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CHAPTER THREE
Elle était fille; elle était amoureuse.
I
“Whither? Ah me, those poets!”“Good-by, Onegin. Time for me to leave.”“I do not hold you, but where do4 you spend your evenings?” “At the Larins'.”“Now, that's a fine thing. Mercy, man —and you don't find it difficultthus every evening to kill time?”8 “Not in the least.” “I cannot understand.From here I see what it is like:first — listen, am I right? —a simple Russian family,12 a great solicitude for guests,jam, never-ending talkof rain, of flax, of cattle yard.”II
“So far I do not see what's bad about it.”“Ah, but the boredom — that is bad, my friend.”“Your fashionable world I hate;4 dearer to me is the domestic circlein which I can…” “Again an eclogue!Ah, that will do, old boy, for goodness' sake.Well, so you're off; I'm very sorry.8 Oh, Lenski, listen — is there any wayfor me to see this Phyllis,subject of thoughts, and pen,and tears, and rhymes, et cetera?12 Present me.” “You are joking.” “No.”“I'd gladly.” “When?” “Now, if you like.They will be eager to receive us.”III
“Let's go.” And off the two friends drove;they have arrived; on them are lavishedthe sometimes onerous attentions4 of hospitable ancientry.The ritual of the treat is known:in little dishes jams are brought,on an oilcloth'd small table there is set8 a jug of lingonberry water.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IV
They by the shortest roadfly home at full career. 17Now let us eavesdrop furtively4 upon our heroes' conversation.“Well now, Onegin, you are yawning.”“A habit, Lenski.” “But somehowyou are more bored than ever.” “No, the same.8 I say, it's dark already in the field;faster! come on, come on, Andryushka!What silly country!Ah, apropos: Dame Larin12 is simple but a very nice old lady;I fear that lingonberry watermay not unlikely do me harm.V
“Tell me, which was Tatiana?”“Oh, she's the one who, sadand silent like Svetlana,4 came in and sat down by the window.”“Can it be it's the younger onethat you're in love with?” “Why not?” “I'd have chosenthe other, had I been like you a poet.8 In Olga's features there's no life,just as in a Vandyke Madonna:she's round and fair of faceas is that silly moon12 up in that silly sky.”Vladimir answered curtlyand thenceforth the whole way was silent.VI
Meanwhile Onegin's apparitionat the Larins' producedon everyone a great impression4 and regaled all the neighbors.Conjecture on conjecture followed.All started furtively to talk,to joke, to comment not without some malice,8 a suitor for Tatiana to assign.Some folks asserted even thatthe wedding was quite settled,but had been stayed because12 of fashionable rings' not being got.Concerning Lenski's wedding, long agothey had it all arranged.VII
Tatiana listened with vexationto gossip of that sort; but secretlyshe with ineffable elation4 could not help thinking of it;and the thought sank into her heart;the time had come — she fell in love.Thus, dropped into the earth, a seed8 is quickened by the fire of spring.For long had her imagination,consumed with mollitude and anguish,craved for the fatal food;12 for long had the heart's languishmentconstrained her youthful bosom;her soul waited — for somebody.VIII
And not in vain it waited. Her eyes opened;she said: “'Tis he!”Alas! now both the days and nights,4 and hot, lone sleep,all's full of him; to the dear girlunceasingly with magic forceall speaks of him. To her are tedious8 alike the sounds of friendly speechesand the gaze of assiduous servants.Immersed in gloom,to visitors she does not listen,12 and imprecates their leisures,their unexpectedarrival and protracted sitting down.IX
With what attention does she nowread some delicious novel,with what vivid enchantment4 imbibe the ravishing illusion!Creations by the happy powerof dreaming animated,the lover of Julie Wolmar,8 Malek-Adhel, and de Linar,and Werther, restless martyr,and the inimitable Grandison, 18who brings upon us somnolence —12 all for the tender, dreamy girlhave been invested with a single image,have in Onegin merged alone.X
Imagining herself the heroineof her beloved authors —Clarissa, Julia, Delphine —4 Tatiana in the stillness of the woodsalone roams with a dangerous book;in it she seeks and findsher secret ardency, her dreams,8 the fruits of the heart's fullness;she sighs, and having made her ownanother's ecstasy, another's woe,she whispers in a trance, by heart,12 a letter to the amiable hero.But our hero, whoever he might be,was certainly no Grandison.XI
His style to a grave strain having attuned,time was, a fervid authorused to present to us4 his hero as a model of perfection.He'd furnish the loved object —always iniquitously persecuted —with a sensitive soul, intelligence,8 and an attractive face.Nursing the ardor of the purest passion,the always enthusiastic herowas ready for self-sacrifice,12 and by the end of the last part, vice alwaysgot punished,and virtue got a worthy crown.XII
But nowadays all minds are in a mist,a moral brings upon us somnolence,vice is attractive in a novel, too,4 and there, at least, it triumphs.The fables of the British Musedisturb the young girl's sleep,and now her idol has become8 either the pensive Vampyre,or Melmoth, gloomy vagabond,or the Wandering Jew, or the Corsair,or the mysterious Sbogar. 1912 Lord Byron, by an opportune caprice,in woebegone romanticismdraped even hopeless egotism.XIII
My friends, what sense is there in this?Perhaps, by heaven's will,I'll cease to be a poet; a new demon4 will enter into me;and having scorned the threats of Phoebus,I shall descend to humble prose:a novel in the ancient strain8 will then engage my gay decline.There, not the secret pangs of crimeshall I grimly depict,but simply shall detail to you12 the legends of a Russian family,love's captivating dreams,and manners of our ancientry.XIV
I shall detail a father's, an old uncle's,plain speeches; the assignedtrysts of the children4 by the old limes, by the small brook;the throes of wretched jealousy,parting, reconciliation's tears;once more I'll have them quarrel, and at last8 conduct them to the altar. I'll recallthe accents of impassioned languish,the words of aching love,which in days bygone at the feet12 of a fair mistresscame to my tongue;from which I now have grown disused.XV
Tatiana, dear Tatiana!I now shed tears with you.Into a fashionable tyrant's hands4 your fate already you've relinquished.Dear, you shall perish; but before,in dazzling hope,you summon somber bliss,8 you learn the dulcitude of life,you quaff the magic poison of desires,daydreams pursue you:you fancy everywhere12 retreats for happy trysts;everywhere, everywhere before you,is your fateful enticer.XVI
The ache of love chases Tatiana,and to the garden she repairs to brood,and all at once her moveless eyes she lowers4 and is too indolent farther to step;her bosom has risen, her cheeksare covered with an instant flame,her breath has died upon her lips,8 and there's a singing in her ears, a flashingbefore her eyes. Night comes; the moonpatrols the distant vault of heaven,and in the gloam of trees the nightingale12 intones sonorous chants.Tatiana in the darkness does not sleepand in low tones talks with her nurse.XVII
“I can't sleep, nurse: 'tis here so stuffy!Open the window and sit down by me.”“Why, Tanya, what's the matter with you?” “I am dull.4 Let's talk about old days.”“Well, what about them, Tanya? Time was, Istored in my memory no dearthof ancient haps and never-haps8 about dire sprites and about maidens;but everything to me is dark now, Tanya:I have forgotten what I knew. Yes, thingshave come now to a sorry pass!12 I'm all befuddled.” “Nurse,tell me about your old times. Were you thenin love?”XVIII
“Oh, come, come, Tanya! In those yearswe never heard of love;elsewise my late mother-in-law4 would have chased me right off the earth.”“But how, then, were you wedded, nurse?”“It looks as if God willed it so. My Vanyawas younger than myself, my sweet,8 and I was thirteen. For two weeks or soa woman matchmaker kept visitingmy kinsfolk, and at lastmy father blessed me. Bitterly12 I cried for fear; and, crying, they unbraidedmy tress and, chanting,they led me to the church.XIX
“And so I entered a strange family.But you're not listening to me.”“Oh, nurse, nurse, I feel dismal,4 I'm sick at heart, my dear,I'm on the point of crying, sobbing!”“My child, you are not well;the Lord have mercy upon us and save us!8 What would you like, do ask.Here, let me sprinkle you with holy water,you're all a-burning.” “I'm not ill;I'm... do you know, nurse... I'm in love.”12 “My child, the Lord be with you!”And, uttering a prayer, the nursecrossed with decrepit hand the girl.XX
“I am in love,” anew she murmuredto the old woman mournfully.“Sweetheart, you are not well.”4 “Leave me. I am in love.”And meantime the moon shoneand with dark light irradiatedthe pale charms of Tatiana8 and her loose hair,and drops of tears, and, on a benchlet,before the youthful heroine,a kerchief on her hoary head, the little12 old crone in a long “body warmer”;and in the stillness everythingdozed by the inspirative moon.XXI
And far away Tatiana's heart was rangingas she looked at the moon....All of a sudden in her mind a thought was born....4 “Go, let me be alone.Give me, nurse, a pen, paper, and move upthe table; I shall soon lie down.Good night.” Now she's alone,8 all's still. The moon gives light to her.Tatiana, leaning on her elbow, writes,and Eugene's ever present in her mind,and in an unconsidered letter12 the love of an innocent maid breathes forth.The letter now is ready, folded.Tatiana! Whom, then, is it for?XXII
I've known belles inaccessible,cold, winter-chaste;inexorable, incorruptible,4 unfathomable by the mind;I marveled at their modish morgue,at their natural virtue,and, to be frank, I fled from them,8 and I, meseems, with terror readabove their eyebrows Hell's inscription:“Abandon hope for evermore!” 20To inspire love is bale for them,12 to frighten folks for them is joyance.Perhaps, on the banks of the Nevasimilar ladies you have seen.XXIII
Amidst obedient admirers,other odd females I have seen,conceitedly indifferent4 to sighs impassioned and to praise.But what, to my amazement, did I find?While, by austere demeanor,they frightened timid love,8 they had the knack of winning it again,at least by their condolence;at least the sound of spoken wordssometimes would seem more tender,12 and with credulous blindnessagain the youthful loverpursued sweet vanity.XXIV
Why is Tatiana, then, more guilty?Is it because in sweet simplicitydeceit she knows not and believes4 in her elected dream?Is it because she loves without art, beingobedient to the bent of feeling?Is it because she is so trustful8 and is endowed by heavenwith a restless imagination,intelligence, and a live will,and headstrongness,12 and a flaming and tender heart?Are you not going to forgive herthe thoughtlessness of passions?XXV
The coquette reasons coolly;Tatiana in dead earnest lovesand unconditionally yields4 to love like a sweet child.She does not say: Let us defer;thereby we shall augment love's value,inveigle into toils more surely;8 let us first prick vainglorywith hope; then with perplexityexhaust a heart, and thenrevive it with a jealous fire,12 for otherwise, cloyed with delight,the cunning captive from his shackleshourly is ready to escape.XXVI
Another problem I foresee:saving the honor of my native land,undoubtedly I shall have to translate4 Tatiana's letter. Sheknew Russian badly,did not read our reviews,and in her native tongue expressed herself8 with difficulty. So,she wrote in French.What's to be done about it! I repeat again;as yet a lady's love12 has not expressed itself in Russian,as yet our proud tongue has not got accustomedto postal prose.XXVII
I know: some would make ladiesread Russian. Horrible indeed!Can I image them4 with The Well-Meaner 21 in their hands?My poets, I appeal to you!Is it not true that the sweet objectsfor whom, to expiate your sins,8 in secret you wrote verses,to whom your hearts you dedicated —did not they all, wielding the Russian languagepoorly, and with difficulty,12 so sweetly garble it,and on their lips did not a foreign languagebecome a native one?XXVIII
The Lord forbid my meeting at a ballor at its breakup, on the porch,a seminarian in a yellow shawl4 or an Academician in a bonnet!As vermeil lips without a smile,without grammatical mistakesI don't like Russian speech.8 Perchance (it would be my undoing!)a generation of new belles,heeding the magazines' entreating voice,to Grammar will accustom us;12 verses will be brought into use.Yet I... what do I care?I shall be true to ancientry.XXIX
An incorrect and careless patter,an inexact delivery of words,as heretofore a flutter of the heart4 will in my breast produce;in me there's no force to repent;to me will Gallicisms remainas sweet as the sins of past youth,8 as Bogdanóvich's verse.But that will do. 'Tis time I busiedmyself with my fair damsel's letter;my word I've given — and what now? Yea, yea!12 I'm ready to back out of it.I know: tender Parny'spen in our days is out of fashion.XXX
Bard of The Feasts and languorous sadness, 22if you were still with me,I would have troubled you,4 dear fellow, with an indiscreet request:that into magic melodiesyou would transposea passionate maiden's foreign words.8 Where are you? Come! My rightsI with a bow transfer to you....But in the midst of melancholy rocks,his heart disused from praises,12 alone, under the Finnish skyhe wanders, and his soulhears not my worry.XXXI
Tatiana's letter is before me;religiously I keep it;I read it with a secret heartache4 and cannot get my fill of reading it.Who taught her both this tendernessand amiable carelessness of words?Who taught her all that touching tosh,8 mad conversation of the heartboth fascinating and injurious?I cannot understand. But here'san incomplete, feeble translation,12 the pallid copy of a vivid picture,or Freischütz executed by the fingersof timid female learners.Tatiana's Letter To Onegin
I write to you — what would one more?What else is there that I could say?'Tis now, I know, within your will4 to punish me with scorn.But you, preserving for my hapless lotat least one drop of pity,you'll not abandon me.8 At first, I wanted to be silent;believe me: of my shameyou never would have knownif I had had the hope but seldom,12 but once a week,to see you at our country place,only to hear you speak,to say a word to you, and then16 to think and think about one thing,both day and night, till a new meeting.But, they say, you're unsociable;in backwoods, in the country, all bores you,20 while we... in no way do we shine,though simpleheartedly we welcome you.Why did you visit us?In the backwoods of a forgotten village,24 I would have never known younor have known this bitter torment.The turmoil of an inexperienced soulhaving subdued with time (who knows?),28 I would have found a friend after my heart,have been a faithful wifeand a virtuous mother.Another!... No, to nobody on earth32 would I have given my heart away!That has been destined in a higher council,that is the will of heaven: I am thine;my entire life has been the gage36 of a sure tryst with you;I know that you are sent to me by God,you are my guardian to the tomb....You had appeared to me in dreams,40 unseen, you were already dear to me,your wondrous glance would trouble me,your voice resounded in my soullong since.... No, it was not a dream!44 Scarce had you entered, instantly I knew you,I felt all faint, I felt aflame,and in my thoughts I uttered: It is he!Is it not true that it was you I heard:48 you in the stillness spoke to mewhen I would help the pooror assuage with a prayerthe anguish of my agitated soul?52 And even at this very momentwas it not you, dear vision,that slipped through the transparent darknessand gently bent close to my bed head?56 Was it not you that with delight and lovedid whisper words of hope to me?Who are you? My guardian angelor a perfidious tempter?60 Resolve my doubts.Perhaps, 'tis nonsense all,an inexperienced soul's delusion, and there's destinedsomething quite different....64 But so be it! My fatehenceforth I place into your hands,before you I shed tears,for your defense I plead.68 Imagine: I am here alone,none understands me,my reason sinks,and, silent, I must perish.72 I wait for you: revivemy heart's hopes with a single lookor interrupt the heavy dreamwith a rebuke — alas, deserved!76 I close. I dread to read this over.I'm faint with shame and fear... But to meyour honor is a pledge,and boldly I entrust myself to it.XXXII
By turns Tatiana sighs and ohs.The letter trembles in her hand;the rosy wafer dries4 upon her fevered tongue.Her poor head shoulderward has sunk;her light chemisehas slid down from her charming shoulder.8 But now the moonbeam's radiancealready fades. Anon the valleygrows through the vapor clear. Anon the streamstarts silvering. Anon the herdsman's horn12 wakes up the villager.Here's morning; all have risen long ago:to my Tatiana it is all the same.XXXIII
She takes no notice of the sunrise;she sits with lowered headand on the letter does not4 impress her graven seal.But, softly opening the door,now gray Filatievna brings hertea on a tray.8 “'Tis time, my child, get up;why, pretty one,you're ready! Oh, my early birdie!I was so anxious yesternight —12 but glory be to God, you're well!No trace at all of the night's fret!Your face is like a poppy flower.”XXXIV
“Oh, nurse, do me a favor.”“Willingly, darling, order me.”“Now do not think... Really... Suspicion...4 But you see... Oh, do not refuse!”“My dear, to you God is my pledge.”“Well, send your grandson quietlywith this note to O… to that… to8 the neighbor. And let him be toldthat he ought not to say a word,that he ought not to name me.”“To whom, my precious?12 I'm getting muddled nowadays.Neighbors around are many; it's beyond meeven to count them over.”XXXV
“Oh, nurse, how slow-witted you are!”“Sweetheart, I am already old,I'm old; the mind gets blunted, Tanya;4 but time was, I used to be sharp:time was, one word of master's wish.”“Oh, nurse, nurse, is this relevant?What matters your intelligence to me?8 You see, it is about a letter, toOnegin.” “Well, this now makes sense.Do not be cross with me, my soul;I am, you know, not comprehensible.12 But why have you turned pale again?”“Never mind, nurse, 'tis really nothing.Send, then, your grandson.”XXXVI
But the day lapsed, and there's no answer.Another came up; nothing yet.Pale as a shade, since morning dressed,4 Tatiana waits: when will the answer come?Olga's adorer drove up. “Tell me,where's your companion?” was to himthe question of the lady of the house;8 “He seems to have forgotten us entirely.”Tatiana, flushing, quivered.“He promised he would be today,”Lenski replied to the old dame,12 “but evidently the mail has detained him.”Tatiana dropped her eyesas if she'd heard a harsh rebuke.XXXVII
'Twas darkling; on the table, shining,the evening samovarhissed as it warmed the Chinese teapot;4 light vapor undulated under it.Poured out by Olga's hand,into the cups, in a dark stream,the fragrant tea already8 ran, and a footboy served the cream;Tatiana stood before the window;breathing on the cold panes,lost in thought, the dear soul12 wrote with her charming fingeron the bemisted glassthe cherished monogram: an O and E.XXXVIII
And meantime her soul ached,and full of tears was her languorous gaze.Suddenly, hoof thuds! Her blood froze.4 Now nearer! Coming fast... and in the yardis Eugene! “Ach!” — and lighter than a shadeTatiana skips into another hallway,from porch outdoors, and straight into the garden;8 she flies, flies — dares notglance backward; in a moment has traversedthe platbands, little bridges, lawn,the avenue to the lake, the bosquet;12 she breaks the lilac bushes as she fliesacross the flower plots to the brook,and, panting, on a benchXXXIX
she drops. “He's here! Eugene is here!Good God, what did he think!”Her heart, full of torments, retains4 an obscure dream of hope;she trembles, and she hotly glows, and waits:does he not come? But hears not. In the orchardgirl servants, on the beds,8 were picking berries in the bushesand singing by decree in chorus(a decree based on thatsly mouths would not in secret12 eat the seignioral berryand would be occupied by singing; a deviceof rural wit!):The Song Of The Girls
Maidens, pretty maidens,darling girl companions,romp unhindered, maidens,4 have your fling, my dears!Start to sing a ditty,sing our private ditty,and allure a fellow8 to our choral dance.When we lure a fellow,when afar we see him,let us scatter, dearies,12 pelting him with cherries,cherries and raspberries,and red currants too.“Do not come eavesdropping16 on our private ditties,do not come a-spyingon our girlish games!”XL
They sing; and carelesslyattending to their ringing voice,Tatiana with impatience waits4 for the heart's tremor to subside in her,for her cheeks to cease flaming;but in her breasts there's the same trepidation,nor ceases the glow of her cheeks:8 yet brighter, brighter do they burn.Thus a poor butterfly both flashesand beats an iridescent wing,captured by a school prankster; thus12 a small hare trembles in the winter cornupon suddenly seeing from afarthe shotman in the bushes crouch.XLI
But finally she sighedand from her bench arose;started to go; but hardly had she turned4 into the avenue when straight before her,eyes blazing, Eugenestood, similar to some grim shade,and as one seared by fire8 she stopped.But to detail the consequencesof this unlooked-for meeting I, dear friends,have not the strength today;12 after this long discourse I needa little jaunt, a little rest;some other time I'll tell the rest.