Part 10 (1/2)

I have known beauties cold and raw As Winter in their purity, Striking the intellect with awe By dull insensibility, And I admired their common sense And natural benevolence, But, I acknowledge, from them fled; For on their brows I trembling read The inscription o'er the gates of h.e.l.l ”Abandon hope for ever here!”(38) Love to inspire doth woe appear To such--delightful to repel.

Perchance upon the Neva e'en Similar dames ye may have seen.

[Note 38: A Russian annotator complains that the poet has mutilated Dante's famous line.]

XXIII

Amid submissive herds of men Virgins miraculous I see, Who selfishly unmoved remain Alike by sighs and flattery.

But what astonished do I find When harsh demeanour hath consigned A timid love to banishment?-- On fresh allurements they are bent, At least by show of sympathy; At least their accents and their words Appear attuned to softer chords; And then with blind credulity The youthful lover once again Pursues phantasmagoria vain.

XXIV

Why is Tattiana guiltier deemed?-- Because in singleness of thought She never of deception dreamed But trusted the ideal she wrought?-- Because her pa.s.sion wanted art, Obeyed the impulses of heart?-- Because she was so innocent, That Heaven her character had blent With an imagination wild, With intellect and strong volition And a determined disposition, An ardent heart and yet so mild?-- Doth love's incautiousness in her So irremissible appear?

XXV

O ye whom tender love hath pained Without the ken of parents both, Whose hearts responsive have remained To the impressions of our youth, The all-entrancing joys of love-- Young ladies, if ye ever strove The mystic lines to tear away A lover's letter might convey, Or into bold hands anxiously Have e'er a precious tress consigned, Or even, silent and resigned, When separation's hour drew nigh, Have felt love's agitated kiss With tears, confused emotions, bliss,--

XXVI

With unanimity complete, Condemn not weak Tattiana mine; Do not cold-bloodedly repeat The sneers of critics superfine; And you, O maids immaculate, Whom vice, if named, doth agitate E'en as the presence of a snake, I the same admonition make.

Who knows? with love's consuming flame Perchance you also soon may burn, Then to some gallant in your turn Will be ascribed by treacherous Fame The triumph of a conquest new.

The G.o.d of Love is after you!

XXVII

A coquette loves by calculation, Tattiana's love was quite sincere, A love which knew no limitation, Even as the love of children dear.

She did not think ”procrastination Enhances love in estimation And thus secures the prey we seek.

His vanity first let us pique With hope and then perplexity, Excruciate the heart and late With jealous fire resuscitate, Lest jaded with satiety, The artful prisoner should seek Incessantly his chains to break.”

XXVIII

I still a complication view, My country's honour and repute Demands that I translate for you The letter which Tattiana wrote.

At Russ she was by no means clever And read our newspapers scarce ever, And in her native language she Possessed nor ease nor fluency, So she in French herself expressed.

I cannot help it I declare, Though hitherto a lady ne'er In Russ her love made manifest, And never hath our language proud In correspondence been allowed.(39)

[Note 39: It is well known that until the reign of the late Tsar French was the language of the Russian court and of Russian fas.h.i.+onable society. It should be borne in mind that at the time this poem was written literary warfare more or less open was being waged between two hostile schools of Russian men of letters. These consisted of the _Arzama.s.s_, or French school, to which Pushkin himself together with his uncle Va.s.sili Pushkin the ”Nestor of the Arzama.s.s” belonged, and their opponents who devoted themselves to the cultivation of the vernacular.]

XXIX

They wish that ladies should, I hear, Learn Russian, but the Lord defend!

I can't conceive a little dear With the ”Well-Wisher” in her hand!(40) I ask, all ye who poets are, Is it not true? the objects fair, To whom ye for unnumbered crimes Had to compose in secret rhymes, To whom your hearts were consecrate,-- Did they not all the Russian tongue With little knowledge and that wrong In charming fas.h.i.+on mutilate?

Did not their lips with foreign speech The native Russian tongue impeach?

[Note 40: The ”Blago-Namierenni,” or ”Well-Wisher,” was an inferior Russian newspaper of the day, much scoffed at by contemporaries. The editor once excused himself for some gross error by pleading that he had been ”on the loose.”]

x.x.x

G.o.d grant I meet not at a ball Or at a promenade mayhap, A schoolmaster in yellow shawl Or a professor in tulle cap.

As rosy lips without a smile, The Russian language I deem vile Without grammatical mistakes.

May be, and this my terror wakes, The fair of the next generation, As every journal now entreats, Will teach grammatical conceits, Introduce verse in conversation.

But I--what is all this to me?

Will to the old times faithful be.

x.x.xI