Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] Part 7

Her eyes were of cerulean blue, Her locks were of a golden hue, Her movements, voice and figure slight, All about Olga--to a light Romance of love I pray refer, You'll find her portrait there, I vouch; I formerly admired her much But finally grew bored by her.

But with her elder sister I Must now my stanzas occupy.

XXIV

Tattiana was her appellation.

We are the first who such a name In pages of a love narration With such a perversity proclaim.

But wherefore not?--'Tis pleasant, nice, Euphonious, though I know a spice It carries of antiquity And of the attic. Honestly, We must admit but little taste Doth in us or our names appear(26) (I speak not of our poems here), And education runs to waste, Endowing us from out her store With affectation,--nothing more.

[Note 26: The Russian annotator remarks: "The most euphonious Greek names, e.g. Agathon, Philotas, Theodora, Thekla, etc., are used amongst us by the lower cla.s.ses only."]

XXV

And so Tattiana was her name, Nor by her sister's brilliancy Nor by her beauty she became The cynosure of every eye.

Shy, silent did the maid appear As in the timid forest deer, Even beneath her parents' roof Stood as estranged from all aloof, Nearest and dearest knew not how To fawn upon and love express; A child devoid of childishness To romp and play she ne'er would go: Oft staring through the window pane Would she in silence long remain.

XXVI

Contemplativeness, her delight, E'en from her cradle's earliest dream, Adorned with many a vision bright Of rural life the sluggish stream; Ne'er touched her fingers indolent The needle nor, o'er framework bent, Would she the canvas tight enrich With gay design and silken st.i.tch.

Desire to rule ye may observe When the obedient doll in sport An infant maiden doth exhort Polite demeanour to preserve, Gravely repeating to another Recent instructions of its mother.

XXVII

But Tania ne'er displayed a pa.s.sion For dolls, e'en from her earliest years, And gossip of the town and fas.h.i.+on She ne'er repeated unto hers.

Strange unto her each childish game, But when the winter season came And dark and drear the evenings were, Terrible tales she loved to hear.

And when for Olga nurse arrayed In the broad meadow a gay rout, All the young people round about, At prisoner's base she never played.

Their noisy laugh her soul annoyed, Their giddy sports she ne'er enjoyed.

XXVIII

She loved upon the balcony To antic.i.p.ate the break of day, When on the pallid eastern sky The starry beacons fade away, The horizon luminous doth grow, Morning's forerunners, breezes blow And gradually day unfolds.

In winter, when Night longer holds A hemisphere beneath her sway, Longer the East inert reclines Beneath the moon which dimly s.h.i.+nes, And calmly sleeps the hours away, At the same hour she oped her eyes And would by candlelight arise.

XXIX

Romances pleased her from the first, Her all in all did const.i.tute; In love adventures she was versed, Rousseau and Richardson to boot.

Not a bad fellow was her father Though superannuated rather; In books he saw nought to condemn But, as he never opened them, Viewed them with not a little scorn, And gave himself but little pain His daughter's book to ascertain Which 'neath her pillow lay till morn.

His wife was also mad upon The works of Mr. Richardson.

x.x.x

She was thus fond of Richardson Not that she had his works perused, Or that adoring Grandison That rascal Lovelace she abused; But that Princess Pauline of old, Her Moscow cousin, often told The tale of these romantic men; Her husband was a bridegroom then, And she despite herself would waste Sighs on another than her lord Whose qualities appeared to afford More satisfaction to her taste.

Her Grandison was in the Guard, A noted fop who gambled hard.

x.x.xI

Like his, her dress was always nice, The height of fas.h.i.+on, fitting tight, But contrary to her advice The girl in marriage they unite.

Then, her distraction to allay, The bridegroom sage without delay Removed her to his country seat, Where G.o.d alone knows whom she met.

She struggled hard at first thus pent, Night separated from her spouse, Then became busy with the house, First reconciled and then content; Habit was given us in distress By Heaven in lieu of happiness.

x.x.xII

Habit alleviates the grief Inseparable from our lot; This great discovery relief And consolation soon begot.

And then she soon 'twixt work and leisure Found out the secret how at pleasure To dominate her worthy lord, And harmony was soon restored.

The workpeople she superintended, Mushrooms for winter salted down, Kept the accounts, shaved many a crown,(*) The bath on Sat.u.r.days attended, When angry beat her maids, I grieve, And all without her husband's leave.

[Note: The serfs destined for military service used to have a portion of their heads shaved as a distinctive mark.]

x.x.xIII

In her friends' alb.u.ms, time had been, With blood instead of ink she scrawled, Baptized Prascovia Pauline, And in her conversation drawled.

She wore her corset tightly bound, The Russian N with nasal sound She would p.r.o.nounce _a la Francaise_; But soon she altered all her ways, Corset and alb.u.m and Pauline, Her sentimental verses all, She soon forgot, began to call Akulka who was once Celine, And had with waddling in the end Her caps and night-dresses to mend.

x.x.xIV

As for her spouse he loved her dearly, In her affairs ne'er interfered, Entrusted all to her sincerely, In dressing-gown at meals appeared.

Existence calmly sped along, And oft at eventide a throng Of friends unceremonious would a.s.semble from the neighbourhood: They growl a bit--they scandalise-- They crack a feeble joke and smile-- Thus the time pa.s.ses and meanwhile Olga the tea must supervise-- 'Tis time for supper, now for bed, And soon the friendly troop hath fled.

x.x.xV

They in a peaceful life preserved Customs by ages sanctified, Strictly the Carnival observed, Ate Russian pancakes at Shrovetide, Twice in the year to fast were bound, Of whirligigs were very fond, Of Christmas carols, song and dance; When people with long countenance On Trinity Sunday yawned at prayer, Three tears they dropt with humble mein Upon a bunch of lovage green; _Kva.s.s_ needful was to them as air; On guests their servants used to wait By rank as settled by the State.(27)

[Note 27: The foregoing stanza requires explanation. Russian pancakes or "blinni" are consumed vigorously by the lower orders during the Carnival. At other times it is difficult to procure them, at any rate in the large towns.

The Russian peasants are childishly fond of whirligigs, which are also much in vogue during the Carnival.

"Christmas Carols" is not an exact equivalent for the Russian phrase. "Podbliudni pessni," are literally "dish songs," or songs used with dishes (of water) during the "sviatki" or Holy Nights, which extend from Christmas to Twelfth Night, for purposes of divination. Reference will again be made to this superst.i.tious practice, which is not confined to Russia. See Note 52.

"Song and dance," the well-known "khorovod," in which the dance proceeds to vocal music.

"Lovage," the _Levistic.u.m officinalis_, is a hardy plant growing very far north, though an inhabitant of our own kitchen gardens.

The pa.s.sage containing the reference to the three tears and Trinity Sunday was at first deemed irreligious by the Russian censors, and consequently expunged.

_Kva.s.s_ is of various sorts: there is the common _kva.s.s_ of fermented rye used by the peasantry, and the more expensive _kva.s.s_ of the restaurants, iced and flavoured with various fruits.

The final two lines refer to the "Tchin," or Russian social hierarchy. There are fourteen grades in the Tchin a.s.signing relative rank and precedence to the members of the various departments of the State, civil, military, naval, court, scientific and educational. The military and naval grades from the 14th up to the 7th confer personal n.o.bility only, whilst above the 7th hereditary rank is acquired. In the remaining departments, civil or otherwise, personal n.o.bility is only attained with the 9th grade, hereditary with the 4th.]

x.x.xVI

Thus age approached, the common doom, And death before the husband wide Opened the portals of the tomb And a new diadem supplied.(28) Just before dinner-time he slept, By neighbouring families bewept, By children and by faithful wife With deeper woe than others' grief.

He was an honest gentleman, And where at last his bones repose The epitaph on marble shows: _Demetrius Larine, sinful man, Servant of G.o.d and brigadier, Enjoyeth peaceful slumber here_.

[Note 28: A play upon the word "venetz," crown, which also signifies a nimbus or glory, and is the symbol of marriage from the fact of two gilt crowns being held over the heads of the bride and bridegroom during the ceremony. The literal meaning of the pa.s.sage is therefore: his earthly marriage was dissolved and a heavenly one was contracted.]

x.x.xVII

To his Penates now returned, Vladimir Lenski visited His neighbour's lowly tomb and mourned Above the ashes of the dead.

There long time sad at heart he stayed: "Poor Yorick," mournfully he said, "How often in thine arms I lay; How with thy medal I would play, The Medal Otchakoff conferred!(29) To me he would his Olga give, Would whisper: shall I so long live?"-- And by a genuine sorrow stirred, Lenski his pencil-case took out And an elegiac poem wrote.

[Note 29: The fortress of Otchakoff was taken by storm on the 18th December 1788 by a Russian army under Prince Potemkin.