A Multimedia Presentation. It’s Pushkin’s 212th Birthday! Let’s Have Some Poetry from the Master… and Some Music to Set the Scene

A Portrait of Aleksandr Pushkin

Vasili Tropinin

1827

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Let’s set a mood… here’s Élégie, opus 3 nr 1 for piano by Sergei Rakhmninov, as played by Aleksei Botvinov…

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Let’s continue the mood with Muslim Magomayev singing Elegiya…

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Элегия

Безумных лет угасшее веселье
Мне тяжело, как смутное похмелье.
Но, как вино — печаль минувших дней
В моей душе чем старе, тем сильней.
Мой путь уныл. Сулит мне труд и горе
Грядущего волнуемое море.

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Но не хочу, о други, умирать;
Я жить хочу, чтоб мыслить и страдать;
И ведаю, мне будут наслажденья
10Меж горестей, забот и треволненья:
Порой опять гармонией упьюсь,
Над вымыслом слезами обольюсь,
И может быть — на мой закат печальный
Блеснет любовь улыбкою прощальной.

1830

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Elegy

The vanished joy of my crazy years
Is as heavy as gloomy hang-over.
But, like wine, the sorrow of past days
Is stronger with time.
My path is sad. The waving sea of the future
Promises me only toil and sorrow.

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But, O my friends, I do not wish to die,
I want to live – to think and suffer.
I know, I’ll have some pleasures
Amongst woes, cares and troubles.
Sometimes, I’ll be drunk with harmony again,
Or will weep over my visions,
And it’s possible, at my sorrowful decline,
Love will flash with a parting smile.

1830

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A Chinese classical dance, The Awakening of Spring

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The Mariinsky Ballet of St Petersburg performs Le Réveil de Flore (The Awakening of Flora) by Drigo (choreography by the great Marius Petipa)… there are six parts… look at the right-hand side of the You Tube page to find the other five (scroll over each one to see the full description, there is another abridged set with four vids, don’t mistake them)…

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Пробуждение

Мечты, мечты,
Где ваша сладость?
Где ты, где ты,
Ночная радость?
Исчезнул он,
Веселый сон,
И одинокой
Во тьме глубокой
Я пробужден!…
Кругом постели
Немая ночь;
Вмиг охладели,
Вмиг улетели
Толпою прочь
Любви мечтанья
Еще полна
Душа желанья
И ловит сна
Воспоминанья.
Любовь, любовь!
Пусть упоенный,
Усну я вновь,
Обвороженный,
И поутру,
Вновь утомленный,
Пускай умру,
Непробужденный!…

1816/25

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Awakening

O dreams, O dreams,
Where are your delights?
Oh, where are you,
The joys of night?
The joyous dream
Is vanished,
And in a deep darkness
I woke up
Alone.
The deathly-still night
Surrounds my bed.
The dreams of love
Grew cold in a moment,
And flew away
As a flock of birds.
But my soul
Is still full of desires,
And catches
The memories of a dream.
O love, O love,
Listen to my prayers,
Send me again
Yours sweet visions,
And in the morning
Let me die
In ecstasy
With no awakening.

1816/25

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6 June 2011. It’s Certainly a POV… A Know-Nothing Konvertsy Brat Attempts to Lecture Their Knowledgeable Elders and Shut Us Up Concerning JP

You stop attacking JP… the facts DON’T matter… you’re not being FORGIVING… he’s such a NICE guy.

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A friend saw this drivelling nonsense and sent it on to me:

Metropolitan Jonah’s “suspicious” involvement with the St Herman of Alaska Monastery. Who has evidence of the details and context and what the Metropolitan knew or didn’t? His CV isn’t wrong, and if it downplays his connection with ex-Fr Gleb Podmoshensky, maybe that’s because there either wasn’t much of one or the extent of the problem only was known to him later. But if there is no definite evidence of the specific nature of that connection and the Metropolitan’s knowledge and specific actions, shouldn’t we all “put up or shut up” by your standard? Has anyone here asked the Metropolitan personally about it so they can report back to the Forum?

What arrogant ignorance and utter bullshit! Firstly, everyone knows that Russky Palomnik was GP’s cockamamie project… all of us around at the time remember how he flogged it in the Orthodox Word. GP went on his knees to beg for money to send this misbegotten obnovlenets piece of rubbish to Russia. Russky Palomnik had NO connection, even incidental, with the MP hierarchy. As soon as they learned that it was a notional canoodle run by a deposed Renovationist, they kicked James Paffhausen out of the office he’d lied his way into. This was back in the Nasty ‘90s, when a lickspittle pro-American government ran Russia (Corporatist jerks such as Gaidar and Chubais were in it… and soulless thieves like Khodorkovsky and Berezovsky flourished)… it’s why the contemporary RF doesn’t trust the USA at all. By the way, James Paffhausen went to Russia on his own nickel… GP didn’t have two dimes to rub together (no doubt, he hit up his rich daddy for the cash), according to a Northern CA source. Of course, this was after GP’s very public and very messy deposition for naughty doings with minors (as Lebedeff pointed up, the ROCOR used the pretext that GP served whilst under suspension, but everyone knew the real reason).

As I was around at the time (unlike the HOOMie poseur who wrote the above POS defence of Fathausen), I can tell you that NO ONE was unaware on why the ROCOR deposed GP. There was much controversy; no one was indifferent or neutral on the matter. Don’t forget, the entire brotherhood at Platina left in disgust, save for Damascene Christiansen and Gerasim Eliel (the latter El Gordo’s classmate at BTU, along with David Brum). James Paffhausen was well aware of the situation swirling around GP; he vehemently defended him, as did all the deluded konvertsy. Let’s see… Freddie M-G and Rod Dreher were in Platina at one time or another… Dreher said so (he’s a loudmouthed phoney who doesn’t how to keep his mouth shut).

“His CV isn’t wrong”. What vacuous twaddle! It’s crook from beginning to end. First, he claimed that Bishop Pankraty Zherdev of Valaam Monastery was his elder, then, he changed the story to say that the late Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov of the Holy Trinity-St Sergei Lavra was his elder and counselled him to become a monk. There’s a wrinkle in it, though… Fathausen (who seems incapable of issuing a straight story) claimed that Archimandrite Kirill was at Valaam, when everyone knows that Fr Kirill was in Sergeyev Posad. Note well that Archimandrite Kirill is safely dead… and beyond questioning. Let’s see… there are FOUR things wrong with his CV so far:

• Russky Palomnik was NOT a publication of the MP
• James Paffhausen WAS aware of the charges against GP, and supported him wholeheartedly
• James Paffhausen did NOT work for the MP Publications Department
• James Paffhausen did NOT meet Archimandrite Kirill in Valaam

I needn’t go any further. Paffhausen is dead in the water. On top of this, he’s a believer in the heresy of the Brum Doctrine (written by his pal David Brum), which says that the Metropolitan is a little dictator over the Church. I do daresay that KMG has no such power over the MP. The power in a canonical Church resides in the Archpastoral Council (or an equivalent); that is, the ruling bishops sit en banc as the “high court” of the Church, an individual bishop DOESN’T have such authority. He ardently defends the Sectarian HOOMie filth (they’re not Orthodox in the least, save formally)… they’re nothing but lockstep Stepford Wives cultists with a murky past regarding child abuse (do ask the Pokrov people about this… they’ve got the whole megillah on it).

Look at the second image in this post:

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-revisited-or-how-jp-bamboozled-his-way-to-be-head-of-the-oca/

It would be good to re-read the above post in conjunction with this one. That being said, the image shows Fathausen and BP serving with a suspended clergyman, Isidore Brittain, the reputed homosexual lover of the deposed Bishop Nikolai Soraich. Let’s see… El Gordo keeps up an active correspondence with Soraich, seeking his advice on Church administration… BP has a drink driving arrest in Nevada on his rap sheet (any other legit religious group would’ve kicked BP’s gnarly arse out for such a stunt)… JP defends Gregory Jensen, who lacks both a graduate degree in psychology and an MDiv, yet Jensen claims to be both a priest and psychologist… JP shielded Ray Velencia from harm after RV published personal e-mails from a parishioner amongst the so-called Metropolitan Council… “We admit no wrong”, as the wording of the settlement had it. This is in addition to the fact that one of his closest advisers is the HOOMie cultist Matthew Tate, who, as a twice-married man, is ineligible for the priesthood (we should depose him immediately… an MP priest told me that the Church DOES recognise civil marriages and DOES consider them if a man wishes ordination). In short, the konvert who posted “his CV isn’t wrong” opened up a real can of refriteras (Mexican-style refried beans). We all know what happens an hour or two after you eat those things… don’t say that I didn’t warn ya…

It’s time for us to shut up the squalling toddlers, change their stinking shitty nappies, and put them in their cribs with their babas and blankies… then, we could pour ourselves an adult beverage or two and have a grownup conversation.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 6 June 2011

Albany NY