Aleksandr Pushkin

“Mosalsky: Good folk! Maria Godunov and her son Feodor have poisoned themselves. We have seen their dead bodies. [The People are silent with horror.] Why are ye silent? Cry, Long live the Tsar Dimitry Ivanovich! [The People are speechless.]”

“Ah! heavy art thou, crown of Monomakh!”

“Like some magistrate grown gray in office,Calmly he contemplates alike the justAnd unjust, with indifference he notesEvil and good, and knows not wrath nor pity.”

“Pimen [writing in front of a sacred lamp]:One more, the final record, and my annalsAre ended, and fulfilled the duty laidBy God on me a sinner. Not in vainHath God appointed me for many yearsA witness, teaching me the art of letters;A day will come when some laborious monkWill bring to light my zealous, nameless toil,Kindle, as I, his lamp, and from the parchmentShaking the dust of ages will transcribeMy true narrations.”

“Что наши лучшие желанья,Что наши свежие мечтаньяИстлели быстрой чередой,Как листья осенью гнилой.”

“The clock of doom had struck as fated;the poet, without a sound,let fall his pistol on the ground.”

“The less we show our love to a woman,Or please her less, and neglect our duty,The more we trap and ruin her surelyIn the flattering toils of philandery.”

“Send me, Almighty, I petition,In porticoes or at a ballNo bonneted academician,No seminarist in a yellow shawl!No more than in red lips unsmilingCan I find anything beguilingIn grammar-perfect Russian speech.What purist magazines beseech,A novel breed of belles may heed it,And bend us (for my life of sin)To strict grammatic discipline,Prescribing meter, too, where needed;But I - what is all this to me?I like things as they used to be”

“Прошла любовь, явилась Муза,И прояснился темный ум.Свободен, вновь ищу союзаВолшебных звуков, чувств и дум;”

“A man who's active and incisivecan yet keep nail-care much in mind:why fight what's known to be decisive?custom is despot of mankind.”

“Unforced, as conversation passed,he had the talent of salutingfelicitously every theme,of listening like a judge-supremewhile serious topics were disputing,or, with an epigram-surprise,of kindling smiles in ladies' eyes.”

“There yet remains but one concluding tale,And then this chronicle of mine is ended—Fulfilled, the duty God ordained to me,A sinner. Not without purpose did the LordPut me to witness much for many yearsAnd educate me in the love of books.One day some indefatigable monkWill find my conscientious, unsigned work;Like me, he will light up his ikon-lampAnd, shaking from the scroll the age-old dust,He will transcribe these tales in all their truth.”

“Come purge my soul, Thou Master of my days,Of vain and empty words, of idle ways,Of base ambition and the urge to rule;That hidden serpent that corrupts a fool;and grant me, Lord, to see my sins alone.That I not call my brother to atone;Make chaste my heart and lend me from aboveThy fortitude, humility, and love.”

“What grace could all your worldly power bringTo One whose crown of thorns has made him King,The Christ who gave His body to the flails,Who humbly bore the lance and piercing nails?Or do you fear the rabble might disgrace The One.”

“The heavy hanging chains shall fall,The walls shall crumble at the word,And Freedom greet you with the lightAnd brothers give you back the sword.”

“‘Tis time, my friend, ‘tis time!For rest the heart is aching;Days follow days in flight, and every day is takingFragments of being, while together you and IMake plans to live. Look, all is dust, and we shall die.”

“And thus He mused: "From here, indeedShall we strike terror in the Swede?And here a city by our laborFounded, shall gall our haughty neighbor;"Here cut" - so Nature gives command -Your window through on Europe; standFirm-footed by the sea, unchanging!”

“God save us from seeing a Russian revolt, senseless and merciless. Those who plot impossible upheavals among us, are either young and do not know our people, or are hard-hearted men who do not care a straw either about their own lives or those of others.”

“The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.”