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...