Part 21 (1/2)

Amid sly, pusillanimous Spoiled children most degenerate And tiresome rogues ridiculous And stupid censors pa.s.sionate; Amid coquettes who pray to G.o.d And abject slaves who kiss the rod; In haunts of fas.h.i.+on where each day All with urbanity betray, Where harsh frivolity proclaims Its cold unfeeling sentences; Amid the awful emptiness Of conversation, thought and aims-- In that mora.s.s where you and I Wallow, my friends, in company!

END OF CANTO THE SIXTH

CANTO THE SEVENTH

Moscow

Moscow, Russia's darling daughter, Where thine equal shall we find?'

Dmitrieff

Who can help loving mother Moscow?

Baratynski (Feasts)

A journey to Moscow! To see the world!

Where better?

Where man is not.

Griboyedoff (Woe from Wit)

Canto The Seventh

[Written 1827-1828 at Moscow, Mikhailovskoe, St. Petersburg and Malinniki.]

I

Impelled by Spring's dissolving beams, The snows from off the hills around Descended swift in turbid streams And flooded all the level ground.

A smile from slumbering nature clear Did seem to greet the youthful year; The heavens shone in deeper blue, The woods, still naked to the view, Seemed in a haze of green embowered.

The bee forth from his cell of wax Flew to collect his rural tax; The valleys dried and gaily flowered; Herds low, and under night's dark veil Already sings the nightingale.

II

Mournful is thine approach to me, O Spring, thou chosen time of love!

What agitation languidly My spirit and my blood doth move, What sad emotions o'er me steal When first upon my cheek I feel The breath of Spring again renewed, Secure in rural quietude-- Or, strange to me is happiness?

Do all things which to mirth incline.

And make a dark existence s.h.i.+ne Inflict annoyance and distress Upon a soul inert and cloyed?-- And is all light within destroyed?

III

Or, heedless of the leaves' return Which Autumn late to earth consigned, Do we alone our losses mourn Of which the rustling woods remind?

Or, when anew all Nature teems, Do we foresee in troubled dreams The coming of life's Autumn drear.

For which no springtime shall appear?

Or, it may be, we inly seek, Wafted upon poetic wing, Some other long-departed Spring, Whose memories make the heart beat quick With thoughts of a far distant land, Of a strange night when the moon and--

IV

'Tis now the season! Idlers all, Epicurean philosophers, Ye men of fas.h.i.+on cynical, Of Levs.h.i.+n's school ye followers,(67) Priams of country populations And dames of fine organisations, Spring summons you to her green bowers, 'Tis the warm time of labour, flowers; The time for mystic strolls which late Into the starry night extend.

Quick to the country let us wend In vehicles surcharged with freight; In coach or post-cart duly placed Beyond the city-barriers haste.

[Note 67: Levs.h.i.+n--a contemporary writer on political economy.]