Versification question, Tsvetaeva

[Alex Shafaremlp]

A fascinating discussion. The music analogy is specious; in music each
measure of 4/4 has exactly the same stress pattern (excepting syncopation,
which could be likened to foot inversion in poetry) AND the same duration
(excepting rubato). A meter in poetry is generally more liberal, and I mean
Russian prosody as well. However, the case in point is a clear
misunderstanding. 

First of all, a native speaker will have no doubt regarding the stress in
pOru, it is not at all uncertain or variable. 

Secondly, the word dolnik is often (wrongly) used in references to accentual
verse. Strictly speaking, dolnik is NOT accentual verse, since it is a
relaxed form of trochee/dactyl (or iamb/anapaest). The difference is
absolutely crucial, since word stresses in Russian prosody can be
legitimately skipped over (a pyrrhic substitution, if you follow  English
terminology, or Nabokov's "scuds" if you wish to take a less academic view).
What keeps the metre ticking is an established pattern, if only by virtue of
the "no more than two unstressed syllables between icti"  dolnik rule. By
contrast, accentual verse has a truly syntagmatic (phrasal as opposed to
word) stress pattern: the rhythm of a sentence defines where the stresses
lie and no "scuds" are possible. 

Now to Tsvetayeva. I am one of her congruent translators to English, by the
way, and have had to consider her treatment of rhythmic structures very
carefully to achieve the required congruency. The case in point is CLEARLY
not dolnik. It is, as Alexandra suggests, a logaedic metre. Compare it with
Lermontov's "Pesnya pro tsaria Ivana Vasil'evicha...",
and you will see the characteristic syntagmatic pattern: two beats per line,
with unstressed syllables crammed around and in between. There is nothing
hard and fast about logaedics and I for one would not presume to speak on
folklore prosody (which is immensely complex by the way), but it is clear,
as Alexandra says, that this piece is cast in a folk-song manner by its author.

Anyone interested in Russian prosody will benefit from Barry Scherr's
excellent monograph on the subject, which is unfortunately hard to find as
it has been out of print for some time. Also many subtle points are
elucidated by Slava Muchnick in his introduction to the Anthology "Salt
Crystals on an Axe", which is still in print.

Regards,

Alex Shafarenko  

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