Pushkin question
Francoise Rosset
frosset at WHEATONMA.EDU
Mon Nov 5 18:07:36 UTC 2007
>Dear SEELANGtsy,
>
>I have been trying to find the source of the phrase: "Bol'noi,
>rasslablennyi koloss" in Pushkin's 1831 "Borodinskaia
>godovshchina."
>It clearly refers to Russia and is italicized in the original. A
>variant was "Bol'noi izmuchennyi koloss." Lednicki says it responds
>to a phrase in the Franco-Polish committee's manifesto calling
>Russia "cette puissance colossale." That no doubt is correct, but
>the italicization of the whole suggests to me that it plays off some
>other fixed phrase or well-known quotation. I include the entire
>stanza in which the phrase appears for reference.
This is not the exact answer to your question but may be related.
Diderot supposedly called Russia "ce colosse aux pieds d'argile,"
referring to mid 18th century Russia.
I wasn't able to look through Diderot, so I got some confirmation
from Polish wikipedia (wikicytaty) at:
http://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot
The expression "colosse aux pieds d'argile" is obviously older than
that --a Biblical reference to Daniel explaning Nabuchodonazar's
dream -- hence perhaps "pustaia pritcha, lzhivyj son." But Diderot's
quote seems to be one time it refers clearly and identifiably to
Russia. And a Diderot quote would be a recent, well-repeated phrase
for Pushkin.
Maybe this helps some ...
-FR
--
Francoise Rosset
Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
Coordinator, German and Russian
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts 02766
phone: (508) 286-3696
fax #: (508) 286-3640
e-mail: FRosset at wheatonma.edu
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