For devils’ libraries, and you
Young ladies’ albums bound in splendour,
The bane of modern rhymesters too,
You tomes adroitly decorated
With Tolstoy’s art and magic painted,
Or Baratýnsky’s quill. I call
On God’s hot bolts to singe you all!
When a fine lady host approaches,
Handing her quarto book to me,
I tremble in my enmity
And a sharp epigram encroaches
Upon my soul, yet all along
Duty demands a pretty song! 31
But Lensky pens no pretty ditties
In his young Olga’s book. Behold,
His quill suspires with love, and wit is
Precluded as too bright and cold.
He writes exclusively of Olga
As a close listener and beholder;
His living truth is then bestowed
On elegies in a fast flow.
Inspired thus, Nikoláy Yazýkov,
Your heart feels mighty surges too,
As you hymn someone (God knows who),
And your rich verse will one day speak of
Your past in elegies, and state
The history that was your fate. 32
But soft! We hear the critic’s stricture:
Throw all those elegies away—
Their garlands make a sorry picture.
Our brother rhymesters must obey
His calclass="underline" “I tell you not to snivel,
And not to croak the same old drivel;
Past times… The old days rued so soon…
Old hat! Sing us another tune!”
“All right, but then you will escort us
Back to the trumpet, mask and knife,
And old ideas devoid of life
You’ll bid us quicken in all quarters.
Is this not so?” “No! Stay your pen:
Write odes from now on, gentlemen, 33
Like those penned in an age of glory,
And long-established in our land.”
“So—solemn odes—is this our story?
Oh, come, my friend. This can go hang.
Think what was said in words satiricaclass="underline"
Can Other Views, though shrewd and lyrical,
Seem more acceptable to you
Than our repining rhymesters do?”
“The elegy amounts to nothing;
Its aims are pitifully low,
While solemn odes have aims that grow
To noble heights.” We shan’t be stopping
To quibble here. My lips are tight.
Two ages won’t be called to fight. 34
Vladimir, soul of fame and freedom,
Fraught with wild thoughts that ebbed and flowed,
Knew well that Olga didn’t read ’em
Or else he might have penned an ode.
Shall bards wax tearfully poetic
And read to others sympathetic
Their written works? They say that bliss
Holds no reward greater than this.
And blest indeed the modest lover
Who in his daydreams can immerse
The object of his love and verse,
A languid beauty like no other,
Well blest… And yet—it’s hard to say—
Her thoughts could well be miles away. 35
What of the products of my fancies,
My shots at harmony? In truth,
I read them to the one who chances
To be my nurse, a friend from youth,
And after dinner—tiresome labour!—
When called on by a passing neighbour,
I corner him, grabbing his coat,
And ram my sad lines down his throat,
Or else—I swear I am not jesting—
Worn down with yearning in my rhymes,
I tread my lakeside path betimes
And scare the flock of wild ducks resting.
They hear the sweet lines that I sing,
Then they are up and on the wing. [36] 37
Onegin though… By the way, brothers,
I’m asking your indulgence here…
The daily round with which he bothers
I’ll now describe, correct and clear.
He lived a hermit-like existence,
Got up at six and strolled some distance,
In summer lightly clad, until
He reached the stream beneath the hill,
Feeling like Gulnare’s bard in choosing
This Hellespont to swim across.
He drank his coffee while perusing
A magazine or some such dross,
And then got dressed… [38] 39
Walking trips, sound sleep, bouts of reading,
The sylvan shade, the brooks that purl,
A cool, fresh kiss, their young lips meeting,
With a white-skinned but dark-eyed girl,
A stallion, bridle-true yet restive,
A dinner fancifully festive,
A wine flask brightening the mood,
Sequestered ways and quietude—
To this angelic life Onegin
Yielded himself unfeelingly;
Carefree, oblivious was he
To summer days fair and engaging.
Town life and old friends he forgot;
Festivities, he knew them not. 40
Our summer is a twisted version
Of winter in the south. Hello,
It’s here and gone! And every person
Knows this, but won’t accept it though.
Now o’er the sky comes autumn, soughing,
The thin sun shining much less often,
And we have come to shorter days
When in the woods a hidden haze
Has shown itself with a sad murmur,
And mists are on the fields released.
A honking caravan of geese
Heads south, and they leave ever firmer
The prospect of dull days… You wait…
November tarries at the gate. 41
Through the cold murk the dawn comes searching,
The noisy field work has tailed off,
The wolf is on the road, emerging
With his half-starving lady wolf.
A passing horse scents him and bridles,
Snorting, at which the wary rider
Gallops away uphill flat-out.
At dawn no herdsmen are about,
Bringing to pasture hungry cattle,
At noon no horn is heard to sing
And bring the cows into a ring.
And girls stay home to sing and rattle
Their spinning wheels. Friendly and bright,
The pine logs sting the winter night. 42
Now crackling frost descends and shows us
A silver canopy outdoors…
(You readers want a rhyme like “roses”;
You’re welcome to it; it is yours.)
Smoother than parquet stands the river,
Ice-covered, shiny and ashiver.
A tribe of gay young skaters slice
Their crunchy runs across the ice.
A tubby goose, red-footed, fearful,
Hoping to breast the waters, crawls
Gingerly out, but skids and falls
Upon the ice. Here comes the cheerful
First fall of whirling, gleaming snow,
Star-scattered on the banks below. 43
Out in the wilds what’s on this season?
Walking? The countryside, I’ve found,
Wearies the eyes for one good reason—
Unbroken nakedness all round.
Riding the prairie wild, of course, is
Perilous for your blunt-shod horses,
Who stumble on the treacherous ice
And down they clatter in a trice.
Stay in your bleak homestead. Try reading—
Here is your Pradt, here’s Walter Scott—
Or go through your accounts, if not,
Or fume, or drink. The endless evening
Will somehow pass, tomorrow too.
Great stuff! You’ll see the winter through. 44
Onegin, languid like Chile Harold,
Gets up to ponder and relax,
Sits in an ice bath unapparelled,
And then all day, not overtaxed,
Lonesome, engaged in calculation,
Takes a blunt cue, anticipating
A morning spent within four walls,
Chasing a pair of billiard balls.
The country evening draws on gently;
Gone are the table and the cue.
The table has been set for two
Beside the fireplace. Here comes Lensky,
Driving a three-roan troika. Fine,
Let’s serve the dinner. Waste no time! 45
Now Veuve Clicquot—or is it Moët?
A wine that’s blest to the last drop