Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry by Konstantin Batyushkov

Author:Konstantin Batyushkov
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LCO014000, Literary Collections/Russian & Former Soviet Union, POE016000, Poetry/Russian & Former Soviet Union
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2017-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

A twenty-line passage on the contrasting fate of the damned then leads into a final section addressed directly to the poet’s beloved; one can imagine that the name Delia here hides a dream of an idealized Anna Furman, the girl he had left behind in St. Petersburg:

May he who broke our peace and parted us

Suffer the torments of deep Tartarus!

But you, so true to me, my precious friend,

Even in a quiet hut where none can find

You and your soul mate, she who knows your passion,

Don’t leave the household altars for a moment.

When winter blizzards howl, in this safe shelter

Your friend in the dark night will light a candle

And, turning the distaff softly in her palm,

Will tell you stories of your mother’s time,

And you, lending an ear to these old tales,

Will nod, my love, and sleep will close your eyes,

And quietly from your lap the spinning wheel

Will fall…. And at the door I shall appear

Like a good angel suddenly sent from heaven.

Run then to greet me, out from your peaceful haven,

In lovely nakedness appear to me,

Your hair spread on your shoulders carelessly,

Your lily-white breast and your lovely feet…

O when will Aurora with her rosy steeds,

Blazing with light, bring us that blessed day,

And rapt Tibullus embrace his Delia?

(Essays, 206–10)

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