Trafika Europe 13 - Russian Ballet

Naum Vaiman

were only known in “narrow circles”. Pyotr Naumovich relationship with books was awe-inspiring. The place of each (which book case, which shelf, what position on the shelf) was accurately recorded, for which purpose there existed several thick journals; each book was removed gently, initially a space was cleared for it, so that it wouldn’t be tugged by the spine, afterwards, its weight was shifted from palm to palm, to give each hand an opportunity to sense its beloved bulk, the material of the binding, and then its smell was savored; just so does an alcoholic, before guzzling it down, getting inebriated from the anticipation, takes pleasure in the sweet promise of the ambrosial aroma. The pages had to be turned delicately: God forbid they might be damaged, especially the yellowed pages of the antiquarian books, and after each turn of his coarse palm, he would delicately, barely making contact, pass the tips of his fingers over the letters... It was, essentially, this mutual affection that drew us closer together. Yet still, my most basic “interest” in our entire system of relations was the opportunity to be close to Lena. When, on the day after our unexpected first acquaintance she, to my surprise, came to the tournament, she was accompanied by some guy who, smiling contemptuously, demonstratively kept turning his back away from the ring. There is no need to say that it was the best bout of my life. Even though I was defeated, and my opponent was clearly stronger, still, I fought with true inspiration! Nikiforov, personally, was my corner man: he kept

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