Alexander Pushkin: Winter Journey (From Russian)

Winter Journey
By Alexander Pushkin
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Russian

Down through shivering fog, the moon now
Makes its way across the night,
Soaking melancholy meadows
In a melancholy light.

Down the road through dismal winter,
My quick carriage carries on
And the sleigh-bell's tuneless tinkle
Is a numbing monotone.

Notes familiar in the music
Of the coachman's winding song
Go from debonair carousal
To lamenting lovers' wrong.

Neither hut nor glowing window.
Snow and wasteland now. My eye
Merely marks the ciphered mileposts
Coming close and going by.

Snow and wasteland. But tomorrow
Darling Nina, I'll return
To your hearth and face, forgoing
All my thought to gaze and yearn.

Though the clock's unhurried finger
Strike its circle out anew
Sending home the tardy stranger,
Midnight shall not part us two.

But for now the road is dreary.
Sleep has hushed the coachman's tune.
Tedious, too, the tuneless sleigh-bell.
Fog is masking out the moon.


The Original:

Зимняя Дорога

Сквозь волнистые туманы
Пробирается луна,
На печальные поляны
Льет печально свет она.

По дороге зимней, скучной
Тройка борзая бежит,
Колокольчик однозвучный
Утомительно гремит.

Что-то слышится родное
В долгих песнях ямщика:
То разгулье удалое,
То сердечная тоска......

Ни огня, ни черной хаты,
Глушь и снег.... На встречу мне
Только версты полосаты
Попадаются одне...

Скучно, грустно..... завтра, Нина,
Завтра к милой возвратясь,
Я забудусь у камина,
Загляжусь не наглядясь.

Звучно стрелка часовая
Мерный круг свой совершит,
И, докучных удаляя,
Полночь нас не разлучит.

Грустно, Нина: путь мой скучен,
Дремля смолкнул мой ямщик,
Колокольчик однозвучен,
Отуманен лунный лик.

3 comments:

  1. Hey thanks for the comment on my blog about this poem. I am trying to teach myself Russian, but it is slow. I love your set up with the audio and both versions of the poems. Love to see some more Russian poetry from you as you are doing a great job.

    My new blog is at www.theemergingnetwork.com

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  2. I am really impressed. I found your website looking for poems by Hafez in English translation... And found, beside everything else, Pushkin. Congratulations: you are both a true polyglot and a very, very good verse translator. I have often been frustrated by English translations of poetry and the translators' neglect for rhyme and rhythm. Your translations, though, sound very good, and, from what I can judge (I only have some competence in Russian and French) really faithful to the original. I also translate poetry into my own language, Bulgarian (my translation of Lyrical Ballads was published 2 years ago) and I have also thought of starting such a website.

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  3. Thank you so much! Ive been trying to find a great love poem, and i found it!

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