Текст книги "Комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» Александра Пушкина"

Автор книги: Владимир Набоков

CHAPTER EIGHT

 
Fare thee well, and if for ever,
Still for ever, fare thee well.
 

Byron

 

I

   In those days when in the Lyceum's gardens
   I bloomed serenely,
   would eagerly read Apuleius,
 ⁴ did not read Cicero;
   in those days, in mysterious valleys,
   in springtime, to the calls of swans,
   near waters shining in the stillness,
 ⁸ the Muse began to visit me.
   My student cell was all at once
   radiant with light: in it the Muse
   opened a banquet of young fancies,
¹² sang childish gaieties,
   and glory of our ancientry,
   and the heart's tremulous dreams.
 
 

II

   And with a smile the world received her;
   the first success provided us with wings;
   the aged Derzhavin noticed us – and blessed us
 ⁴ as he descended to the grave.
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 ⁸ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
¹² . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 
 

III

   And I, setting myself for law
   only the arbitrary will of passions,
   sharing emotions with the crowd,
 ⁴ I led my frisky Muse into the hubbub
   of feasts and turbulent discussions —
   the terror of midnight patrols;
   and to them, in mad feasts,
 ⁸ she brought her gifts,
   and like a little bacchante frisked,
   over the bowl sang for the guests;
   and the young people of past days
¹² would turbulently dangle after her;
   and I was proud 'mong friends
   of my volatile mistress.
 
 

IV

   But I dropped out of their alliance —
   and fled afar... she followed me.
   How often the caressive Muse
 ⁴ for me would sweeten the mute way
   with the bewitchment of a secret tale!
   How often on Caucasia's crags,
   Lenorelike, by the moon,
 ⁸ with me she'd gallop on a steed!
   How often on the shores of Tauris
   she in the gloom of night
   led me to listen the sound of the sea,
¹² Nereid's unceasing murmur,
   the deep eternal chorus of the billows,
   the praiseful hymn to the sire of the worlds.
 
 

V

   And the far capital's glitter and noisy feasts
   having forgotten in the wilds
   of sad Moldavia,
 ⁴ she visited the humble tents
   of wandering tribes;
   and among them grew savage, and forgot
   the language of the gods
 ⁸ for scant, strange tongues,
   for songs of the steppe dear to her.
   Suddenly everything around
   changed, and lo! in my garden she appeared
¹² as a provincial miss,
   with a sad thought in her eyes, with a French
   book in her hands.
 
 

VI

   And now my Muse for the first time
   I'm taking to a high-life rout;⁴⁴
   at her steppe charms
 ⁴ with jealous apprehensiveness I look.
   Through a dense series of aristocrats,
   of military fops, of diplomats
   and haughty dames, she glides; now quietly
 ⁸ she has sat down and looks, admiring
   the noisy crush,
   the flickering of dress and speech,
   the apparition of slow guests
¹² in front of the young hostess,
   and the dark frame of men
   around ladies, as about pictures.
 
 

VII

   She likes the stately order
   of oligarchic colloquies,
   and the chill of calm pride,
 ⁴ and this mixture of ranks and years.
   But who's that standing in the chosen throng,
   silent and nebulous?
   To everyone he seems a stranger.
 ⁸ Before him faces come and go
   like a series of tedious specters.
   What is it – spleen or smarting morgue
   upon his face? Why is he here?
¹² Who is he? Is it really – Eugene?
   He, really? So, 'tis he, indeed.
   –  Since when has he been blown our way?
 
 

VIII

   Is he the same, or grown more peaceful?
   Or does he still play the eccentric?
   Say, in what guise has he returned?
 ⁴ What will he stage for us meanwhile?
   As what will he appear now? As a Melmoth?
   a cosmopolitan? a patriot?
   a Harold? a Quaker? a bigot?
 ⁸ Or will he sport some other mask?
   Or else be simply a good fellow
   like you and me, like the whole world?
   At least here's my advice:
¹² to drop an antiquated fashion.
   Sufficiently he's gulled the world...
   –  You know him?  – Yes and no.
 
 

IX

   –  Why so unfavorably then
   do you report on him?
   Because we indefatigably
 ⁴ fuss, judge of everything?
   Because of fiery souls the rashness
   to smug nonentity is either
   insulting or absurd?
 ⁸ Because, by liking room, wit cramps?
   Because too often conversations
   we're glad to take for deeds,
   because stupidity is volatile and wicked?
¹² Because to grave men grave are trifles,
   and mediocrity alone
   is to our measure and not odd?
 
 

X

   Blest who was youthful in his youth;
   blest who matured at the right time;
   who, with the years, the chill of life
 ⁴ was gradually able to withstand;
   who never was addicted to strange dreams;
   who did not shun the fashionable rabble;
   who was at twenty fop or dasher,
 ⁸ and then at thirty, profitably married;
   who rid himself at fifty
   of private and of other debts;
   who gained repute, money, and rank
¹² calmly in turn;
   about whom lifelong one kept saying:
   N. N. is an excellent man.
 
 

XI

   But it is sad to think that youth
   was given us in vain,
   that we betrayed it every hour,
 ⁴ that it duped us;
   that our best aspirations,
   that our fresh dreamings,
   in quick succession have decayed
 ⁸ like leaves in putrid autumn.
   It is unbearable to see before one
   only of dinners a long series,
   to look on life as on a rite,
¹² and in the wake of the decorous crowd
   to go, not sharing with it either
   the general opinions or the passions.
 
 

XII

   When one becomes the subject
   of noisy comments, it's unbearable
   (you will agree) to pass among
 ⁴ sensible people for a feigned eccentric
   or a sad crackbrain,
   or a satanic monster,
   or even for my Demon.
 ⁸ Onegin (let me take him up again),
   having in single combat killed his friend,
   having without a goal, without exertions,
   lived to the age of twenty-six,
¹² irked by the inactivity of leisure,
   without employment, wife, or occupation,
   could think of nothing to take up.
 
 

XIII

   A restlessness took hold of him,
   the inclination to a change of places
   (a most excruciating property,
 ⁴ a cross that few deliberately bear).
   He left his countryseat,
   the solitude of woods and fields,
   where an ensanguined shade
 ⁸ daily appeared to him,
   and started upon travels without aim,
   accessible to one sensation;
   and to him journeys,
¹² like everything on earth,
   grew boring. He returned and found himself,
   like Chatski, come from boat to ball.
 
 

XIV

   But lo! the throng has undulated,
   a murmur through the hall has run....
   Toward the hostess there advanced a lady,
 ⁴ followed by an imposing general.
   She was unhurried,
   not cold, not talkative,
   without a flouting gaze for everyone,
 ⁸ without pretensions to success,
   without those little mannerisms,
   without mimetic artifices....
   All about her was quiet, simple.
¹² She seemed a faithful reproduction
   du comme il faut.... ([Shishkov,] forgive me:
   I do not know how to translate.)
 
 

XV

   Closer to her the ladies moved;
   old women smiled to her;
   the men bowed lower, sought
 ⁴ to catch her gaze;
   maidens before her passed more quietly
   across the room; and higher
   than anyone lifted his nose and shoulders
 ⁸ the general who had come in with her.
   None could have called her
   a beauty; but from head to foot
   none could have found in her
¹² what is by autocratic fashion
   in the high London circle
   called “vulgar.” (I'm unable —
 
 

XVI

   –  of that word I am very fond,
   but am unable to translate it; in our midst
   for the time being it is new
 ⁴ and hardly bound to be in favor;
   it might do nicely in an epigram....
   But to our lady let me turn.)
   Winsome with carefree charm,
 ⁸ she at a table sat
   with brilliant Nina Voronskóy,
   that Cleopatra of the Neva;
   and, surely, you would have agreed
¹² that Nina with her marble beauty
   could not – though dazzling —
   eclipse her neighbor.
 
 

XVII

   “Can it be possible?” thinks Eugene.
   “Can it be she?... But really... No...
   What! From outback steppe villages...”
 ⁴ and a tenacious quizzing glass
   he keeps directing every minute
   at her whose aspect vaguely has
   recalled to him forgotten features.
 ⁸ “Tell me, Prince, you don't know
   who is it there in the framboise beret
   talking with the Spanish ambassador?”
   The prince looks at Onegin:
¹² “Aha! Indeed, long have you not been in the monde.
   Wait, I'll present you.”
   “But who is she?” “My wife.”
 
 

XVIII

   “So you are married! Didn't know before.
   How long?” “About two years.”
   “To whom?” “The Larin girl.” “Tatiana!”
 ⁴ “She knows you?” “I'm their neighbor.”
   “Oh, then, come on.” The prince goes up
   to his wife and leads up to her
   his kin and friend.
 ⁸ The princess looks at him... and whatsoever
   troubled her soul,
   however greatly
   she was surprised, astounded,
¹² nothing betrayed her,
   her ton remained the same,
   her bow was just as quiet.
 
 

XIX

   Forsooth! It was not merely that she didn't
   flinch, or blanch suddenly, or flush —
   she simply never moved an eyebrow,
 ⁴ did not even compress her lips.
   Though he looked with the utmost care,
   not even traces of the old Tatiana could
   Onegin find.
 ⁸ With her he wished to start a conversation —
   and... and could not. She asked: How long
   had he been there? And whence came he —
   from their own parts, maybe?
¹² Then on her spouse she turned a look
   of lassitude; glided away....
   And moveless he remained.
 
 

XX

   Could it be that the same Tatiana
   to whom, alone with her,
   at the beginning of our novel
 ⁴ back in a stagnant, distant region,
   in the fine fervor of moralization
   precepts he once had preached;
   the one from whom a letter he preserves
 ⁸ where the heart speaks,
   where all is out, all unrestrained;
   that little girl – or is he dreaming? —
   that little girl whom in her humble state
¹² he had passed over – could it be that now
   she had been so indifferent,
   so bold with him?
 
 

XXI

   He leaves the close-packed rout,
   he drives home, pensive; by a fancy  —
   now sad, now charming,
 ⁴ his first sleep is disturbed.
   He wakes; is brought
   a letter: Prince N. begs the honor of his presence
   at a soiree. Good God – to her?
 ⁸ I will, I will! And rapidly a courteous
   reply he scrawls. What is the matter
   with him? In what strange daze is he?
   What has stirred at the bottom of that cold
¹² and sluggish soul?
   Vexation? Vanity? Or once again
   youth's worry – love?
 
 

XXII

   Once more Onegin counts the hours,
   once more he can't wait for the day to end.
   But ten strikes: he drives off,
 ⁴ he has flown forth, he's at the porch;
   with tremor he goes in to the princess:
   he finds Tatiana
   alone, and for some minutes
 ⁸ they sit together. From Onegin's lips
   the words come not. Ill-humored,
   awkward, he barely, barely
   replies to her. His head
¹² is full of a persistent thought.
   Persistently he looks: she sits
   easy and free.
 
 

XXIII

   The husband comes. He interrupts
   this painful tête-à-tête;
   he with Onegin recollects
 ⁴ the pranks, the jests of former years.
   They laugh. Guests enter.
   Now with the large-grained salt of high-life malice
   the conversation starts to be enlivened.
 ⁸ Before the lady of the house, light nonsense
   flashed without stupid affectation,
   and meantime interrupted it
   sensible talk, without trite topics,
¹² eternal truths, or pedantry,
   nor did its free vivacity
   shock anybody's ears.
 
 

XXIV

   Yet here was the flower of the capital,
   both high nobility and paragons of fashion;
   the faces one meets everywhere,
 ⁴ the fools one cannot go without;
   here were, in mobcaps and in roses,
   elderly ladies, wicked-looking;
   here were several maidens —
 ⁸ unsmiling faces;
   here was an envoy, speaking
   of state affairs;
   here was, with fragrant hoary hair,
¹² an old man in the old way joking —
   with eminent subtility and wit,
   which is somewhat absurd today!
 
 

XXV

   Here was, to epigrams addicted
   a gentleman cross with everything:
   with the too-sweet tea of the hostess,
 ⁴ the ladies' platitudes, the ton of men,
   the comments on a foggy novel,
   the badge two sisters had been granted,
   the falsehoods in reviews, the war,
 ⁸ the snow, and his own wife.
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
¹² . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 
 

XXVI

   Here was […], who had gained
   distinction by the baseness of his soul
   and blunted in all albums,
 ⁴ Saint-P[riest], your pencils;
   in the doorway another ball dictator
   stood like a fashion plate,
   as rosy as a Palm Week cherub,
 ⁸ tight-coated, mute and motionless;
   and a far-flung traveler,
   an overstarched jackanapes,
   provoked a smile among the guests
¹² by his studied deportment,
   and an exchange of silent glances was
   his universal condemnation.
 
 

XXVII

   But my Onegin the whole evening heeds
   only Tatiana:
   not the shy little maiden,
 ⁴ enamored, poor and simple —
   but the indifferent princess,
   the inaccessible
   goddess of the luxurious, queenly Neva.
 ⁸ O humans! All of you resemble
   ancestress Eve:
   what's given to you does not lure,
   incessantly the serpent calls you
¹² to him, to the mysterious tree:
   you must have the forbidden fruit supplied to you,
   for paradise without that is no paradise to you.
 
 

XXVIII

   How changed Tatiana is!
   Into her role how firmly she has entered!
   The ways of a constricting rank
 ⁴ how fast she has adopted!
   Who'd dare to seek the tender little lass
   in this majestic,
   this careless legislatrix of salons?
 ⁸ And he had stirred her heart!
   About him in the dark of night,
   as long as Morpheus had not come flying,
   time was, she virginally brooded,
¹² raised to the moon a dying eye,
   dreaming that someday she might make
   with him life's humble journey!
 
 

XXIX

   All ages are to love submissive;
   but to young virgin hearts
   its impulses are beneficial
 ⁴ as are spring storms to fields.
   They freshen in the rain of passions,
   and renovate themselves, and ripen,
   and vigorous life gives
 ⁸ both rich bloom and sweet fruit.
   But at a late and barren age,
   at the turn of our years,
   sad is the trace of a dead passion....
¹² Thus storms of the cold autumn
   into a marsh transform the meadow
   and strip the woods around.
 
 

XXX

   There is no doubt: alas! Eugene
   in love is with Tatiana like a child.
   In throes of amorous designs
 ⁴ he spends both day and night.
   Not harking to the mind's stern protests,
   up to her porch, glass vestibule,
   daily he drives.
 ⁸ He chases like a shadow after her;
   he's happy if he casts
   the fluffy boa on her shoulders,
   or touches torridly
¹² her hand, or if he parts in front of her
   the motley host of liveries, or picks up
   her handkerchief.
 
 

XXXI

   She does not notice him,
   no matter how he strives – even to death;
   receives him freely at her house; at those
 ⁴ of others says two or three words to him;
   sometimes welcomes with a mere bow,
   sometimes does not take any notice:
   there's not a drop of coquetry in her,
 ⁸ the high world does not tolerate it.
   Onegin is beginning to grow pale;
   she does not see or does not care;
   Onegin wastes away:
¹² he's practically phthisical.
   All send Onegin to physicians;
   in chorus these send him to spas.
 
 

XXXII

   Yet he's not going. He beforehand
   is ready to his forefathers to write
   of an impending meeting; yet Tatiana
 ⁴ cares not one bit (such is their sex).
   But he is stubborn, won't desist,
   still hopes, bestirs himself;
   a sick man bolder than one hale,
 ⁸ he with a weak hand to the princess
   writes an impassioned missive.
   Though generally little sense in letters
   he saw, not without reason;
¹² but evidently torment of the heart
   had now passed his endurance.
   Here you have his letter word for word.
 
 

Onegin'S Letter To Tatiana

   I foresee everything: the explanation
   of a sad secret will offend you.
   What bitter scorn
 ⁴ your proud glance will express!
   What do I want? What is my object
   in opening my soul to you?
   What wicked merriment
 ⁸ perhaps I give occasion to!
 
 
   Chancing to meet you once,
   noting in you a spark of tenderness,
   I did not venture to believe in it:
¹² did not give way to a sweet habit;
   my tedious freedom
   I did not wish to lose. Another thing
   yet separated us:
¹⁶ a hapless victim Lenski fell.
   From all that to the heart is dear
   then did I tear my heart away;
   alien to everybody, tied by nothing,
²⁰ I thought: liberty and peace are
   a substitute for happiness. Good God!
   How wrong I was, how I am punished!
 
 
   No – every minute to see you; to follow
²⁴ you everywhere;
   the smile of your lips, movement of your eyes,
   to try to capture with enamored eyes;
   to listen long to you, to comprehend
²⁸ all your perfection with one's soul;
   to melt in agonies before you,
   grow pale and waste away... that's rapture!
 
 
   And I'm deprived of that; for you
³² I drag myself at random everywhere;
   to me each day is dear, each hour is dear,
   while I in futile dullness squander
   the days told off by fate – they are
³⁶ sufficiently oppressive anyway.
   I know: my span is well-nigh measured;
   but that my life may be prolonged
   I must be certain in the morning
⁴⁰ of seeing you during the day.
 
 
   I fear: in my meek plea
   your severe gaze will see
   the schemes of despicable cunning —
⁴⁴ and I can hear your wrathful censure.
   If you hut knew how terrible it is
   to languish with the thirst of love,
   burn – and by means of reason hourly
⁴⁸ subdue the tumult in one's blood;
   wish to embrace your knees
   and, in a burst of sobbing, at your feet
   pour out appeals, avowals, plaints,
⁵² all, all I could express,
   and in the meantime with feigned coldness
   arm speech and gaze,
   maintain a placid conversation,
⁵⁶ glance at you with a cheerful glance!...
 
 
   But let it be: against myself
   I've not the force to struggle any more;
   all is decided: I am in your power,
⁶⁰ and I surrender to my fate.
 
 

XXXIII

   There is no answer. He sends a new missive.
   To the second, to the third letter —
   there is no answer. He drives out to some
 ⁴ reception. Hardly has he entered – there she is
   coming in his direction. How severe!
   He is not seen, to him no word is said.
   Ugh! How surrounded she is now
 ⁸ with Twelfthtide cold!
   How anxious are to hold back indignation
   her stubborn lips!
   Onegin peers with a keen eye:
¹² where, where are discomposure, sympathy,
   where the tearstains? None, none!
   There's on that face but the imprint of wrath...
 
 

XXXIV

   plus, possibly, a secret fear
   lest husband or monde guess
   the escapade, the casual foible,
 ⁴ all my Onegin knows....
   There is no hope! He drives away,
   curses his folly —
   and, deeply plunged in it,
 ⁸ the monde he once again renounces
   and in his silent study comes to him
   the recollection of the time
   when cruel chondria
¹² pursued him in the noisy monde,
   captured him, took him by the collar,
   and shut him up in a dark hole.
 
 

XXXV

   Again, without discrimination,
   he started reading. He read Gibbon,
   Rousseau, Manzoni, Herder,
 ⁴ Chamfort, Mme de Staël, Bichat, Tissot.
   He read the skeptic Bayle,
   he read the works of Fontenelle,
   he read some [authors] of our own,
 ⁸ without rejecting anything —
   the “almanacs” and the reviews
   where sermons into us are drummed,
   where I'm today abused so much
¹² but where such madrigals addressed tome
   I used to meet with now and then:
   e sempre bene, gentlemen.
 
 

XXXVI

   And lo – his eyes were reading, but his thoughts
   were far away;
   chimeras, desires, sorrows
 ⁴ kept crowding deep into his soul.
   Between the printed lines
   he with spiritual eyes
   read other lines. It was in them
 ⁸ that he was utterly absorbed.
   These were the secret legends of the heart's
   dark ancientry;
   dreams unconnected
¹² with anything; threats, rumors, presages;
   or the live tosh of a long tale,
   or a young maiden's letters.
 
 

XXXVII

   And by degrees into a lethargy
   of feelings and of thoughts he falls,
   while before him Imagination
 ⁴ deals out her motley faro deck.
   Now he sees: on the melted snow,
   as at a night's encampment sleeping,
   stirless, a youth lies; and he hears
 ⁸ a voice: “Well, what – he's dead!”
   Now he sees foes forgotten,
   calumniators, and malicious cowards,
   and a swarm of young traitresses,
¹² and a circle of despicable comrades;
   and now a country house, and by the window
   sits she... and ever she!
 
 

XXXVIII

   He grew so used to lose himself in this
   that he almost went off his head
   or else became a poet. (Frankly,
 ⁴ that would have been a boon, indeed!)
   And true: by dint of magnetism,
   the mechanism of Russian verses
   my addleheaded pupil
 ⁸ at that time nearly grasped.
   How much a poet he resembled
   when in a corner he would sit alone,
   and the hearth blazed in front of him,
¹² and he hummed “Benedetta”
   or “Idol mio,” and into the fire
   dropped now a slipper, now his magazine!
 
 

XXXIX

   Days rushed. In warmth-pervaded air
   winter already was resolving;
   and he did not become a poet,
 ⁴ he did not die, did not go mad.
   Spring quickens him: for the first time
   his close-shut chambers, where he had
   been hibernating like a marmot,
 ⁸ his double windows, inglenook —
   he leaves on a bright morning,
   he fleets in sleigh along the Neva's bank.
   Upon blue blocks of hewn-out ice
¹² the sun plays. In the streets
   the furrowed snow thaws muddily:
   whither, upon it, his fast course
 
 

XL

   directs Onegin? You beforehand
   have guessed already. Yes, exactly:
   apace to her, to his Tatiana,
 ⁴ my unreformed eccentric comes.
   He walks in, looking like a corpse.
   There's not a soul in the front hall.
   He enters the reception room. On! No one.
 ⁸ A door he opens.... What is it
   that strikes him with such force?
   The princess before him, alone,
   sits, unadorned, pale, reading
¹² some kind of letter,
   and softly sheds a flood of tears,
   her cheek propped on her hand.
 
 

XLI

   Ah! Her mute sufferings —
   in this swift instant who would not have read!
   Who would not have the former Tanya,
 ⁴ poor Tanya, recognized now in the princess?
   In throes of mad regrets,
   Eugene falls at her feet;
   she gives a start,
 ⁸ and is silent, and looks,
   without surprise, without wrath, at Onegin....
   His sick, extinguished gaze,
   imploring aspect, mute reproof,
¹² she takes in everything. The simple maid,
   with the dreams, with the heart of former days
   again in her has resurrected now.
 
 

XLII

   She does not bid him rise
   and, not taking her eyes off him,
   does not withdraw
 ⁴ her limp hand from his avid lips....
   What is her dreaming now about?
   A lengthy silence passes,
   and finally she, softly:
 ⁸ “Enough; get up. I must
   frankly explain myself to you.
   Onegin, do you recollect that hour
   when in the garden, in the avenue, fate brought us
¹² together and so meekly
   your lesson I heard out.
   Today it is my turn.
 
 

XLIII

   “Onegin, I was younger then,
   I was, I daresay, better-looking,
   and I loved you; and what then, what
 ⁴ did I find in your heart?
   What answer? Mere severity.
   There wasn't – was there?  – novelty for you
   in a meek little maiden's love?
 ⁸ Even today – good heavens!  – my blood freezes
   as soon as I remember
   your cold glance and that sermon.... But I do not
   accuse you; at that awful hour
¹² you acted nobly,
   you in regard to me were right,
   to you with all my soul I'm grateful....
 
 

XLIV

   “Then – is it not so?  – in the wilderness,
   far from vain Hearsay,
   I was not to your liking.... Why, then, now
 ⁴ do you pursue me?
   Why have you marked me out?
   Might it not be because I must
   now move in the grand monde;
 ⁸ because I have both wealth and rank;
   because my husband has been maimed in battles;
   because for that the Court is kind to us?
   Might it not be because my disrepute
¹² would be remarked by everybody now
   and in society might bring you
   scandalous honor?
 
 

XLV

   “I'm crying.... If your Tanya
   you've not forgotten yet,
   then know: the sharpness of your blame,
 ⁴ cold, stern discourse,
   if it were only in my power
   I'd have preferred to an offensive passion,
   and to these letters and tears.
 ⁸ For my infantine dreams
   you had at least some pity then,
   at least consideration for my age.
   But now!... What to my feet
¹² has brought you? What a trifle!
   How, with your heart and mind,
   be the slave of a trivial feeling?
 
 

XLVI

   “But as to me, Onegin, this magnificence,
   a wearisome life's tinsel, my successes
   in the world's vortex,
 ⁴ my fashionable house and evenings,
   what do I care for them?... At once I'd gladly
   give all the frippery of this masquerade,
   all this glitter, and noise, and fumes,
 ⁸ for a shelfful of books, for a wild garden,
   for our poor dwelling,
   for those haunts where for the first time,
   Onegin, I saw you,
¹² and for the humble churchyard where
   there is a cross now and the shade
   of branches over my poor nurse.
 
 

XLVII

   “Yet happiness had been so possible,
   so near!... But my fate is already
   settled. Imprudently,
 ⁴ perhaps, I acted.
   My mother with tears of conjurement
   beseeched me. For poor Tanya
   all lots were equal.
 ⁸ I married. You must,
   I pray you, leave me;
   I know: in your heart are
   both pride and genuine honor.
¹² I love you (why dissimulate?);
   but to another I belong:
   to him I shall be faithful all my life.”
 
 

XLVIII

   She has gone. Eugene stands
   as if by thunder struck.
   In what a tempest of sensations
 ⁴ his heart is now immersed!
   But there resounds a sudden clink of spurs,
   and there appears Tatiana's husband,
   and here my hero,
 ⁸ at an unfortunate minute for him,
   reader, we now shall leave
   for long... forever.... After him
   sufficiently along one path
¹² we've roamed the world. Let us congratulate
   each other on attaining land. Hurrah!
   It long (is it not true?) was time.
 
 

XLIX

   Whoever, O my reader,
   you be – friend, foe – I wish to part
   with you at present as a pal.
 ⁴ Farewell. Whatever in these careless strophes
   you might have looked for as you followed me —
   tumultuous recollections,
   relief from labors,
 ⁸ live images or witticisms,
   or faults of grammar —
   God grant that in this book, for recreation,
   for dreaming, for the heart,
¹² for jousts in journals,
   you find at least a crumb.
   Upon which, let us part, farewell!
 
 

L

   You, too, farewell, my strange traveling companion,
   and you, my true ideal,
   and you, my live and constant,
 ⁴ though small, work. I have known with you
   all that a poet covets:
   obliviousness of life in the world's tempests,
   the sweet discourse of friends.
 ⁸ Rushed by have many, many days
   since young Tatiana, and with her
   Onegin, in a blurry dream
   appeared to me for the first time —
¹² and the far stretch of a free novel
   I through a magic crystal
   still did not make out clearly.
 
 

LI

   But those to whom at amicable meetings
   its first strophes I read —
   “Some are no more, others are distant,”
 ⁴ as erstwhiles Sadi said.
   Without them was Onegin's picture finished.
   And she from whom was fashioned
   the dear ideal of “Tatiana”...
 ⁸ Ah, much, much has fate snatched away!
   Blest who left life's feast early,
   not having to the bottom drained
   the goblet full of wine;
¹² who never read life's novel to the end
   and all at once could part with it
   as I with my Onegin.
 

THE END