HUMANITIES - LITERATURE
The Expiation
by Victor Hugo
     
Russia 1812
Translated by Robert Lowell
   
  The snow fell, and its power was multiplied.
  For the first time the Eagle1 bowed its head--
  dark days! Slowly the Emperor returned--
  behind him Moscow! Its onion domes still burned.
5 The snow rained down in blizzards--rained and froze.  
  Past each white waste a further white waste rose.  
  None recognized the captains or the flags.  
  Yesterday the Grand Army, today its dregs!  
  No one could tell the vanguard2 from the flanks.  
10 The snow! The hurt men struggled from the ranks,  
  hid in the bellies of dead horses, in stacks  
  of shattered caissons.3 By the bivouacs,4  
  one saw the picket5 dying at his post,  
  still standing in his saddle, white with frost,  
15 the stone lips frozen to the bugle's mouth!
  1. eagle: The standard of Napoleon's military forces.
  2. vanguard: The part of an army that goes ahead of the main body in an advance.
  3. caissons: Two-wheeled wagons used for transporting ammunition.
  4. bivouacs: Temporary encampments.
  5. picket: A soldier responsible for guarding a body of troops from surprise attack.
  6. grapeshot: A cluster of small iron balls fired from a cannon.
  7. the Czar: The Russian emperor.
  Bullets and grapeshot6 mingled with the snow,
  that hailed...The guard, surprised at shivering, march
  in a dream now; ice rimes the gray mustache.
  The snow falls, always snow! The driving mire
20 submerges; men, trapped in that white empire,
  have no more bread and march on barefoot--gaps!
  They were no longer living men and troops,
  but a dream drifting in a fog, a mystery,
  mourners parading under the black sky.
25 The solitude, vast, terrible to the eye,
  was like a mute avenger everywhere,
  as snowfall, floating through the quiet air,
  buried the huge army in a huge shroud.
  Could anyone leave this kingdom? A crowd--
30 each man, obsessed with dying, was alone.
  Men slept--and died! The beaten mob sludged on,
  ditching the guns to burn their carriages.
  Two foes. The North, the Czar.7 The North was worse.  
  In hollows where the snow was piling up,  
35 one saw whole regiments fallen asleep.
  1. Attila's. . .Hannibal: references to the defeat of Attila, the leader of the Huns, at Gaul in A.D. 451, and to the final victory of Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who invaded Rome in 281 B.C.
  2. Ney: The French officer in charge of the defense of the rear in the retreat from Moscow.
  3. Cossacks: People of southern Russia, famous as horsemen and cavalrymen.
  4. qui vive?: "Who lives?" (French).
  5. dervishes: Moslems dedicated to lives of poverty and chastity.
  Attila's dawn, Cannaes of Hannibal!8
  The army marching to its funeral!
  Litters, wounded, the dead, deserters--swarms,
  crushing the bridges down to cross a stream.
40 They went to sleep ten thousand, woke up four
  Ney,9 bringing up the former army's rear,
  hacked his horse loose from three disputing Cossacks10...
  All night, the qui vive?11 The alert! Attacks;
  retreats! White ghosts would wrench away our guns,
45 or we would see dim, terrible squadrons,
  circles of steel, whirlpools of savages,
  rush sabering through the camp like dervishes.12
  And in this way, whole armies died at night.
   
  The Emperor was there, standing--he saw.
50 This oak already trembling from the ax,  
  watched his glories drop from him branch by branch:  
  chiefs, soldiers. Each one had his turn and chance--  
  they died! Some lived. These still believed his star  
  and kept their watch. They loved the man of war  
55 this small man with his hands behind his back,
  1. lese-majeste: "Injured majesty" or "treason" (French).
  2. stupefied: Stunned; made dull or lethargic.
  3. expiation: reparation; attonement.
  whose shadow, moving to and fro, was black
  behind the lighted tent. Still believing, they
  accused their destiny of lese-majeste.13
  His misfortune had mounted on their back.
60 The man of glory shook. Cold stupefied14
  him, then suddenly he felt terrified.
  Being without belief, he turned to God:
  "God of armies, is this the end?" he cried.
  And then at last the expiation15 came,
65 as he heard someone call him by his name,
  someone half-lost in shadow, who said, "No,
  Napoleon." Napoleon understood
  before his butchered legions in the snow.

Hugo, Victor, The Expiation. World Masterpieces, Prentice Hall:
Englewood Cliffs, NJ. © 1991.

Questions from "The Expiation"
by Victor Hugo
Russia, 1812.

Note: Any translated work can become a work of art at the hands of a fine translator-poet. In this case, it's Robert Lowell.
 

First: Divide the poem for study by putting slashes// after these sections:
  Section 1 Beginning of poem through "gaps!" line 23
  Section 2 In: "They were no longer..."
    Out: line 32, "burn their carriages."
  Section 3 In: "Two Foes"
    Out: "died at night." Line 48
  Section 4 In: "The Emperor"

Section 1

  1. List some phrases that show the brutality of the snowfall.
  2. Write a passage that tells how the men survived the weather.

Section 2

  1. What is your interpretation of lines 25-26?
  2. Make a list of the most graphic verbs and nouns in section two?

Section 3

  1. Who were the two enemies the men of Napoleon were fighting?
  2. Explain line 40.
  3. What does "qui vive" mean?
  4. What is your interpretation of the passage beginning, "white ghosts?"

Section 4

  1. Explain the metaphor of line 50.
  2. How does Hugo describe Napoleon in almost photographic terms?
  3. How does this passage contribute to the emotional impact of the poem?
  4. Why does Hugo refer to the other person in the scene as "someone" rather than a soldier or a specific person?
  5. Napoleon fears that this "is the end." How does the voice answer him? What do you make of this?
  6. Victor Hugo is an arch-romantic--his works are incredibly emotional. Comment on the last sentence of the poem in light of this statement.

NOTE: students should get lots of freedom in interpreting this; but they should justify their responses carefully.


HUMANITIES - LITERATURE

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