Part 22 (2/2)
XX
Although we know that Eugene had Long ceased to be a reading man, Still certain authors, I may add, He had excepted from the ban: The bard of Juan and the Giaour, With it may be a couple more; Romances three, in which ye scan Portrayed contemporary man As the reflection of his age, His immorality of mind To arid selfishness resigned, A visionary personage With his exasperated sense, His energy and impotence.
XXI
And numerous pages had preserved The sharp incisions of his nail, And these the attentive maid observed With eye precise and without fail.
Tattiana saw with trepidation By what idea or observation Oneguine was the most impressed, In what he merely acquiesced.
Upon those margins she perceived Oneguine's pencillings. His mind Made revelations undesigned, Of what he thought and what believed, A dagger, asterisk, or note Interrogation to denote.
XXII
And my Tattiana now began To understand by slow degrees More clearly, G.o.d be praised, the man, Whom autocratic fate's decrees Had bid her sigh for without hope-- A dangerous, gloomy misanthrope, Being from h.e.l.l or heaven sent, Angel or fiend malevolent.
Which is he? or an imitation, A bogy conjured up in joke, A Russian in Childe Harold's cloak, Of foreign whims the impersonation-- Handbook of fas.h.i.+onable phrase Or parody of modern ways?
XXIII
Hath she found out the riddle yet?
Hath she a fitting phrase selected?
But time flies and she doth forget They long at home have her expected-- Whither two neighbouring dames have walked And a long time about her talked.
”What can be done? She is no child!”
Cried the old dame with anguish filled: ”Olinka is her junior, see.
'Tis time to many her, 'tis true, But tell me what am I to do?
To all she answers cruelly-- I will not wed, and ever weeps And lonely through the forest creeps.”
XXIV
”Is she in love?” quoth one. ”With whom?
Bouyanoff courted. She refused.
Petoushkoff met the selfsame doom.
The hussar Pikhtin was accused.
How the young imp on Tania doted!
To captivate her how devoted!
I mused: perhaps the matter's squared-- O yes! my hopes soon disappeared.”
”But, _matushka_, to Moscow you(70) Should go, the market for a maid, With many a vacancy, 'tis said.”-- ”Alas! my friend, no revenue!”
”Enough to see one winter's end; If not, the money I will lend.”
[Note 70: ”Matushka,” or ”little mother,” a term of endearment in constant use amongst Russian females.]
XXV
The venerable dame opined The counsel good and full of reason, Her money counted, and designed To visit Moscow in the season.
Tattiana learns the intelligence-- Of her provincial innocence The unaffected traits she now Unto a carping world must show-- Her toilette's antiquated style, Her antiquated mode of speech, For Moscow fops and Circes each To mark with a contemptuous smile.
Horror! had she not better stay Deep in the greenwood far away?
XXVI
Arising with the morning's light, Unto the fields she makes her way, And with emotional delight Surveying them, she thus doth say: ”Ye peaceful valleys all, good-bye!
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