Part 19 (1/2)

18.

He gives a sign a they spring to action, He drinks a they shout and drink a round.

He laughs a they roar with satisfaction, He knits his brow a there's not a sound.

It's obvious that he's the master: And Tanya no more fears disaster, And curious to find out more She opens gingerly the door...

A sudden gust of wind blows, las.h.i.+ng The flaming lamps that light the night; The goblins cower at the sight; Onegin, from his chair, eyes flas.h.i.+ng, Rises with clatter; they all rise: And swiftly to the door he flies.

19.

A terrified Tatiana hastens To flee Onegin and his team; Not possible; and, in impatience, She scurries round and wants to scream, But Eugene pulls the door wide open And she's exposed to the misshapen And h.e.l.lish spectres; savage cries Of laughter resonate; their eyes, Their curved proboscises, moustaches, Their hooves, horns, tusks and tufted tails, Their bony fingers, sharp like nails, Their b.l.o.o.d.y tongues a all these mismatches At once towards the girl incline And all cry out: 'She's mine! She's mine!

20.

'She's mine,' Onegin spoke out grimly, And suddenly the pack was gone; In frosty darkness Tanya dimly Confronted Eugene all alone.

Towards a corner seat he takes her, Upon a shaky bench he lays her And, bending downward, rests his head Upon her shoulder; when a tread Discloses Olga, then Vladimir; A sudden light, and in alarm Onegin stands with upraised arm, His eyes roam wildly seeing him here, He chides the uninvited pair; Tatiana's lying in despair.

21.

The argument grows louder quickly, Onegin s.n.a.t.c.hes up a knife, Frightening shadows gather thickly, Onegin's taken Lensky's life.

A piercing cry, the hut is shaking, Tatiana, terror-stricken, waking, Looks round her room, already bright, As through a frozen pane the light Of crimson dawn's already playing; The door stirs. Olga flies to her, Aurora-like but rosier, And lighter than a swallow, saying: 'What did you dream, whom did you see?

Oh, Tanya, tell, who can it be?'

22.

But she, not noticing her sister, Lay leafing through a book in bed; Page after page kept turning faster, And to her sister nothing said.

The book that claimed her rapt attention Wanted the poet's sweet invention, No saws or pictures could be seen, But neither Virgil nor Racine, Not Seneca, not Scott, not Byron, Not even Ladies' Fas.h.i.+on12 could Engross so much a woman's mood: What now enticed her like a siren Was Martin Zadek,13 Chaldee sage, Who solved your dreams on every page.

23.

This weighty tome a pa.s.sing trader Had brought to Tanya's solitude, And finally managed to persuade her To buy it, if he could include A few odd volumes of Malvina;14 She paid three rubles, one poltina, He also put into the scales A book containing vulgar tales, Two Petriads,15 a Russian grammar And volume three of Marmontel.16 Once Martin Zadek casts his spell, Tanya surrenders to his glamour...

He brings her solace when she grieves, He sleeps with her and never leaves.

24.

The dream disturbs her. In confusion, Not knowing what it presages, She seeks a meaningful solution To all its monstrous images.

Arranged in alphabetic order, The index gives the words that awed her: A bear, a blizzard, little bridge, Dark, fir, a forest, hedgehog, witch And so on. Tanya's reservations A Martin Zadek won't dispel, And yet her nightmare does foretell A mult.i.tude of sad occasions.

For several days thereafter she Keeps thinking of it anxiously.