Saturday, June 11, 2016

Happy Otherwise: 1869

Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, and Marya Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya — each from different novels published in 1869 — and each drawn as spiritual characters —the first holy and the second religious — express the thought that happiness for them must lie elsewhere than in the conventional happiness of romantic love.

Мое призвание другое, -- думала про себя  княжна Марья, мое  призвание -- быть счастливой  другим  счастием, счастием любви и самопожертвования.

“My calling is different - Princess Marya thought to herself, “my calling is to be happy with a different happiness, the happiness of love and self-sacrifice.”

Myshkin when asked whether he had in Switzerland been in love: "я... был счастлив иначе" ... "I ... was happy in a different way".

Lev Nikolayevich is of course not only the name of the character in Dostoevsky's novel, but also the name of the author of the second novel.