Whom does Pasternak address? Pasternak speaks to himself. One even wishes to say, in his own presence, as in the presence of a tree or a dog, that is in the presence of one who does not betray. The reader of Pasternak is prying, he is peeping. This is felt by everyone. The reader is peeping not into Pasternak's room (what is he doing there?) but under his very skin, under his ribs (what is being done to him there?). Try as he might (as Pasternak already did for many years) to come out of himself, to address himself to these or those people (or even all of them), try as he might to say it, whatever he says is invariably not it. What is even more important he speaks to nobody. For what he speaks are his thoughts aloud, sometimes—in our presence, if it so happens; sometimes—in our absence, if he happens to forget. His are words said in a dream or in a daze. "Babbling of sleepy Parcae."
(An attempt at conversation with Pasternak on the part of the reader reminds me of dialogues in Alice in Wonderland, where to every question there is an answer either belated or be-earlied or beside the point, which otherwise would have been perfect, but in this particular instance is out of place. The resemblance is explained by the fact that in the story a new time is introduced, the time of the dream, the state that Pasternak never leaves.)
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