![TIUTCHEV, Fedor Ivanovich (1803-1873). Autograph manuscript of his celebrated poem 'Dym' ['Smoke'], 25 April [1867], 32 lines of verse, on a bifolium, 4 pages, 8vo (light spotting, shallow folding creases, short tears and small losses at edges not affecting the text). Provenance: Petr Grigor'evich Bogatyrev (noted Slavicist, 1893-1970; by descent to:) -- Konstantin Petrovich Bogatyrev -- Gennady Barabtarlo (Professor of Russian; acquired in 1979).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/CKS/2013_CKS_01160_0077_001(tiutchev_fedor_ivanovich_autograph_manuscript_of_his_celebrated_poem_d034621).jpg?w=1)
![TIUTCHEV, Fedor Ivanovich (1803-1873). Autograph manuscript of his celebrated poem 'Dym' ['Smoke'], 25 April [1867], 32 lines of verse, on a bifolium, 4 pages, 8vo (light spotting, shallow folding creases, short tears and small losses at edges not affecting the text). Provenance: Petr Grigor'evich Bogatyrev (noted Slavicist, 1893-1970; by descent to:) -- Konstantin Petrovich Bogatyrev -- Gennady Barabtarlo (Professor of Russian; acquired in 1979).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/CKS/2013_CKS_01160_0077_000(tiutchev_fedor_ivanovich_autograph_manuscript_of_his_celebrated_poem_d034600).jpg?w=1)
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TIUTCHEV, Fedor Ivanovich (1803-1873). Autograph manuscript of his celebrated poem 'Dym' ['Smoke'], 25 April [1867], 32 lines of verse, on a bifolium, 4 pages, 8vo (light spotting, shallow folding creases, short tears and small losses at edges not affecting the text). Provenance: Petr Grigor'evich Bogatyrev (noted Slavicist, 1893-1970; by descent to:) -- Konstantin Petrovich Bogatyrev -- Gennady Barabtarlo (Professor of Russian; acquired in 1979).
"Zdes, nekogda, moguchii i prekrasnyi
Shumel' i zelenel' volshebnyi les',
Ne les' -- a tselyi mir' paznoobraznyi
Ispolnennyi videnii i chudes' ..."
A VERY RARE AND HIGHLY IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPT OF ONE OF HIS BEST POEMS, BY ONE OFRUSSIA'S GREATEST POETS. With Pushkin and Lermontov Tiutchev completes the triumvirate of Russia's great Romantic poets. Pushkin, in his own words, read Tiutchev's poems with 'awe and delight'; Tolstoy was 'struck by the greatness of his creativity'; Dostoevsky called him 'a mighty and profound Russian poet, one of the most outstanding and original continuers of Pushkin's epoch'; and Turgenev called Tiutchev's verse immortal, 'never to be condemned to die; for a true artist there is no greater praise'. Tiutchev's work forms a crucial bridge to the 20th century, and was equally revered by Bely and Blok. Tiutchev wrote this poem in response to Turgenev's novel Dym; thereafter smoke and fire became major motifs in much of Tiutchev's work.
'Collation of all known variant readings with the [present] Bogatyrev manuscript suggests that it may be indeed a seminal and artistically superior version of the poem ... the manuscript allows one to restore, moreover, the original punctuation of the poem and to establish the exact date of its composition' (Barabtarlo). The manuscript shows a number of salient variations from that published in 1868, yielding important insights into Tiutchev's writing process: for instance the last couplet reads 'I vot opiat stoit i zeleneet / Nash prezhnii les', volshebnyi i rodnoi...' instead of 'I vot opiat nash les zazeleneet, / Vse tot zhe les, volshebnyi i rodnoi.' Furthermore a number of contractions (e.g. 'Na vstrechu' instead of 'navstrechu') and significant variations in the punctuation all have an important impact on the scansion. None of Tiutchev's editors reproduced his punctuation, favouring a 'modernized' system, which 'eradicates Tiutchev's idiosyncratic intonation and often changes the poem's rhythm' (Barabtarlo).
Another Tiutchev manuscript of this quality and importance is very unlikely to surface. Tiutchev treated his manuscripts with complete disregard, never collecting or preserving them; much of his early work, for instance, is known to have been burnt by him in a careless moment. Consequently TIUTCHEV MANUSCRIPTS ARE EXCEEDINGLY RARE: ABPC records not a single example at auction; by contrast, two by Gogol,four by Lermontov, and seven by Pushkin are recorded.
Published in: Barabtarlo, 'Tjutcev's poem "Zdes', nekogda, mogucij i prekrasnyj...": textology and exegesis of the Bogatyrev manuscript', in Slavic and East European Journal, volume 30, number 3, Fall 1986, pp. 420-430.
"Zdes, nekogda, moguchii i prekrasnyi
Shumel' i zelenel' volshebnyi les',
Ne les' -- a tselyi mir' paznoobraznyi
Ispolnennyi videnii i chudes' ..."
A VERY RARE AND HIGHLY IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPT OF ONE OF HIS BEST POEMS, BY ONE OFRUSSIA'S GREATEST POETS. With Pushkin and Lermontov Tiutchev completes the triumvirate of Russia's great Romantic poets. Pushkin, in his own words, read Tiutchev's poems with 'awe and delight'; Tolstoy was 'struck by the greatness of his creativity'; Dostoevsky called him 'a mighty and profound Russian poet, one of the most outstanding and original continuers of Pushkin's epoch'; and Turgenev called Tiutchev's verse immortal, 'never to be condemned to die; for a true artist there is no greater praise'. Tiutchev's work forms a crucial bridge to the 20th century, and was equally revered by Bely and Blok. Tiutchev wrote this poem in response to Turgenev's novel Dym; thereafter smoke and fire became major motifs in much of Tiutchev's work.
'Collation of all known variant readings with the [present] Bogatyrev manuscript suggests that it may be indeed a seminal and artistically superior version of the poem ... the manuscript allows one to restore, moreover, the original punctuation of the poem and to establish the exact date of its composition' (Barabtarlo). The manuscript shows a number of salient variations from that published in 1868, yielding important insights into Tiutchev's writing process: for instance the last couplet reads 'I vot opiat stoit i zeleneet / Nash prezhnii les', volshebnyi i rodnoi...' instead of 'I vot opiat nash les zazeleneet, / Vse tot zhe les, volshebnyi i rodnoi.' Furthermore a number of contractions (e.g. 'Na vstrechu' instead of 'navstrechu') and significant variations in the punctuation all have an important impact on the scansion. None of Tiutchev's editors reproduced his punctuation, favouring a 'modernized' system, which 'eradicates Tiutchev's idiosyncratic intonation and often changes the poem's rhythm' (Barabtarlo).
Another Tiutchev manuscript of this quality and importance is very unlikely to surface. Tiutchev treated his manuscripts with complete disregard, never collecting or preserving them; much of his early work, for instance, is known to have been burnt by him in a careless moment. Consequently TIUTCHEV MANUSCRIPTS ARE EXCEEDINGLY RARE: ABPC records not a single example at auction; by contrast, two by Gogol,four by Lermontov, and seven by Pushkin are recorded.
Published in: Barabtarlo, 'Tjutcev's poem "Zdes', nekogda, mogucij i prekrasnyj...": textology and exegesis of the Bogatyrev manuscript', in Slavic and East European Journal, volume 30, number 3, Fall 1986, pp. 420-430.
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