Pushkin: Remembrance (From Russian)

This poem, describing a somewhat remorseful white night in St. Petersburg, reflects the poet's state of mind after his exile and before his marriage. It was a turbulent period. Nicholas the First had brought him back from exile but was making demands on the poet that he could not fulfill with a clear conscience. Though he was for many reasons unable (though probably not unwilling) to actually be a Decembrist and stand against the Tsar, he still felt he was betraying his Decembrist friends. Despair drove him to dissipation: he lost huge sums at cards, had three affairs with married women, and incidentally contracted an STD from a prostitute a month before he wrote this poem. 

Remembrance
By A.S. Pushkin
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Russian

When the day's din at last for mortals ends
         And over the mute city squares
The half-transparent shade of night descends
         With slumber, balm of daylong cares,
Then, in the still for me the hours bring
         Exhausting sleepless pains anew.
Searing in blank of night, the serpent's sting
         Venoms my heart with acid rue.
Black fancies seethe, and floods of anguish blast
         The corners of my burdened soul;
Without a sound, remembrance of things past
         Unwinds to me her lengthy scroll.
Then reading with disgust the writ of years
         I tremble, damn my every day,
Bawl bitter plaints, and bitterly shed tears
         But wipe not one sad line away. 

The Original:

Воспоминание
А.С. Пушкин

Когда для смертного умолкнет шумный день,
         И на немые стогны града
Полупрозрачная наляжет ночи тень
         И сон, дневных трудов награда,
В то время для меня влачатся в тишине
         Часы томительного бденья:
В бесдействии ночном живей горят во мне
         Змеи сердечной угрызенья;
Мечты кипят, в уме подавленном тоской,
         Теснится тяжких дум избыток;
Воспоминание безмолвно предо мной
         Свой длинный развивает свиток;
И с отвращением читая жизнь мою,
         Я трепещу и проклинаю,
И горько жалуюсь, и горько слезы лью,
         Но строк печальных не смываю.

Romanization:

Kogdá dlya smértnogo umólknet šúmnïy dén',
I na nemḯye stógnï gráda
Poluprozráčnaya nalyážet nóči ten'
I son, dnevnḯx trudóv nagráda,
V to vrémya dlya menyá vlačátsa v tišiné
Časḯ tomítel'nogo bdénya:
V bezdéystvii nočnóm žïvéy goryát vo mné
Zmeí serdéčnoy ugrïzénya;
Mečtḯ kipyát, v umé podávlenom toskóy,
Tesnítsa tyážkix dum izbḯtok;
Vospominánie bezmólvno prédo mnoy
Svoy dlínïy razviváyet svítok;
I s otvraščéniem čitáya žïzn' moyú,
Ya trepeščú i proklináyu,
I gór'ko žáluyus', i gór'ko slyózï lyú,
No strok pečál'nïx ne smïváyu