Eugene Onegin. A Romance of Russian Life in Verse

Without participation hears,

Their voices nought to her impart

And the lone secret of her heart,

Her sacred hoard of joy and tears,

She buries deep within her breast

Nor aught confides unto the rest.

XLV

Tattiana would have gladly heard

The converse of the world polite,

But in the drawing-room all appeared

To find in gossip such delight,

Speech was so tame and colourless

Their slander e'en was weariness;

In their sterility of prattle,

Questions and news and tittle-tattle,

No sense was ever manifest

Though by an error and unsought—

The languid mind could smile at nought,

Heart would not throb albeit in jest—

Even amusing fools we miss

In thee, thou world of empty bliss.

XLVI

In groups, official striplings glance

Conceitedly on Tania fair,

And views amongst themselves advance

Unfavourable unto her.

But one buffoon unhappy deemed

Her the ideal which he dreamed,

And leaning 'gainst the portal closed

To her an elegy composed.

Also one Viazemski, remarking

Tattiana by a poor aunt's side,

Successfully to please her tried,

And an old gent the poet marking

By Tania, smoothing his peruke,

To ask her name the trouble took.(76)

[Note 76: One of the obscure satirical allusions contained in this poem. Doubtless the joke was perfectly intelligible to the habitues of contemporary St. Petersburg society. Viazemski of course is the poet and prince, Pushkin's friend.]

XLVII

But where Melpomene doth rave

With lengthened howl and accent loud,

And her bespangled robe doth wave

Before a cold indifferent crowd,

And where Thalia softly dreams

And heedless of approval seems,

Terpsichore alone among

Her sisterhood delights the young

(So 'twas with us in former years,

In your young days and also mine),

Never upon my heroine

The jealous dame her lorgnette veers,

The connoisseur his glances throws

From boxes or from stalls in rows.

XLVIII

To the assembly her they bear.

There the confusion, pressure, heat,

The crash of music, candles' glare

And rapid whirl of many feet,

The ladies' dresses airy, light,

The motley moving mass and bright,

Young ladies in a vasty curve,

To strike imagination serve.

'Tis there that arrant fops display

Their insolence and waistcoats white

And glasses unemployed all night;

Thither hussars on leave will stray

To clank the spur, delight the fair—

And vanish like a bird in air.

XLIX

Full many a lovely star hath night

And Moscow many a beauty fair:

Yet clearer shines than every light

The moon in the blue atmosphere.

And she to whom my lyre would fain,

Yet dares not, dedicate its strain,

Shines in the female firmament

Like a full moon magnificent.

Lo! with what pride celestial

Her feet the earth beneath her press!

Her heart how full of gentleness,

Her glance how wild yet genial!

Enough, enough, conclude thy lay—

For folly's dues thou hadst to pay.

L

Noise, laughter, bowing, hurrying mixt,

Gallop, mazurka, waltzing—see!

A pillar by, two aunts betwixt,

Tania, observed by nobody,

Looks upon all with absent gaze

And hates the world's discordant ways.

'Tis noisome to her there: in thought

Again her rural life she sought,

The hamlet, the poor villagers,

The little solitary nook

Where shining runs the tiny brook,

Her garden, and those books of hers,

And the lime alley's twilight dim

Where the first time she met with him.

LI

Thus widely meditation erred,

Forgot the world, the noisy ball,

Whilst from her countenance ne'er stirred

The eyes of a grave general.

Both aunts looked knowing as a judge,

Each gave Tattiana's arm a nudge

And in a whisper did repeat:

"Look quickly to your left, my sweet!"

"The left? Why, what on earth is there?"—

"No matter, look immediately.

There, in that knot of company,

Two dressed in uniform appear—

Ah! he has gone the other way"—

"Who? Is it that stout general, pray?"—

LII

Let us congratulations pay

To our Tattiana conquering,

And for a time our course delay,

That I forget not whom I sing.

Let me explain that in my song

"I celebrate a comrade young

And the extent of his caprice;

O epic Muse, my powers increase

And grant success to labour long;

Having a trusty staff bestowed,

Grant that I err not on the road."

Enough! my pack is now unslung—

To classicism I've homage paid,

Though late, have a beginning made.(77)

[Note 77: Many will consider this mode of bringing the canto to a conclusion of more than doubtful taste. The poet evidently aims a stroke at the pedantic and narrow-minded criticism to which original genius, emancipated from the strait-waistcoat of conventionality, is not unfrequently subjected.]

End of Canto The Seventh

CANTO THE EIGHTH

The Great World

'Fare thee well, and if for ever,

Still for ever fare thee well.'—Byron

Canto the Eighth

[St. Petersburg, Boldino, Tsarskoe Selo, 1880-1881]

I

In the Lyceum's noiseless shade

As in a garden when I grew,

I Apuleius gladly read

But would not look at Cicero.

'Twas then in valleys lone, remote,

In spring-time, heard the cygnet's note

By waters shining tranquilly,

That first the Muse appeared to me.

Into the study of the boy

There came a sudden flash of light,

The Muse revealed her first delight,

Sang childhood's pastimes and its joy,