Eugene Onegin. A Romance of Russian Life in Verse

And wildly waves its arms and storms;

Barking, songs, whistling, laughter coarse,

The speech of man and tramp of horse.

But wide Tattiana oped her eyes

When in that company she saw

Him who inspired both love and awe,

The hero we immortalize.

Oneguine sat the table by

And viewed the door with cunning eye.

XVIII

All bustle when he makes a sign:

He drinks, all drink and loudly call;

He smiles, in laughter all combine;

He knits his brows—'tis silent all.

He there is master—that is plain;

Tattiana courage doth regain

And grown more curious by far

Just placed the entrance door ajar.

The wind rose instantly, blew out

The fire of the nocturnal lights;

A trouble fell upon the sprites;

Oneguine lightning glances shot;

Furious he from the table rose;

All arise. To the door he goes.

XIX

Terror assails her. Hastily

Tattiana would attempt to fly,

She cannot—then impatiently

She strains her throat to force a cry—

She cannot—Eugene oped the door

And the young girl appeared before

Those hellish phantoms. Peals arise

Of frantic laughter, and all eyes

And hoofs and crooked snouts and paws,

Tails which a bushy tuft adorns,

Whiskers and bloody tongues and horns,

Sharp rows of tushes, bony claws,

Are turned upon her. All combine

In one great shout: she's mine! she's mine!

XX

"Mine!" cried Eugene with savage tone.

The troop of apparitions fled,

And in the frosty night alone

Remained with him the youthful maid.

With tranquil air Oneguine leads

Tattiana to a corner, bids

Her on a shaky bench sit down;

His head sinks slowly, rests upon

Her shoulder—Olga swiftly came—

And Lenski followed—a light broke—

His fist Oneguine fiercely shook

And gazed around with eyes of flame;

The unbidden guests he roughly chides—

Tattiana motionless abides.

XXI

The strife grew furious and Eugene

Grasped a long knife and instantly

Struck Lenski dead—across the scene

Dark shadows thicken—a dread cry

Was uttered, and the cabin shook—

Tattiana terrified awoke.

She gazed around her—it was day.

Lo! through the frozen windows play

Aurora's ruddy rays of light—

The door flew open—Olga came,

More blooming than the Boreal flame

And swifter than the swallow's flight.

"Come," she cried, "sister, tell me e'en

Whom you in slumber may have seen."

XXII

But she, her sister never heeding,

With book in hand reclined in bed,

Page after page continued reading,

But no reply unto her made.

Although her book did not contain

The bard's enthusiastic strain,

Nor precepts sage nor pictures e'en,

Yet neither Virgil nor Racine

Nor Byron, Walter Scott, nor Seneca,

Nor the Journal des Modes, I vouch,

Ever absorbed a maid so much:

Its name, my friends, was Martin Zadeka,

The chief of the Chaldean wise,

Who dreams expound and prophecies.

XXIII

Brought by a pedlar vagabond

Unto their solitude one day,

This monument of thought profound

Tattiana purchased with a stray

Tome of "Malvina," and but three(56)

And a half rubles down gave she;

Also, to equalise the scales,

She got a book of nursery tales,

A grammar, likewise Petriads two,

Marmontel also, tome the third;

Tattiana every day conferred

With Martin Zadeka. In woe

She consolation thence obtained—

Inseparable they remained.

[Note 56: "Malvina," a romance by Madame Cottin.]

XXIV

The dream left terror in its train.

Not knowing its interpretation,

Tania the meaning would obtain

Of such a dread hallucination.

Tattiana to the index flies

And alphabetically tries

The words bear, bridge, fir, darkness, bog,

Raven, snowstorm, tempest, fog,

Et cetera; but nothing showed

Her Martin Zadeka in aid,

Though the foul vision promise made

Of a most mournful episode,

And many a day thereafter laid

A load of care upon the maid.

XXV

"But lo! forth from the valleys dun

With purple hand Aurora leads,

Swift following in her wake, the sun,"(57)

And a grand festival proceeds.

The Larinas were since sunrise

O'erwhelmed with guests; by families

The neighbours come, in sledge approach,

Britzka, kibitka, or in coach.

Crush and confusion in the hall,

Latest arrivals' salutations,

Barking, young ladies' osculations,

Shouts, laughter, jamming 'gainst the wall,

Bows and the scrape of many feet,

Nurses who scream and babes who bleat.

[Note 57: The above three lines are a parody on the turgid style of Lomonossoff, a literary man of the second Catherine's era.]

XXVI

Bringing his partner corpulent

Fat Poustiakoff drove to the door;

Gvozdine, a landlord excellent,

Oppressor of the wretched poor;

And the Skatenines, aged pair,

With all their progeny were there,

Who from two years to thirty tell;

Petoushkoff, the provincial swell;

Bouyanoff too, my cousin, wore(58)

His wadded coat and cap with peak

(Surely you know him as I speak);

And Flianoff, pensioned councillor,

Rogue and extortioner of yore,

Now buffoon, glutton, and a bore.

[Note 58: Pushkin calls Bouyanoff his cousin because he is a character in the "Dangerous Neighbour," a poem by Vassili Pushkin, the poet's uncle.]

XXVII

The family of Kharlikoff,

Came with Monsieur Triquet, a prig,

Who arrived lately from Tamboff,