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PUSHKIN'S POEMS


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EUGENE ONEGIN

(In this edition he is called Yevgeny Onegin).

BOOK 1 STANZAS 39-44
The Russian text is printed both  in image format, and as plain Russian script.  Errors in the Image version I hope have been corrected in the plain text below.   Two or three stanzas are printed on each page, with the English translation alongside.

 



Причудницы большого света!
Всех прежде вас оставил он;
И правда то, что в наши лета
Довольно скучен высший тон;
Хоть, может быть, иная дама
Толкует Сея и Бентама,
Но вообще их разговор
Несносный, хоть невинный вздор;
К тому ж они так непорочны,
Так величавы, так умны,
Так благочестия полны,
Так осмотрительны, так точны,
Так неприступны для мужчин,
Что вид их уж рождает сплин .
 

 

XXXIX, XL, XLI.
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .

XLII


You fashionable freaks of high society,
He first neglected and abandoned you,
And to tell the truth, today we know
The crushing boredom of being U.
Although it is true some women may
Talk both of Bentham and of Sey,
But generally their conversation
Though innocent, is awful tripe;
Besides they are so pure, so sinless,
So haughty and so intellectual,
So full of good deeds and so effectual,
So delicately circumspect, so blameless,
So unnapproachable for men
That their sight alone awakes our spleen.

 

И вы, красотки молодые,
Которых позднею порой
Уносят дрожки удалые
По петербургской мостовой,
И вас покинул мой Евгений.
Отступник бурных наслаждений,
Онегин дома заперся,
Зевая, за перо взялся,
Хотел писать - но труд упорный
Ему был тошен; ничего
Не вышло из пера его,
И не попал он в цех задорный
Людей, о коих не сужу,
Затем, что к ним принадлежу.
 

XLIII


And you, sweet beauties, darling young ones,
Whom, late at night when all's at rest
Across St. Petersburg's cobblestones
The dashing drozhkies carry with zest,
Even you Yevgeny at last abandoned.
A recluse from tempestuous delights
Onegin shut himself indoors
Then taking his pen in hand and yawning
He tried to write - but the stubborn toil
Was nauseous to him. No spawning
Words came rushing from his quill,
And he did not enter the perky guild
Of writers, of whom I cannot be critical,
For the reason that I am of their circle



И снова, преданный безделью,
Томясь душевной пустотой,
Уселся он - с похвальной целью
Себе присвоить ум чужой;
Отрядом книг уставил полку,
Читал, читал, а всё без толку:
Там скука, там обман иль бред;
В том совести, в том смысла нет;
На всех различные вериги;
И устарела старина,
И старым бредит новизна.
Как женщин, он оставил книги,
И полку, с пыльной их семьей,
Задернул траурной тафтой.
 

XLIV


And once more consigned to being idle,
And aching with emptiness in his soul,
He settled down - with an aim most praiseful
To acquire the thoughts of other toil.
He stacked his shelves from floor to ceiling;
He read and read - but still no meaning
Emerged. Only tedium, or madness and self-deception
He found. No conscience in this, in that no sense,
All wore the chains of pre-conception;
Old works were utterly out-dated
And new ones had looks that were antiquated,
And so, like women, he abandoned books,
And across the shelves with their dusty crew,
A mourning curtain of black he drew.

     


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