
4 stuss: A variant of the card game faro.
5 chikhir: A young red wine from the Caucasus.
6 uryadnik: This is a Cossack NCO, a noncommissioned officer.