But the day lapsed, and there's no answer.
Another came up; nothing yet.
Pale as a shade, since morning dressed,
4 Tatiana waits: when will the answer come?
Olga's adorer drove up. “Tell me,
where's your companion?” was to him
the question of the lady of the house;
8 “He seems to have forgotten us entirely.”
Tatiana, flushing, quivered.
“He promised he would be today,”
Lenski replied to the old dame,
12 “but evidently the mail has detained him.”
Tatiana dropped her eyes
as if she'd heard a harsh rebuke.
XXXVII
'Twas darkling; on the table, shining,
the evening samovar
hissed as it warmed the Chinese teapot;
4 light vapor undulated under it.
Poured out by Olga's hand,
into the cups, in a dark stream,
the fragrant tea already
8 ran, and a footboy served the cream;
Tatiana stood before the window;
breathing on the cold panes,
lost in thought, the dear soul
12 wrote with her charming finger
on the bemisted glass
the cherished monogram: an O and E.
XXXVIII
And meantime her soul ached,
and full of tears was her languorous gaze.
Suddenly, hoof thuds! Her blood froze.
4 Now nearer! Coming fast... and in the yard
is Eugene! “Ach!” — and lighter than a shade
Tatiana skips into another hallway,
from porch outdoors, and straight into the garden;
8 she flies, flies — dares not
glance backward; in a moment has traversed
the platbands, little bridges, lawn,
the avenue to the lake, the bosquet;
12 she breaks the lilac bushes as she flies
across the flower plots to the brook,
and, panting, on a bench
XXXIX
she drops. “He's here! Eugene is here!
Good God, what did he think!”
Her heart, full of torments, retains
4 an obscure dream of hope;
she trembles, and she hotly glows, and waits:
does he not come? But hears not. In the orchard
girl servants, on the beds,
8 were picking berries in the bushes
and singing by decree in chorus
(a decree based on that
sly mouths would not in secret
12 eat the seignioral berry
and would be occupied by singing; a device
of rural wit!):
The Song Of The Girls
Maidens, pretty maidens,
darling girl companions,
romp unhindered, maidens,
4 have your fling, my dears!
Start to sing a ditty,
sing our private ditty,
and allure a fellow
8 to our choral dance.
When we lure a fellow,
when afar we see him,
let us scatter, dearies,
12 pelting him with cherries,
cherries and raspberries,
and red currants too.
“Do not come eavesdropping
16 on our private ditties,
do not come a-spying
on our girlish games!”
XL
They sing; and carelessly
attending to their ringing voice,
Tatiana with impatience waits
4 for the heart's tremor to subside in her,
for her cheeks to cease flaming;
but in her breasts there's the same trepidation,
nor ceases the glow of her cheeks:
8 yet brighter, brighter do they burn.
Thus a poor butterfly both flashes
and beats an iridescent wing,
captured by a school prankster; thus
12 a small hare trembles in the winter corn
upon suddenly seeing from afar
the shotman in the bushes crouch.
XLI
But finally she sighed
and from her bench arose;
started to go; but hardly had she turned
4 into the avenue when straight before her,
eyes blazing, Eugene
stood, similar to some grim shade,
and as one seared by fire
8 she stopped.
But to detail the consequences
of this unlooked-for meeting I, dear friends,
have not the strength today;
12 after this long discourse I need
a little jaunt, a little rest;
some other time I'll tell the rest.