Rhyme [extract] by Yevgeny Baratynsky

You, like the faithful dove, bring back

a green branch to the waiting ark

and place it in his eager hand;

you only with your echoing voice

give inspiration a human face

and bring his dream to land.

 

by Евгений Абрамович Баратынский (Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky)

(1840-43)

translated by Peter France

---

Fun fact: This extract refers to Genesis 8:11 where a a dove was released by Noah after the flood in order to find land; it came back carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf – a sign of life after the Flood and of God’s bringing Noah, his family and the animals to land.

Advertisement

A Grumble by Yevgeny Baratynsky

Bane of the gorgeous summer, meddlesome fly, why must you

torture me, ducking and weaving, clinging to face and to fingers?

Who was it gave you that sting that has power to cut short at will

thought on its albatross wings or the burning kisses of love?

You make of the peaceable thinker, bred on the pleasures of Europe,

a barbarous Scythian warrior, thirsting for enemy blood.

 

by Евгений Абрамович Баратынский (Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky)

(1841)

translated by Peter France