EUGENE ONEGIN
A Novel in Verse by Aleksandr Pushkin
Petri de vanite il avait encore plus de cette espece d'orgueil qui fait avouer avec la ???? indifference les bonnes comme les mauvaises actions, suite d'un sentiment de superiorite, peut-etre imaginaire. Tire d'une lettre particuliere [PREFATORY PIECE] Not thinking to amuse the haughty world, having grown fond of friendship's heed,
I wish I could present you with a gage 4 that would be worthier of yoube worthier of a fine soul full of a holy dream, of live and limpid poetry, 8 of high thoughts and simplicity. But so be it. With partial hand take this collection of pied chapters: half droll, half sad, 12 plain-folk, ideal, the careless fruit of my amusements, insomnias, light inspirations, unripe and withered years, 16 the intellect's cold observations, and the heart's sorrowful remarks.
CHAPTER ONE
To live it hurries and to feel it hastes. Prince Vyazemski
Chapter One
i "My uncle has most honest principles: when he was taken gravely ill, he forced one to respect him 4 and nothing better could invent. To others his example is a lesson 5 but, good God, what a bore to sit by a sick person day and night, not stirring 8 a step away! What base perfidiousness to entertain one half-alive, adjust for him his pillows, 12 sadly serve him his medicine, sigh-and think inwardly when will the devil take you?"
Eugene Onegin
II
Thus a young scapegrace thought as with post horses in the dust he flew, by the most lofty will of Zeus 4 the heir of all his kin. Friends of Lyudmila and Ruslan! The hero of my novel, without preambles, forthwith, 8 I'd like to have you meet: Onegin, a good pal of mine, was born upon the Neva's banks, where maybe you were born, 12 or used to shine, my reader! There formerly I too promenadedbut harmful is the North to me.1 ill Having served excellently, nobly, his father lived by means of debts 5 gave three balls yearly 4 and squandered everything at last. Fate guarded Eugene: at first, Madame looked after him 5 later, Monsieur replaced her. 8 The child was boisterous but charming. Monsieur ? Abbe, a poor wretch of a Frenchman, not to wear out the infant, taught him all things in play, 12 bothered him not with stern moralization, scolded him slightly for his pranks, and to the Letniy Sad took him for walks. f1 For Pushkin's notes, see below, pp. 323-30.]
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Chapter One
IV
Then, when the season of tumultuous youth for Eugene came, season of hopes and tender melancholy, 4 Monsieur was ousted from the place. Now my Onegin is at large: hair cut after the latest fashion, dressed like a London Dandy-2 8 and finally he saw the World. In French impeccably he could express himself and write, danced the mazurka lightly, and 12, bowed unconstrainedlywhat would you more? The World decided that he was clever and most charming.
V
All of us had a bit of schooling in something and somehow: hence in our midst it is not hard, 4 thank God, to flaunt one's education. Onegin was, in the opinion of many (judges resolute and stern), a learned fellow but a pedant. 8 He had the happy talent, without constraint, in conversation slightly to touch on everything, keep silent, with an expert's learned air, 12 during a grave discussion, and provoke the smiles of ladies with the fire of unexpected epigrams.
Eugene Onegin
VI
Latin has gone at present out of fashion $ still, to tell you the truth, he had enough knowledge of Latin 4 to make out epigraphs, expatiate on Juvenal, put at the bottom of a letter vale, and he remembered, though not without fault, 8 two lines from the Aeneid. He had no inclination to rummage in the chronological dust of the earth's historiography, 12 but anecdotes of days gone by, from Romulus to our days, he did keep in his memory.
VII
Lacking the lofty passion not to spare life for the sake of sounds, an iamb from a trochee- 4 no matter how we strove-he could not tell apart. Theocritus and Homer he disparaged, but read, in compensation, Adam Smith, and was a deep economist: 8 that is, he could assess the way a state grows rich, what it subsists upon, and why it needs not gold 12 when it has got the simple product. His father could not understand him, and mortgaged his lands.
Chapter One
VIII
All Eugene knew besides I have no leisure to recount5 but where he was a veritable genius, 4 what he more firmly knew than all the arts, what since his prime had been to him toil, torment, and delight, what occupied the livelong day 8 his fretting indolence- was the art of soft passion which Naso sang, wherefore a sufferer 12 his brilliant and unruly span he ended, in Moldavia, deep in the steppes, far from his Italy.
IX
Eugene Onegin
X
How early he was able to dissemble, conceal a hope, show jealousy, shake one's belief, make one believe, 4 seem gloomy, pine away, appear proud and obedient, attentive or indifferent! How languorously he was silent, 8 how fierily eloquent, in letters of the heart, how casual! With one thing breathing, one thing loving, how self-oblivious he could be! 12 How quick and tender was his gaze, bashful and daring, while at times it shone with an obedient tear!
XI
How he was able to seem new, in jest astonish innocence, alarm with ready desperation, 4 amuse with pleasant flattery, capture the minute of softheartedness; the prejudices of innocent years conquer by means of wits and passion, 8 wait for involuntary favors, beg or demand avowals, eavesdrop upon a heart's first sound, pursue love-and all of a sudden 12 obtain a secret assignation, and afterward, alone with her, amid the stillness give her lessons!
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Chapter One
XII
How early he already could disturb the hearts of the professed coquettes!
Or when he wanted to annihilate 4 his rivals, how bitingly he'd tattle! What snares prepare for them!
But you, blest husbands, 8 you remained friends with him: him petted the sly spouse, Faublas' disciple of long standing, and the distrustful oldster, 12 and the majestical cornuto, always pleased with himself, his dinner, and his wife.
XIII
101
Eugene Onegin
XIV
XV
It happened, he'd be still in bed when little billets would be brought him. What? Invitations? Yes, indeed, to a soiree three houses bid him: here, there will be a ball; elsewhere, a children's So whither is my scamp to scurry? [fete. Whom will he start with? Never mind: 'tis simple to get everywhere in time. Meanwhile, in morning dress, having donned a broad bolivar,3 Onegin drives to the boulevard and there goes strolling unconfined till vigilant Breguet to him chimes dinner.
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Chapter One
XVI
'Tis dark by now. He gets into a sleigh. The cry "Way, way!" resounds. With frostdust silvers 4 his beaver collar. To Talon's4 he has dashed off: he is certain that there already waits for him [Kaverin] $ has entered-and the cork goes ceilingward, 8 the flow of comet wine spurts forth, a bloody roast beef is before him, and truffles, luxury of youthful years, the best flower of French cookery, 12 and a decayless Strasbourg pie between a living Limburg cheese and a golden ananas.