XVII
Thirst is still clamoring for beakers to drown the hot fat of the cutlets 5 but Breguet's chime reports to them 4 that a new ballet has begun. The theater's unkind lawgiver j the inconstant adorer of enchanting actresses 5 8 an honorary citizen of the coulisses, Onegin has flown to the theater, where, breathing criticism, each is prepared to clap an entrechat, 12 hiss Phaedra, Cleopatra, call out Moena-for the purpose merely of being heard.
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XVIII
A magic region! There in olden years the sovereign of courageous satire, sparkled Fonvizin, freedom's friend, 4 and imitational Knyazhnin; there Ozerov involuntary tributes of public tears, of plaudits shared with the young Semyonova; 8 there our Katenin resurrected Corneille's majestic genius; there caustic Shahovskoy brought forth the noisy swarm of his comedies; 12 there, too, Didelot did crown himself with glory; there, there, beneath the shelter of coulisses, my young days sped.
XIX
My goddesses! What has become of you? Where are you? Hearken to my woeful voice: Are all of you the same? Have other maidens 4 taken your place without replacing you? Am I to hear again your choruses? Am I to see Russian Terpsichore's soulful volation? 8 Or will the mournful gaze not find familiar faces on the dreary stage, and at an alien world having directed a disenchanted lorgnette, 12 shall I, indifferent spectator of merriment, yawn wordlessly and bygones recollect? IO/f
Chapter One
XX
By now the house is full5 the boxes blaze; parterre and stalls-all seethes; in the top gallery impatiently they clap, 4 and, soaring up, the curtain swishes. Resplendent, half ethereal, obedient to the magic bow, surrounded by a throng of nymphs, 8 Istomina stands: she, while touching with one foot the floor, gyrates the other slowly, and lo! a leap, and lo! she flies, 12 she flies like fluff from Eol's lips, now twines and now untwines her waist and beats one swift small foot against the other.
XXI
All clap as one. Onegin enters: he walks-on people's toes-between the stalls; askance, his double lorgnette trains 4 upon the loges of strange ladies; he has scanned all the tiers; he has seen everything; with faces, garb, he's dreadfully displeased; 8 with men on every side he has exchanged salutes; then at the stage in great abstraction he has glanced, has turned away, and yawned, 12 and uttered: "Time all were replaced; ballets I long have suffered, but even of Didelot I've had enough."5
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Euge?ie Onegin
XXII
Amors, diaboli, and dragons still on the stage jump and make noise5 still at the carriage porch the weary footmen 4 on the pelisses are asleep; still people have not ceased to stamp, blow noses, cough, hiss, clap; still, outside and inside, 8 lamps glitter everywhere; still, chilled, the horses fidget, bored with their harness, and round the fires the coachmen curse their 1 2 and beat their palms together; [masters and yet Onegin has already left; he's driving home to dress.
XXIII
Shall I present a faithful picture of the secluded cabinet, where fashions' model pupil 4 is dressed, undressed, and dressed again? Whatever, for the lavish whim, London the trinkleter deals in and o'er the Baltic waves to us 8 ships in exchange for timber and for tallow; whatever hungry taste in Paris, choosing a useful trade, invents for pastimes, 12 for luxury, for modish mollitude; all this adorned the cabinet of a philosopher at eighteen years of age.
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Chapter One
XXIV
Amber on Tsargrad's pipes, porcelain and bronzes on a table, and-joyance of the pampered senses4 perfumes in crystal cut with facets; combs, little files of steel, straight scissors, curvate ones, and brushes of thirty kinds8 these for the nails, those for the teeth. Rousseau (I shall observe in passing) was unable to understand how the dignified Grimm dared clean his nails in front of him, 12 the eloquent crackbrain.6 The advocate of liberty and rights was in the present case not right at all.
XXV
One can be an efficient man- and mind the beauty of one's nails: why vainly argue with the age? 4 Custom is despot among men. My Eugene, a second [Chadaev], being afraid of jealous censures, was in his dress a pedant 8 and what we've called a fop. Three hours, at least, he spent in front of glasses, and from his dressing room came forth 12 akin to giddy Venus ? when, having donned a masculine attire, the goddess drives to a masqued ball. ioy Eugene Onegin
XXVI
With toilette in the latest taste having engaged your curious glance,
I might before the learned world 4 describe here his attire; this would, no doubt, be daring; however, 'tis my business to describe5 but "dress coat," "waistcoat," "pantaloons" 8 in Russian all these words are not; in fact, I see (my guilt I lay before you) that my poor idiom as it is might be diversified much less 12 with words of foreign stock, though I did erstwhile dip into the Academic Dictionary.
XXVII
Not this is our concern at present: we'd better hurry to the ball whither headlong in a hack coach 4 already my Onegin has sped off. In front of darkened houses, alongst the sleeping street in rows the twin lamps of coupes 8 pour forth a cheerful light and project rainbows on the snow. Studded around with lampions, glitters a splendid house; 12 across its whole-glassed windows shadows move: there come and go the profiled heads of ladies and of modish quizzes.
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Chapter One
XXVIII
Up to the porch our hero now has driven 3 past the hall porter, like a dart, he has flown up the marble steps, 4 has run his fingers through his hair, has entered. The ballroom is full of people; the music has already tired of dinning; the crowd is occupied with the mazurka; 8 there's all around both noise and squeeze; there clink the cavalier guard's spurs; the little feet of winsome ladies flit; upon their captivating tracks 12, flit flaming glances, and by the roar of violins is drowned the jealous whispering of fashionable women.
XXIX
In days of gaieties and desires I was mad about balls: there is no safer spot for declarations 4 and for the handing of a letter. 0 you, respected husbands! I'll offer you my services; pray, mark my speech: 8 I wish to warn you. You too, mammas: most strictly follow your daughters with your eyes; hold up your lorgnettes straight! 12 Or else else-God forbid! If this I write it is because 1 have long ceased to sin.
1 op
Eugene Onegin
XXX
Alas, on various pastimes I have wasted a lot of life!
But to this day, if morals did not suffer, 4 I'd still like balls. I like riotous youth, the crush, the glitter, and the gladness, and the considered dresses of the ladies 5 8 I like their little feet; but then 'tis doubtful that in all Russia you will find three pairs of shapely feminine feet.