Reviews Written by Quốc Tân

Snow - Paustovsky

Pros: romantic

Cons: unforgerttable

Several years ago, when I was a high school student, my favorite reading was Russian literature. (O_o) Don’t be surprised and look at me like that! [In another entry I will tell you why and how we love Russia with a great passion.] In Vietnam, many people, especially who were born in and before 1980s, feel a passionate attraction to Russian literature. They can list a dozen of favorite writers and dozens of favorite books, and remember by heart many beloved poems.

Paustovsky, in my opinion, is a special one among famous Soviet writers. In fact, many of them were well-known in the field of short stories, such as I.Baben, I.Bunin, A.Cuprin, M.Gorky and Paustovsky. Whereas Gorky was famous for his praises of human’s dignity and braveness, and both Cuprin and Bunin showed their sympathy for poor unfortunates; Paustovsky attracted readers with the gentle, honest and faithful loveship among the characters in his stories. Another reason is, while almost Soviet writers were influenced by socialistic realism, Paustovsky could go apart the old track and combine realistic with romantic narration.

His stories are not too long, not complicated with many characters, just focusing on one or two main personae and have one thing in common: perky plot turns. In a story collection of Paustovsky, the one that I prefer most is ‘Snow’. [Yep, I love snow and when I’m typing this post, I remember my trip to Lake Mountain, and our photos as well.^^] What do you think about the title ‘Snow’? I don’t think it simply presents the winter season through all the story, or the snowy scenery where the characters meet each other. ‘Snow’ in here might present the brightness of hopefulness in love, in aspiration, in live, as the bright color [i.e. white] of the snow.

The most impressive thing in ‘Snow’ is contradiction. This might be the contradiction of war and peace, of death and living, of hopefulness and hopelessness. In other words, this is the contradiction of darkness and brightness. Probably Paustovsky want to emphasize the bright side to praise the meaning and eternality of hope. Why can I say that? Let look at the character Nikolai. When he planned to visit home, he thought he could stay with his dad in only one day. Unfortunately, his dad died before he came home and he couldn’t see him at the last moment. What else is more sorrowful in a man’s life? What could keep his hope alive? Nothing but love.

Some years ago in Krum, he felt in love with a girl in their first sight. Trust me, this is a purest, honest love that we can have. Sometimes we want to secretly keep that love all our life, and that’s all. Nikolai is not an exception. He thought that Tachiana was that girl but he didn’t tell her about that. By keeping his secret, he kept his hope alive as well. How interesting it is! What an accidental accident! Imagine that when Nokolai met her in his house, if he had reminded her that once in Krum they had met each other, and she told that it wasn’t true, he would have lost all his hope. How suffered he would be!

Another thing is Tachiana’s attitude when she got his letter. Even though she knew the truth, she didn’t tell him. Instead, she kept it as her own secret. She just wanted to keep his hope alive. And probably her hope as well.

At last she said to herself: “None of this. None of this matters”. And that’s what love is.

p/s: Bằng Việt, a Vietnamese poet, has written a poem named ‘Remembrance about Paustovsky’. I tried to translate the last two paragraphs from Vietnamese to English.

Pauxtốpxki là dĩ vãng trong em
Thành dĩ vãng hai ta. Bây giờ anh ngoảnh lại:
Nhưng không phải thế đâu, không phải thế đâu, anh hiểu rằng không phải…
Như tuổi thơ, vừa đó đã xa vời!

Đưa em đi… Tất cả thế xong rồi,
Ta đã lớn. Và Pauxtốpxki đã chết ! …
Anh vẫn khóc khi nghĩ về truyện “Tuyết”
Dầu chẳng bao giờ mong đợi nữa đâu em!

Paustovsky’s is a moment of your past
A moment in our past. Now it came back to my mind
But it’s all wrong, I know, definitely wrong…
Like our childhood, goes out as time goes by!

Take you gone… Lastly, everything just finished,
We are grown. And he passed away, Paustovsky.
I still cry when thinking about ‘Snow’ story
But now, honestly, I’d expect no more. ...