On the Eve by Turgenev *

"He held her in a powerful embrace and was silent. He did not need to tell her that he loved her. By his very exclamation, by that immediate transformation of the entire man, by the rise and fall of his chest, on which she was so trustfully nestling, by the way the ends of his fingers played with her hair. Yelena could tell that she was loved. "he is here, he loves...and what is more?" The stillness of bliss, heavenly stillness which confess sense, and beauty even on depth, filled her with all its beatific wane. She did not wish for anything because she possessed everything. "Oh, my brother, my friend, my dear..." her lips whispered, and she herself did not know whose heart it was, whether his or hers, that beat so delightfully and melted in her breast."

A first for any author I've ever read. Love completes us human beings. It raises us to the "peak" of our development. It is when we become actual men and women. Our instincts take over, and our physical and spiritual combine, to be transformed into what we were meant to be.

"I only wanted to explain why nature, as you call it, has that effect on us. It is because it arouses a necessity for love in us and is not able to satisfy it. It quickly dries into other, living embraces, but we don't understand and expect something from nature itself. Ah, Anrei, Andrei, how splendid is this sun, the sky! Everything, everything, all around us, is splendid; and yet you are sad. But if at this moment you were holding a beloved woman's hand in your hand, if that hand and all that woman were yours, if you looked with her eyes, felt not with your own solidary feelings but with hers, nature would not arouse sorrow in you, Andrei,and not anxiety, nor would you stop to observe its beauty. Nature itself would rejoice and sing, nature would echo your hymn, because then you would give it, would give that dumb thing, a tongue!"

I came across this concept only in a book by George Sand called Marianne. But this is the only quote that explains it all. How interesting, that deep in our being, nature affects us...it affects us to the core. How love and nature have a connection. What we perceive, the beauty of nature, can be seen in two ways. We can either feel sadness, or we would be indifferent to it (because as Turgenev says, we would be too happy to notice it). Therefore,the actual beauty of nature, all of its immense majesty and glory, would be embodied in the person we love- and that is what we would notice. Those who lack this "love", notice nature and its beauty, but yearn for the love itself that can be seen in the grass, the sky, the clouds. But it is too far away, it is all scattered in pieces here and there...and that is what the lonely realize and mourn over...

"...and drew her with him into those forbidden lands. Unknown, beautiful, they opened before her attentive gaze; from the pages of the book Rudin held in his hand amazing picture, new, luminous thoughts, poured in a ringing stream into her soul, and in her heart, shaken by the noble joy of great sensations, the sacred spark of nature, quietly shone out and burst into flame..."

This is so delicious for the soul, the mind! And here, Turgenev shows us that nature does play a part in these "great sensations". It is already in us, this instinct is dormant, and when we experience the sensations, it blooms- as if on cue. This liquid metaphor is so beautiful- as if the two worlds, reality and the unreal, melt into another realm altogether...that lead to their souls...

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This story is the most beautiful thing I've ever read. He combines the folk and the romantic in such a magnificent way. Truly, Turgenev is a genius of the human soul.


And- rereading it a second time- I was struck by the role change in the story. Dmitry was all powerful and in control at all times, but turned into a complete mess when he couldn't control his emotions. She, on the other hand, became such a strong woman- and even ordered him around. What an incredible change! And what made her become dominant all of a sudden? Why had love changed her so drastically- so far as to be the opposite of who she was? Or was she always like this- the pent up energy inside of her?
--
The Vintage Turgenev Vol 2. Pub. Vintage Russian Library 1950