In hopes of glory and good will
With fearless gaze I look ahead.
The star of Peter's dawn was ill
With many a rebel's severed head.
But he with truth engaged men's hearts,
With learning gentled uncouth ways,
And honored Dolgorúki's arts
Against the Musketeers' mad frays.
He bid with autocratic hand
Seeds of enlightenment grow free,
And did not spurn his native land,
Knowing full well its destiny.
Man of the sword, man of the scroll,
As shipmate and as shipwright known,
For with his all-embracing soul
He was a workman on the throne.
In kinship likeness, then, take pride;
By noble lineage stand defined.
Like him let staunchness be your guide.
Eschew, like him, a vengeful mind.
____
Notes:
Line 1: Czar Nicholas had just let Pushkin out of exile upon his accession to the throne.
Line 3: i.e. Peter the Great
Line 7: Vasiliy Dolgoruki, sent abroad to be educated by Peter and later represented the Russian empire in several embassies in Western Europe. His later career was decidedly less lofty and decidedly unsuccessful in preventing his head from being liberated from the rest of his body.
Line 8: The Musketeers i.e. the Streltsy, units of guardsmen responsible mainly for border and municiple duties (including the protection of the Kremlin) who attempted to prevent Peter from coming to power 1682 and were subsequently disbanded.
В надежде славы и добра
Гляжу вперед я без боязни:
Начало славных дней Петра
Мрачили мятежи и казни.
Но правдой он привлек сердца,
Но нравы укротил наукой,
И был от буйного стрельца
Пред ним отличен Долгорукой.
Самодержавною рукой
Он смело сеял просвещенье,
Не презирал страны родной:
Он знал ее предназначенье.
То академик, то герой,
То мореплаватель, то плотник,
Он всеобъемлющей душой
На троне вечный был работник.
Семейным сходством будь же горд;
Во всем будь пращуру подобен:
Как он неутомим и тверд,
И памятью, как он, незлобен.
«So many stones were cast that I don’t cower / When facing them and seeing them fly by, / The pitfall turned into a slender tower / That towers over towers in the sky. / I’m thankful to the builders for its height, / May all their grief and worries disappear. / Up here, I’m first to...»
«Like a cold wind, at the start, / It will burn and sear, / Then, it’ll fall into your heart / As one salty tear. Angry heart will then turn sad, / Pitying some thing. / Nonetheless, it won’t forget / This melancholy’s sting. I only sow. The others / Will then reap. So what! / ...»
«My voice is weak, but will will never weaken. / Without love, I’m more at ease, I’m sure. / The sky is high, the mountain wind is sweeping, / And all my thoughts are innocent and pure. My nurse-insomnia has moved on down the block, / Gray ashes do not cut me to the marrow, / The crook...»
«He was jealous, and anxious, and tender. / And I was like God’s sun to him. / To stop her from singing of the days she remembered, / He killed my white bird on a whim. He entered the front room at dusk and implored: / “Love me, laugh, and continue to write!” / And I buried the cheer...»