Adrian waves,
O Brenta! Nay, I'll see you
and, filled anew with inspiration,
4 I'll hear your magic voice!
'Tis sacred to Apollo's nephews;
through the proud lyre of Albion
to me 'tis known, to me 'tis kindred.
8 In the voluptuousness of golden
Italy's nights at liberty I'll revel,
with a youthful Venetian,
now talkative, now mute,
12 swimming in a mysterious gondola;
with her my lips will find
the tongue of Petrarch and of love.
L
Will the hour of my freedom come?
'Tis time, 'tis time! To it I call;
I roam above the sea,10 I wait for the right weather,
4 I beckon to the sails of ships.
Under the cope of storms, with waves disputing,
on the free crossway of the sea
when shall I start on my free course?
8 'Tis time to leave the dull shore of an element
inimical to me,
and sigh, 'mid the meridian swell, beneath the
sky of my Africa,1112 for somber Russia, where
I suffered, where I loved,
where I buried my heart.
LI
Onegin was prepared with me
to see strange lands;
but soon we were to be by fate
4 sundered for a long time.
'Twas then his father died.
Before Onegin there assembled
a greedy host of creditors.
8 Each has a mind and notion of his own.
Eugene, detesting litigations,
contented with his lot,
abandoned the inheritance to them,
12 perceiving no great loss therein,
or precognizing from afar
the demise of his aged uncle.
LII
All of a sudden he indeed
got from the steward
a report that his uncle was nigh death in bed
4 and would be glad to bid farewell to him.
Eugene, the sad epistle having read,
incontinently to the rendezvous
drove headlong, traveling post,
8 and yawned already in anticipation,
preparing, for the sake of money,
for sighs, boredom, and guile
(and 'tis with this that I began my novel);
12 but when he reached apace his uncle's manor,
he found him laid already on the table
as a prepared tribute to earth.
LIII
He found the grounds full of attendants;
to the dead man from every side
came driving foes and friends,
4 enthusiasts for funerals.
The dead man was interred,
the priests and guests ate, drank,
and solemnly dispersed thereafter,
8 as though they had been sensibly engaged.
Now our Onegin is a rural dweller,
of workshops, waters, forests, lands,
absolute lord (while up to then he'd been
12 an enemy of order and a wastrel),
and very glad to have exchanged
his former course for something.
LIV
For two days new to him
seemed the secluded fields,
the coolness of the somber park,
4 the bubbling of the quiet brook;
by the third day, grove, hill, and field
did not engage him any more;
then somnolence already they induced;
8 then plainly he perceived
that in the country, too, the boredom was the same,
although there were no streets, no palaces,
no cards, no balls, no verses.
12 The hyp was waiting for him on the watch,
and it kept running after him
like a shadow or faithful wife.
LV
I was born for the peaceful life,
for country quiet:
the lyre's voice in the wild is more resounding,
4 creative dreams are more alive.
To harmless leisures consecrated,
I wander by a wasteful lake
and far niente is my rule.
8 By every morn I am awakened
unto sweet mollitude and freedom;
little I read, a lot I sleep,
volatile fame do not pursue.
12 Was it not thus in former years,
that in inaction, in the [shade],
I spent my happiest days?