And I drink monastic tenderness
From rapt hearts,
Like the hopelessness of the cypress
At inexorable heights.

I love the saint’s bent eyebrows,
The color in their faces,
The spots of gold and blood
On wax statue bodies,

Maybe it’s only the illusion of flesh
Lying to us, in our dreams,
Showing through these rags
And breathing in fatal passions
-Mandelstam

Friday was a tiring day and night but interesting. Prof Evdokimova lectured today on Pushkin and Mickiewicz. It was great to hear her lecture again after not having her since freshman year. Later in the afternoon we met up with Prof Dorontchenkov (who teaches at the fine arts academy here, and taught a class I took at Brown last semester when he was in the states). It was nice to hear him lecture again too and it was especially interesting because he was able to talk about the different works (icons today) with the originals right in front of us. We went to the Russian Museum and saw the icon exhibits. Dorontchenkov talked about how these icons were in their most unnatural environment—in bare, white walled rooms, hidden behind glass, and against neoclassical architecture at times (i.e. check out the reflection in the pic). I definitely want to check out an orthodox service her sometime.

But yeah, he is a phenomenal lecturer and his English is not only excellent, but beautiful—even if he has to pause for a minute or two to come up with the right word, analogy, or translation of a Russian quote he wants to share with us. He is very Russian looking with the prominent forehead, deep-set eyes, and crooked/missing teeth. He looked much healthier than when he did at Brown. His belt loop only wrapped around to the middle of his back instead of to his other hip (he is that thin). I have come to appreciate icons the more I look at them and study their purpose. They can be rather impenetrable not only from the difficulty in deciphering certain symbols and orthodox rituals, but also through their visual construction (the inverse perspective, distorted proportions, unnatural color, gold, stiffness of forms, etc.).