The Boys of Diaghilev, Serge Iourienen When a dancer becomes old
Serge Iourienen. The Boys of Diaghilev. Translated from Russian by Anne Sylvestre. Publishing Free-Shooter USA, 2009, 63 p.
What a pity to deprive us forever of all the truths that a man like Leonid Fedorovich Massine'll have taught us. He Serge Iourienen, a young dissident writer Moscow and emigrated costs Paris in 1979 that commits Massine to write his biography. And the day when the manuscript provided a livelihood, should be returned to the main protagonist, he dies on his private island in the Aegean! The distraught biographer throws the manuscript into the crater of Vesuvius
... This is a letter signed by Massine, an envelope fell from a pile of paperwork, in a move that refreshes the consciousness of the author. Some notes taken during meetings with Massine, released a little-known part of the history of Russian ballet and those who made him famous.
For Nijinsky's confidences we entrons dans les coulisses sentimentales de Sergueï Mikhaïlovitch Diaghilev (†1929). « Dans cet hôtel, alors que j’étais couché, brûlant de fièvre… Diaghilev m’a proposé de vivre avec lui… je craignais de tout perdre en le laissant…à cette époque, j’étais coureur. J’avais vingt ans. J’avais peur de la vie… Diaghilev, assis sur mon lit est parvenu à ses fins. … je craignais Diaghilev, non la mort… »
Une promenade entre deux époques, teintée des deux nostalgies à le fois, celle de sa jeunesse et celle de la belle époque, la prose de Serge Iourienen dévoile l’atmosphère very particular, peculiar to Soviet dissident, with its fears and anxieties (Iourienen USSR did not return after his trip to the West ...) and how all of a sudden, he was released.
the God of fire, as it is in this book, invoked through to the writer, we surrender sufficient lines for an upcoming book on the subject. The voice of memory does not go off so easily!
With this book extends the list of translations - though successful - Annie Sylvester who had started brightly ago years with "The flying camel" of Vladimir Zagreb. Maverick USA, which publishes modern Russian authors ever more often, given the tightening policy of their country, further increasing the number of books in French (among other things, "Feel like a miracle," by Nicolas Bokov ...) requires relocation ...
Marie-Claude Thebaud
mcthebaud@yahoo.fr