posted June 24, 2009 12:05 PM         

The Dream

In noon's heat, in a dale of Dagestan
With lead inside my breast, stirless I lay;
The deep wound still smoked on; my blood
Kept trickling drop by drop away.

On the dale's sand alone I lay. The cliffs
Crowded around in ledges steep,
And the sun scorched their tawny tops
And scorched me -- but I slept death's sleep.

And in a dream I saw an evening feast
That in my native land with bright lights shone;
Among young women crowned with flowers,
A merry talk concerning me went on.

But in the merry talk not joining,
One of them sat there lost in thought,
And in a melancholy dream
Her young soul was immersed -- God knows by what.

And of a dale in Dagestan she dreamt;
In that dale lay the corpse of one she knew;
Within his breast a smoking wound shewed black,
And blood coursed in a stream that colder grew.

Written by: Mikhail Lermontov

posted June 24, 2009 12:37 PM         

quote:

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Requiem
1831

There is a blessed place: by the trace
In wilderness, in a little glade’s middle,
Where in the eve, mists twine and bristle
In moony silver’s easy lace…
My friend! You know that glade, fair;
There dig a pit and let me rest,
When I will cease to breathe in air.

Give to that grave a good regard --
Let all be legally there settled
Raise on the grave a cross of maple,
And place a stone, wild and hard.
When thunderstorms will shake the forest,
The traveler will see my cross;
Maybe, the stone and the moss
Will give to him a rest at most.

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posted June 24, 2009 12:51 PM         

quote:

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"No, Not with You..."
1841

No, not with you I fell in love so fast,
And not for me your beauty is succeeding;
I love in you my suffering preceding,
And youth of mine, that perished in the past.

And when sometimes my look is long and hard,
And penetrates your eyes of high perfection;
I'm busy with a secret conversation,
But not to you I send my words of heart.

To my youth's girl, my word of soul flies,
In features yours, I seek for other dears,
In lips alive -- the lips, so mute for years,
In eyes -- the flame of the extinguished eyes.

Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, May, 1998
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, May, 2001

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