My Virtual Reading Room

elenbarathi, regarding our discussion here


This is the original passage from Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", one of the author's many philosophical asides. One must note the author was nearly 30 when he wrote this, and considered his youth to be quite past:

Любви все возрасты покорны;
Но юным, девственным сердцам
Ее порывы благотворны,
Как бури вешние полям:
В дожде страстей они свежеют,
И обновляются, и зреют -
И жизнь могущая дает
И пышный цвет и сладкий плод.
Но в возраст поздний и бесплодный,
На повороте наших лет,
Печален страсти мертвой след:
Так бури осени холодной
В болото обращают луг
И обнажают лес вокруг.

"All ages submit to love;
But to young, virginal hearts
Its gusts are beneficial,
Just like spring storms are to the fields.
In the rain of passions they grow fresh,
And renew, and mature--
And the mightly life results in
Full blooms and sweet fruits.
But at a late and fruitless age,
At the turn of our years,
The trace of dead passion is sad:
Just like the storms of a cold autumn
Turn a meadow into a marsh
And turn bare the forest around it."

In the opera, however, the beginning of this was given to Tatiana's "elderly" husband:

Любви все возрасты покорны;
Тоскливо жизнь моя текла,
Она явилась и зажгла,
Как солнца луч среди ненастья,
И жизнь, и молодость,
И молодость и счастье!

All ages submit to love;
Wearily my life dragged along;
When she appeared and lit it up
Just like a sunbeam among stormy weather,
In me both life, and youth,
And youth, and happiness!

;)