Part Two - My Gift Is Faint
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
Summary
(Moi dar ubog, i golos moi negromok)
My gift is faint, my singing voice is feeble,
And yet I live, and probably on earth
My being has in someone's eyes some worth:
In verses mine, my offspring will be able
To see it. And my soul will (who can tell?)
With this man's soul establish a relation:
I’ve found a friend amid my generation—
A reader ‘mid my scions I’ll find as well.
Not later than 1828 (1829)
(Gluptsy ne chuzhdy vdokhnoven’ia)
Fools are not barred from inspiration;
Some fervid moments of elation
With geniuses they may well share:
Each plant receives an invitation
To bloom in spring's life-giving air.
A tale of all things being equal,
Fools’ love of cabbage is immense,
But laurels are not in the sequel:
They are not born of flatulence.
1828 (1829)
(Ne podrazhai: svoeobrazen genii)
Don't imitate: unique is every genius;
Unique are greatness and a great man's fame;
Dorat or Shakespeare— never mind the frame:
Cheap is a double, even if ingenious.
Remember Israel! The Highest bade
That graven images should not be made.
Inspired Mickiewicz, when I see you lying
At Byron's feet, obedient to his nod,
O prostrate worshiper! I feel like crying:
“Arise, arise, you are like him a god.”
1828 (1829)
. (Slykhal ia, dobrye druz’ia)
Our forefathers, when sad or sick
(I am like them and am not sorry
To pass along their truthful story),
Appealed in trouble to Old Nick.
But do not fear: my latest crony
Is not the Devil, not the one
With whose sly blandishments and money
Zhukovsky's Thunderclap was won.
Just listen to me: at my cradle
There used to sit a tender imp
And croon, obedient to his whim,
A tale, a ditty, or a fable.
By now my gait and mind are stable—
For him alone I am a wimp,
To walk and reason still unable.
When in my hut I sit depressed
Or lose for life and pleasure zest,
Or things begin to look too tragic,
I wave my hand. Lo and behold,
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Evgeny Boratynsky and the Russian Golden AgeUnstudied Words that Wove and Wavered, pp. 137 - 168Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020