Eugene Onegin RAL - Update 2

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Update for Chapters 3 & 4 of Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin read-along hosted by Tanglewood.

In Chapter 3 we learn that Tatyana has fallen helplessly head-over-hills for Eugene.  This is her first love and hardly knows how to react.  She awakes her nurse in a sweat and decides to poor her heart out in a letter.

                          I face another complication:
                          My country's honour will demand
                          Without a doubt a full translation
                          Of Tanya's letter from my hand.
                          She knew the Russian language badly,
                          Ignored our journals all too gladly,
                          And in her native tongue, I fear,
                          Could barely make her meaning clear;
                          And so she turned for love's discussion
                          To French....There's nothing I can do!
                          A lady's love, I say to you,
                          Has never been expressed in Russian;
                          Our mighty tongue, God only knows,
                          Has still not mastered postal prose.
                          (Chapter 3, Stanza 26)

Despite her letter being rather moving and having a tender mastery of her words and feelings she has no clue how to control her body in the same way.  She waits in anticipation for his answer, either in person or by post, and then when she hears him coming she goes and hides like a little school girl.

Chapter 4 brings Eugene declaring to Tatyana that he is not the marrying type, love for her or not he has no desire to become domesticated.  He was man enough to break this to her as tenderly as he could and at least confront the issue and not ignore it or play with her emotions.  He watches Lensky fall completely under the enchantment of Olga, awaiting his blissful marriage day and anticipating the mysteries of the marriage bed.  Eugene does agree to peer pressure to attend Tatyana's name-sake day, which could bring trouble for her tender feelings that have been badly bruised by his rejection.

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But having read Tatyana's letter,
Onegin was profoundly stirred:
(Chapter 4, Part of Stanza 11)

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I've read your words and they evoke
My deep respect for your emotion,
Your trusting soul...and sweet devotion.
Your candour has a great appeal
And stirs in me, I won't conceal,
Long dormant feelings, scarce remembered.
(Chapter 4, Part of Stanza 12)

'Had I in any way desired
To bind with family ties my life;
Or had a happy fate required
That I turn father, take a wife;
Had pictures of domestication
For but one moment held temptation-
Then, surely, none but you alone
Would be the bride I'd make my own.
(Chapter 4, Part of Stanza 13)

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Update 1 contains thoughts from Chapters 1 and 2. 

Quotes come from Oxford University Press edition ISBN: 9780199538645.

[Notice: Original posting 2014-01-27 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]

Tags: Read-Alongs; Onegin