Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

[Eva]

Я помню чудное мгновенье:

Передо мной явилась ты,

Как мимолетное виденье,

Как гений чистой красоты.

 

В томленьях грусти безнадежной

В тревогах шумной суеты,

Звучал мне долго голос нежный,

И снились милые черты.

 

Шли годы. Бурь порыв мятежной

Рассеял прежние мечты,

И я забыл твой голос нежный,

Твои небесные черты.

 

В глуши, во мраке заточенья

Тянулись тихо дни мои

Без божества, без вдохновенья,

Без слез, без жизни, без любви.

 

Душе настало пробужденье:

И вот опять явилась ты,

Как мимолетное виденье,

Как гений чистой красоты.

 

И сердце бьется в упоенье,

И для него воскресли вновь

И божество, и вдохновенье,

И жизнь, и слезы, и любовь.

[Eva]

I still recall the wondrous moment

When you appeared before my eyes,

Just like a fleeting apparition,

Just like pure beauty's distillation.

 

When'er I languished in the throes of hopeless grief

Amid the troubles of life's vanity,

Your sweet voice lingered on in me,

Your dear face came to me in dreams.

 

Years passed. The raging, gusty storms

Dispersed my former reveries,

And I forgot your tender voice,

Your features so divine.

 

In exile, in confinement's gloom,

My uneventful days wore on,

Bereft of awe and inspiration

Bereft of tears, of life, of love.

 

My soul awakened once again:

And once again you came to me,

Just like a fleeting apparition

Just like pure beauty's distillation.

 

My heart again resounds in rapture,

Within it once again arise

Feelings of awe and inspiration,

Of life itself, of tears, and love.

Edited May 31, 2006 by konfetka

[gamavor]

Wow, nice translation!

[kakachik77]

i stopped respecting pushkin after he said something bad about armenians

[Armen]

i stopped respecting pushkin after he said something bad about armenians

 

I guess he had his reasons. God knows which one of his countess-lovers had an affair with some Armenian officer in the Czar's army. In any case, people thought and felt different in those times. You can read Beliy or Mandelshtam for a change, with eldless phrazes about how Armenians are the best...

[kakachik77]

offtopic: I recently read that Suvorov (famous russian general) was half-armenian, from mother's side.

[gamavor]

I guess he had his reasons. God knows which one of his countess-lovers had an affair with some Armenian officer in the Czar's army. In any case, people thought and felt different in those times. You can read Beliy or Mandelshtam for a change, with eldless phrazes about how Armenians are the best...

 

 

Actually Pushkin was quite sympathetic towards Armenians, however I think one time he admited the strong competition. The quote 'tui trus, tui rab, tui armianin' comes from the mouth of one of his heros', who is a Chechen talking to another Chechen, don't remember exactly (it was long time ago). Pushkin symply used the derogatory words towards the armenians in his poem to show the primitivism of his main charachter.

[Lana]

i stopped respecting pushkin after he said something bad about armenians

 

 

He never said anything bad about Armenians.

Here is the line that you mean:

 

Поди ты прочь – ты мне не сын,

 

Ты не чеченец – ты старуха,

 

Ты трус, ты раб, ты армянин.

 

 

In English approximately:

 

Go away - you're not my son any more

you're not a chechen, you're an old lady

you're coward, you're a slave, you're Armenian.

 

 

 

Now, in the poem, these words are pronounced my an old chechen man, who is blaming his son for NOT killing and NOT stealing. In his understanding, the man, who doesn't kill and doesn't steal is coward, is a slave, and is ARMENIAN.

 

The son couldn't kill the enemy because he was:

 

 

Убийца был

Один, изранен, безоружен...

 

 

English: the enemy was alone, wounded, armless.

 

The only thing Pushkin wanted to say is that chechens were of opinion that an Armenian would never kill a defendless person.So, again, we should thank the great Pushkin for his being fair.

 

Any other interpretation given out of context, and manipulated by azers, is totally wrong.

Edited June 2, 2006 by Lana

[kakachik77]

Lana, thanks! I learned russian before I learned Armenian, my mom is rusaxos..but thanks for translations Edited June 2, 2006 by kakachik77

[Lana]

Tak chego Pushkina ne chitala? ))

[kakachik77]

pereexala v shtati

[Lana]

A v Shtatax toje Pushkini vodyatsya ))) Ladno, proehali.

[Armen]

Actually Pushkin was quite sympathetic towards Armenians, however I think one time he admited the strong competition. The quote 'tui trus, tui rab, tui armianin' comes from the mouth of one of his heros', who is a Chechen talking to another Chechen, don't remember exactly (it was long time ago). Pushkin symply used the derogatory words towards the armenians in his poem to show the primitivism of his main charachter.

 

I don't base my judgements on that poem but rather on his "A Journey to Arzouroom" (Arzouroom-Erzroum). Yes, he is sympathetic but ... in a way that I'd rather reject his sympathies. At the same time, maybe he was just unaware that those times were not one of the best in Armenian history.

[Eva]

ЛИЛЕ

Лила, Лила! я страдаю

Безотрадною тоской,

Я томлюсь, я умираю,

Гасну пламенной душой;

Но любовь моя напрасна:

Ты смеешься надо мной.

Смейся, Лила: ты прекрасна

И бесчувственной красой.

[Eva]

Я вас любил.../I loved you once..

 

Я вас любил: любовь еще, быть может

В душе моей угасла не совсем;

Но пусть она вас больше не тревожит;

Я не хочу печалить вас ничем.

Я вас любил безмолвно, безнадежно,

То робостью, то ревностью томим;

Я вас любил так искренно, так нежно,

Как дай вам бог любимой быть другим.

 

 

 

I loved you once: perhaps that love has yet

To die down thoroughly within my soul;

But let it not dismay you any longer;

I have no wish to cause you any sorrow.

I loved you wordlessly, without a hope,

By shyness tortured, or by jealousy.

I loved you with such tenderness and candor

And pray God grants you to be loved that way again.

[Eva]

ЗИМНИЙ ВЕЧЕР

 

Буря мглою небо кроет,

Вихри снежные крутя;

То, как зверь, она завоет,

То заплачет, как дитя,

То по кровле обветшалой

Вдруг соломой зашумит,

То, как путник запоздалый,

К нам в окошко застучит.

 

Наша ветхая лачужка

И печальна и темна.

Что же ты, моя старушка,

Приумолкла у окна?

Или бури завываньем

Ты, мой друг, утомлена,

Или дремлешь под жужжаньем

Своего веретена?

 

Выпьем, добрая подружка

Бедной юности моей,

Выпьем с горя; где же кружка?

Сердцу будет веселей.

Спой мне песню, как синица

Тихо за морем жила;

Спой мне песню, как девица

За водой поутру шла.

 

Буря мглою небо кроет,

Вихри снежные крутя;

То, как зверь, она завоет,

То заплачет, как дитя.

Выпьем, добрая подружка

Бедной юности моей,

Выпьем с горя; где же кружка?

Сердцу будет веселей.

 

 

WINTER EVENING

 

The storm wind covers the sky

Whirling the fleecy snow drifts,

Now it howls like a wolf,

Now it is crying, like a lost child,

Now rustling the decayed thatch

On our tumbledown roof,

Now, like a delayed traveller,

Knocking on our window pane.

 

Our wretched little cottage

Is gloomy and dark.

Why do you sit all silent

Hugging the window, old gran?

Has the howling of the storm

Wearied you, at last, dear friend?

Or are you dozing fitfully

Under the spinning wheel's humming?

 

Let us drink, dearest friend

To my poor wasted youth.

Let us drink from grief - Where's the glass?

Our hearts at least will be lightened.

Sing me a song of how the bluetit

Quietly lives across the sea.

Sing me a song of how the young girl

Went to fetch water in the morning.

 

The storm wind covers the sky

Whirling the fleecy snow drifts

Now it howls like a wolf,

Now it is crying, like a lost child.

Let us drink, dearest friend

To my poor wasted youth.

Let us drink from grief - Where's the glass?

Our hearts at least will be lightened.