Meeting Turgenev On The Street Somewhere In New York City

I got in some trouble in political circles for a piece I wrote about strolling through Boston and sticking revolutionary news papers where they should not belong. I saw myself as something like the character in Edgar Poe’s “The Man and the City.”

But, as I looked at some of the other writings I had made about my walks through the city, and the people I’ve met and interacted with on the streets I began to think of the collection of Russian stories about seemingly mundane everyday events and people by Ivan Turgenev – Sketches from a Hunters Notebook.

At least that’s how the title was remembered by me. As I look into the work I find the translated title would be more accurately rendered ‘Sketches From a Hunter’s Album.’ I remember one college prof quoting an Italian writer: “Translation, traitor.” Another prof said that reading fine works of literature in translation was like feeling a beautiful body with mittens on.

But, the book was in my head. Or, at least the title and the idea of someone wandering around their society and learning about places and people they met. I haven’t read the stories. But I liked the title and the idea and I had thought of collecting some of the pieces I have written that might fit in that kind of a description. For instance when I met the Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney at a high school I was teaching technical drawing at. I didn’t know who he was, I had fun interacting with him and feeding him limericks to complete. I didn’t find out who the man was until ten years later when he died and I recognized his picture in the news. Or when I met a girl from Donegal on the streets of Dorchester when a wild doe came down Ashmont street at 5 o’clock in the morning. I could add the piece I wrote about being at a rally to defend immigrant rights where at the beginning of the rally on Boston Common an older woman approached me and said, “You have really beautiful eyes.” Later as the rally arrived at Boston City Hall a young woman in a group also said to me, “You have really beautiful eyes.” I’m still puzzled by that. (cont. https://xenagoguevicene.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/sketches-from-a-hunters-notebook-xenagogue-vicene-28-jan-2019/ )