(This article is a reprint of a blog post by Maria Kuroshchepova, translator of Ivan Yefremov’s Thais of Athens)

A friend had recently related an incident of meeting a woman who just took his breath away. To put it into context, he is a happily married man, madly in love with his wife. But it was one of those experiences, when an incredibly beautiful person passed across his radar screen seemingly from somewhere other than this world, and momentarily caused him to lose all capacity to breathe, speak and think. I am sure many of us have had such experiences regardless of gender and sexual orientation.

As I pondered this story, I realized that I’ve been reading and translating a lot of books lately, where these kinds of encounters took place. The more I thought about it, the more I was struck by how much variety of image and emotion different authors were able to put into their descriptions of these meetings. And so I decided to pull together a little collection of excerpts from different books and stories that capture the moment that only happens once in any relationship: the first sight of each other. And, because I am a woman, I want to begin with the impressions of women through the eyes of men who see them for the first time.

I begin with my current translation project – The Star of Solomon by Alexander Kuprin. Not only is it one of my favorite stories of all times, it also has one of my favorite meeting scenes.

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Ivan Stepanovich entered the car. The window in his compartment was closed. As he lowered it, Tsvet noticed directly across, in an open window of another train, merely three steps away, a charming female figure. The dark backdrop softly and clearly, as if in a picture, set off her dressy white spring bonnet with pink flowers, pale-gray silk coat, her flushed delicate enchanting face and an enormous bouquet of fresh lilac, barely open, probably picked just that morning. Read the rest of this entry »