A poem by Alexander Pushkin – Pouchkine, Pooshkin (1799-1837), in English translation
Storm-clouds hurtle, storm-clouds hover;
Flying snow is set alight
By the moon whose form they cover;
Blurred the heavens, blurred the night.
On and on our coach advances,
Little bell goes din-din-din…
Round are vast, unknown expanses;
Terror, terror is within.
— Faster, coachman! “Can’t, sir, sorry:
Horses, sir, are nearly dead.
I am blinded, all is blurry,
All snowed up; can’t see ahead.
Sir, I tell you on the level:
We have strayed, we’ve lost the trail.
What can WE do, when a devil
Drives us, whirls us round the vale?
“There, look, there he’s playing, jolly!
Huffing, puffing in my course;
There, you see, into the gully
Pushing the hysteric horse;
Now in front of me his figure
Looms up as a queer mile-mark —
Coming closer, growing bigger,
Sparking, melting in the dark.”
Storm-clouds hurtle, storm-clouds hover;
Flying snow is set alight
By the moon whose form they cover;
Blurred the heavens, blurred the night.
We can’t whirl so any longer!
Suddenly, the bell has ceased,
Horses halted… — Hey, what’s wrong there?
“Who can tell! — a stump? a beast?..”
Blizzard’s raging, blizzard’s crying,
Horses panting, seized by fear;
Far away his shape is flying;
Still in haze the eyeballs glare;
Horses pull us back in motion,
Little bell goes din-din-din…
I behold a strange commotion:
Evil spirits gather in —
Sundry, ugly devils, whirling
In the moonlight’s milky haze:
Swaying, flittering and swirling
Like the leaves in autumn days…
What a crowd! Where are they carried?
What’s the plaintive song I hear?
Is a goblin being buried,
Or a sorceress married there?
Storm-clouds hurtle, storm-clouds hover;
Flying snow is set alight
By the moon whose form they cover;
Blurred the heavens, blurred the night.
Swarms of devils come to rally,
Hurtle in the boundless height;
Howling fills the whitening valley,
Plaintive screeching rends my heart…
translated by: Genia Gurarie
email: egurarie@princeton.edu
Copyright ©:
Genia Gurarie
A few random poems:
- Deep In The Night by Sara Teasdale
- The Happy Lunatic by William Somervile
- On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Британишский – Не поселятся ли олени
- A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
- Wolves by Mary Bone
- Наум Коржавин – Он собирался многое свершить
- Robert Burns: The Jolly Beggars: A Cantata:
- Ольга Седакова – Вода-крестьянка
- When You Go Away by W. S. Merwin
- Frog Autumn by Sylvia Plath
- Honor Among Scamps by Vachel Lindsay
- Robert Burns: The Twa Dogs: A Tale
- Василий Жуковский – Суд Божий над епископом
- Comments: How to Write a Critical Appreciation of a Poem
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Олег Григорьев – Гений
- Олег Григорьев – Футбол
- Олег Григорьев – Если где-то кому-то плачется
- Олег Григорьев – Двустишия
- Олег Григорьев – Дружба
- Олег Григорьев – Драка
- Олег Григорьев – Дождь
- Олег Григорьев – Дети кидали друг в друга поленья
- Олег Григорьев – Дачник
- Олег Григорьев – Четверорукими ногами
- Олег Григорьев – Цель жизни
- Олег Григорьев – Был праздник с весельем и танцами
- Олег Григорьев – Благо
- Олег Григорьев – А меня уж везли зарывать
- Олег Чупров – Взлетев высоко и прекрасно
- Олег Чупров – Вечером поздним потянет к Печоре
- Олег Чупров – В лесу просторно, тихо, ясно
- Олег Чупров – Тают в сумраке лица
- Олег Чупров – Шаньги
- Олег Чупров – Путь к Благодати не напрасен
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1937) was a Russian poet, playwright and prose writer, founder of the realistic trend in Russian literature, literary critic and theorist of literature, historian, publicist, journalist; one of the most important cultural figures in Russia in the first third of the 19th century.