A WRITER’S DECISIVE MOMENT
Painting: Taf Wallet, Nature morte aux saurets (Still Life with Bucklings)
Photograph: Boris Ivanovich Smelov Still Life
I didn’t feel like having lunch in the newspaper’s office, so I went to a tavern on Moskovskaya street. I had a glass or two of vodka, a bite of herring; I was looking at the fish’s head, laid open on the plate, and I thought to myself: “I must make a note of this: the herring’s cheeks shine like mother-of-pearl.” Then I ate a warm soup. The place was pretty crowded, a smell of battercakes and fried sparlings was lingering around, in the next room the air was heavy with smoke […] It felt as if last night’s dream was still continuing, I was slightly drunk and dazed after the vodka, the soup, the childhood memories, and tears welled up in my eyes…
Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin, The Life of Arseniev (translated by Colouringreflections)
Music: Joseph Haydn, Andante and variations in F minor (suggested interpretation: Alfred Brendel)
