A poem by Alexander Pushkin – Pouchkine, Pooshkin (1799-1837), in English translation
In lakeside leafy groves, a friar
Escaped all worries; there he passed
His summer days in constant prayer,
Deep studies and eternal fast.
Already with a humble shovel
The elder dug himself a grave –
As, calling saints to bless his hovel,
Death; nothing other; did he crave.
So once, upon a falling night, he
Was bowing by his wilted shack
With meekest prayer to the Almighty.
The grove was turning slowly black;
Above the lake a mist was lifting;
Through milky clouds across the sky
The ruddy moon was softly drifting,
When water drew the friar’s eye…
He’s looking puzzled, full of trouble,
Of fear he cannot quite explain,
He sees the waves begin to bubble
And suddenly grow calm again.
Then — white as first snow in the highlands,
Light-footed as nocturnal shade,
There comes ashore, and sits in silence
Upon the bank, a naked maid.
She eyes the monk and brushes gently
Her hair, and water off her arms.
He shakes with fear and looks intently
At her, and at her lovely charms.
With eager hand she waves and beckons,
Nods quickly, smiles as from afar
And shoots, within two flashing seconds,
Into still water like a star.
The glum old man slept not an instant;
All day, not even once he prayed:
Before his eyes still hung and glistened
The wondrous, the relentless shade…
The grove puts on its gown of nightfall;
The moon walks on the cloudy floor;
And there’s the maiden; pale, delightful,
Reclining on the spellbound shore.
She looks at him, her hair she brushes,
Blows airy kisses, gestures wild,
Plays with the waves; caresses, splashes –
Now laughs, now whimpers like a child,
Moans tenderly, calls louder, louder…
“Come, monk, come, monk! To me, to me!..”
Then; disappears in limpid water,
And all is silent instantly…
On the third day the zealous hermit
Was sitting by the shore, in love,
Awaiting the delightful mermaid,
As shade was covering the grove…
Dark ceded to the sun’s emergence;
Our monk had wholly disappeared –
Before a crowd of local urchins,
While fishing, found his hoary beard.
translated by: Genia Gurarie
email: egurarie@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/
Copyright ©:
Genia Gurarie
A few random poems:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Так оно и есть
- Владимир Маяковский – Тучкины штучки
- The Fairies Break Their Dances poem – A. E. Housman
- Robert Burns: Epitaph For Robert Aiken, Esq.:
- Hey! Mr.Pothole by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- A Certain Kind of Holy Men
- Resolute by Stephenie Tucker
- Robert Burns: The Laddie’s Dear Sel’:
- English Poetry. John Townsend Trowbridge. Midwinter. Джон Таунсенд Троубридж.
- Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. by Walt Whitman
- SELF-WATCH by Satish Verma
- A Supplication
- In A Garden by Sara Teasdale
- Олег Григорьев – Ты боишься высоты
- Владимир Корнилов – Беатриче
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
- Muse poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Morpheus poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Lyric written in 1830 poem – Alexander Pushkin
- I’ve Lived To See Desire Vanish poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Impromtu On Ogareva poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Imitation poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Goblins Of The Steppes poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Goblins Of The Steppes poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Friendship poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Don’t Ask Me Why poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Devils poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Day’s Rain Is Done poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Confession (to Alina Osipova, 1826) poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Bound for your distant home poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Boris Godunov poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Arion poem – Alexander Pushkin
- An Invocation poem – Alexander Pushkin
- An Elegy poem – Alexander Pushkin
- A Little Bird poem – Alexander Pushkin
- A Winter Evening poem – Alexander Pushkin
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.