The Queen of Spades and Selected Works (Pushkin Collection)

  And the young ladies fortunes told,

  And every year distributed

  Journeys and warriors to wed.

  V

  Tattiana in traditions old

  Believed, the people’s wisdom weird,

  In dreams and what the moon foretold

  And what she from the cards inferred.

  Omens inspired her soul with fear,

  Mysteriously all objects near

  A hidden meaning could impart,

  Presentiments oppressed her heart.

  Lo! the prim cat upon the stove

  With one paw strokes her face and purrs,

  Tattiana certainly infers

  That guests approach: and when above

  The new moon’s crescent slim she spied,

  Suddenly to the left hand side,

  VI

  She trembled and grew deadly pale.

  Or a swift meteor, may be,

  Across the gloom of heaven would sail

  And disappear in space; then she

  Would haste in agitation dire

  To mutter her concealed desire

  Ere the bright messenger had set.

  When in her walks abroad she met

  A friar black approaching near,(50)

  Or a swift hare from mead to mead

  Had run across her path at speed,

  Wholly beside herself with fear,

  Anticipating woe she pined,

  Certain misfortune near opined.

  [Note 50: The Russian clergy are divided into two classes: the white or secular, which is made up of the mass of parish priests, and the black who inhabit the monasteries, furnish the high dignitaries of the Church, and constitute that swarm of useless drones for whom Peter the Great felt such a deep repugnance.]

  VII

  Wherefore? She found a secret joy

  In horror for itself alone,

  Thus Nature doth our souls alloy,

  Thus her perversity hath shown.

  Twelfth Night approaches. Merry eves!(51)

  When thoughtless youth whom nothing grieves,

  Before whose inexperienced sight

  Life lies extended, vast and bright,

  To peer into the future tries.

  Old age through spectacles too peers,

  Although the destined coffin nears,

  Having lost all in life we prize.

  It matters not. Hope e’en to these

  With childlike lisp will lie to please.

  [Note 51: Refers to the “Sviatki” or Holy Nights between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night. Divination, or the telling of fortunes by various expedients, is the favourite pastime on these occasions.]

  VIII

  Tattiana gazed with curious eye

  On melted wax in water poured;

  The clue unto some mystery

  She deemed its outline might afford.

  Rings from a dish of water full

  In order due the maidens pull;

  But when Tattiana’s hand had ta’en

  A ring she heard the ancient strain:

  The peasants there are rich as kings,

  They shovel silver with a spade,

  He whom we sing to shall be made

  Happy and glorious. But this brings

  With sad refrain misfortune near.

  Girls the kashourka much prefer.(52)

  [Note 52: During the “sviatki” it is a common custom for the girls to assemble around a table on which is placed a dish or basin of water which contains a ring. Each in her turn extracts the ring from the basin whilst the remainder sing in chorus the “podbliudni pessni,” or “dish songs” before mentioned. These are popularly supposed to indicate the fortunes of the immediate holder of the ring. The first-named lines foreshadow death; the latter, the “kashourka,” or “kitten song,” indicates approaching marriage. It commences thus: “The cat asked the kitten to sleep on the stove.”]

  IX

  Frosty the night; the heavens shone;

  The wondrous host of heavenly spheres

  Sailed silently in unison —

  Tattiana in the yard appears

  In a half-open dressing-gown

  And bends her mirror on the moon,

  But trembling on the mirror dark

  The sad moon only could remark.

  List! the snow crunches — he draws nigh!

  The girl on tiptoe forward bounds

  And her voice sweeter than the sounds

  Of clarinet or flute doth cry:

  “What is your name?” The boor looked dazed,

  And “Agathon” replied, amazed.(53)

  [Note 53: The superstition is that the name of the future husband may thus be discovered.]

  X

  Tattiana (nurse the project planned)

  By night prepared for sorcery,

  And in the bathroom did command

  To lay two covers secretly.

  But sudden fear assailed Tattiana,

  And I, remembering Svetlana,(54)

  Become alarmed. So never mind!

  I’m not for witchcraft now inclined.

  So she her silken sash unlaced,

  Undressed herself and went to bed

  And soon Lel hovered o’er her head.(55)

  Beneath her downy pillow placed,

  A little virgin mirror peeps.

  ‘Tis silent all. Tattiana sleeps.

  [Note 54: See Note 30.]

  [Note 55: Lel, in Slavonic mythology, corresponds to the Morpheus of the Latins. The word is evidently connected with the verb “leleyat” to fondle or soothe, likewise with our own word “to lull.”]

  XI

  A dreadful sleep Tattiana sleeps.

  She dreamt she journeyed o’er a field

  All covered up with snow in heaps,

  By melancholy fogs concealed.

  Amid the snowdrifts which surround

  A stream, by winter’s ice unbound,

  Impetuously clove its way

  With boiling torrent dark and gray;

  Two poles together glued by ice,

  A fragile bridge and insecure,

  Spanned the unbridled torrent o’er;

  Beside the thundering abyss

  Tattiana in despair unfeigned

  Rooted unto the spot remained.

  XII

  As if against obstruction sore

  Tattiana o’er the stream complained;

  To help her to the other shore

  No one appeared to lend a hand.

  But suddenly a snowdrift stirs,

  And what from its recess appears?

  A bristly bear of monstrous size!

  He roars, and “Ah!” Tattiana cries.

  He offers her his murderous paw;

  She nerves herself from her alarm

  And leans upon the monster’s arm,

  With footsteps tremulous with awe

  Passes the torrent But alack!

  Bruin is marching at her back!

  XIII

  She, to turn back her eyes afraid,

  Accelerates her hasty pace,

  But cannot anyhow evade

  Her shaggy myrmidon in chase.

  The bear rolls on with many a grunt:

  A forest now she sees in front

  With fir-trees standing motionless

  In melancholy loveliness,

  Their branches by the snow bowed down.

  Through aspens, limes and birches bare,

  The shining orbs of night appear;

  There is no path; the storm hath strewn

  Both bush and brake, ravine and steep,

  And all in snow is buried deep.

  XIV

  The wood she enters — bear behind, —

  In snow she sinks up to the knee;

  Now a long branch itself entwined

  Around her neck, now violently

  Away her golden earrings tore;

  Now the sweet little shoes she wore,

  Grown clammy, stick fast in the snow;


  Her handkerchief she loses now;

  No time to pick it up! afraid,

  She hears the bear behind her press,

  Nor dares the skirting of her dress

  For shame lift up the modest maid.

  She runs, the bear upon her trail,

  Until her powers of running fail.

  XV

  She sank upon the snow. But Bruin

  Adroitly seized and carried her;

  Submissive as if in a swoon,

  She cannot draw a breath or stir.

  He dragged her by a forest road

  Till amid trees a hovel showed,

  By barren snow heaped up and bound,

  A tangled wilderness around.

  Bright blazed the window of the place,

  Within resounded shriek and shout:

  “My chum lives here,” Bruin grunts out.

  “Warm yourself here a little space!”

  Straight for the entrance then he made

  And her upon the threshold laid.

  XVI

  Recovering, Tania gazes round;

  Bear gone — she at the threshold placed;

  Inside clink glasses, cries resound

  As if it were some funeral feast.

  But deeming all this nonsense pure,

  She peeped through a chink of the door.

  What doth she see? Around the board

  Sit many monstrous shapes abhorred.

  A canine face with horns thereon,

  Another with cock’s head appeared,

  Here an old witch with hirsute beard,

  There an imperious skeleton;

  A dwarf adorned with tail, again

  A shape half cat and half a crane.

  XVII

  Yet ghastlier, yet more wonderful,

  A crab upon a spider rides,

  Perched on a goose’s neck a skull

  In scarlet cap revolving glides.

  A windmill too a jig performs

  And wildly waves its arms and storms;

  Barking, songs, whistling, laughter coarse,

  The speech of man and tramp of horse.

  But wide Tattiana oped her eyes

  When in that company she saw

  Him who inspired both love and awe,

  The hero we immortalize.

  Oneguine sat the table by

  And viewed the door with cunning eye.

  XVIII

  All bustle when he makes a sign:

  He drinks, all drink and loudly call;

  He smiles, in laughter all combine;

  He knits his brows — ’tis silent all.

  He there is master — that is plain;

  Tattiana courage doth regain

  And grown more curious by far

  Just placed the entrance door ajar.

  The wind rose instantly, blew out

  The fire of the nocturnal lights;

  A trouble fell upon the sprites;

  Oneguine lightning glances shot;

  Furious he from the table rose;

  All arise. To the door he goes.

  XIX

  Terror assails her. Hastily

  Tattiana would attempt to fly,

  She cannot — then impatiently

  She strains her throat to force a cry —

  She cannot — Eugene oped the door

  And the young girl appeared before

  Those hellish phantoms. Peals arise

  Of frantic laughter, and all eyes

  And hoofs and crooked snouts and paws,

  Tails which a bushy tuft adorns,

  Whiskers and bloody tongues and horns,

  Sharp rows of tushes, bony claws,

  Are turned upon her. All combine

  In one great shout: she’s mine! she’s mine!

  XX

  “Mine!” cried Eugene with savage tone.

  The troop of apparitions fled,

  And in the frosty night alone

  Remained with him the youthful maid.

  With tranquil air Oneguine leads

  Tattiana to a corner, bids

  Her on a shaky bench sit down;

  His head sinks slowly, rests upon

  Her shoulder — Olga swiftly came —

  And Lenski followed — a light broke —

  His fist Oneguine fiercely shook

  And gazed around with eyes of flame;

  The unbidden guests he roughly chides —

  Tattiana motionless abides.

  XXI

  The strife grew furious and Eugene

  Grasped a long knife and instantly

  Struck Lenski dead — across the scene

  Dark shadows thicken — a dread cry

  Was uttered, and the cabin shook —

  Tattiana terrified awoke.

  She gazed around her — it was day.

  Lo! through the frozen windows play

  Aurora’s ruddy rays of light —

  The door flew open — Olga came,

  More blooming than the Boreal flame

  And swifter than the swallow’s flight.

  “Come,” she cried, “sister, tell me e’en

  Whom you in slumber may have seen.”

  XXII

  But she, her sister never heeding,

  With book in hand reclined in bed,

  Page after page continued reading,

  But no reply unto her made.

  Although her book did not contain

  The bard’s enthusiastic strain,

  Nor precepts sage nor pictures e’en,

  Yet neither Virgil nor Racine

  Nor Byron, Walter Scott, nor Seneca,

  Nor the Journal des Modes, I vouch,

  Ever absorbed a maid so much:

  Its name, my friends, was Martin Zadeka,

  The chief of the Chaldean wise,

  Who dreams expound and prophecies.

  XXIII

  Brought by a pedlar vagabond

  Unto their solitude one day,

  This monument of thought profound

  Tattiana purchased with a stray

  Tome of “Malvina,” and but three(56)

  And a half rubles down gave she;

  Also, to equalise the scales,

  She got a book of nursery tales,

  A grammar, likewise Petriads two,

  Marmontel also, tome the third;

  Tattiana every day conferred

  With Martin Zadeka. In woe

  She consolation thence obtained —

  Inseparable they remained.

  [Note 56: “Malvina,” a romance by Madame Cottin.]

  XXIV

  The dream left terror in its train.

  Not knowing its interpretation,

  Tania the meaning would obtain

  Of such a dread hallucination.

  Tattiana to the index flies

  And alphabetically tries

  The words bear, bridge, fir, darkness, bog,

  Raven, snowstorm, tempest, fog,

  Et cetera; but nothing showed

  Her Martin Zadeka in aid,

  Though the foul vision promise made

  Of a most mournful episode,

  And many a day thereafter laid

  A load of care upon the maid.

  XXV

  “But lo! forth from the valleys dun

  With purple hand Aurora leads,

  Swift following in her wake, the sun,”(57)

  And a grand festival proceeds.

  The Larinas were since sunrise

  O’erwhelmed with guests; by families

  The neighbours come, in sledge approach,

  Britzka, kibitka, or in coach.

  Crush and confusion in the hall,

  Latest arrivals’ salutations,

  Barking, young ladies’ osculations,

  Shouts, laughter, jamming ‘gainst the wall,

  Bows and the scrape of many feet,

  Nurses who scream and babes who bleat.

  [Note 57: The above three lines are
a parody on the turgid style of Lomonossoff, a literary man of the second Catherine’s era.]

  XXVI

  Bringing his partner corpulent

  Fat Poustiakoff drove to the door;

  Gvozdine, a landlord excellent,

  Oppressor of the wretched poor;

  And the Skatenines, aged pair,

  With all their progeny were there,

  Who from two years to thirty tell;

  Petoushkoff, the provincial swell;

  Bouyanoff too, my cousin, wore(58)

  His wadded coat and cap with peak

  (Surely you know him as I speak);

  And Flianoff, pensioned councillor,

  Rogue and extortioner of yore,

  Now buffoon, glutton, and a bore.

  [Note 58: Pushkin calls Bouyanoff his cousin because he is a character in the “Dangerous Neighbour,” a poem by Vassili Pushkin, the poet’s uncle.]

  XXVII

  The family of Kharlikoff,

  Came with Monsieur Triquet, a prig,

  Who arrived lately from Tamboff,

  In spectacles and chestnut wig.

  Like a true Frenchman, couplets wrought

  In Tania’s praise in pouch he brought,

  Known unto children perfectly:

  Reveillez-vouz, belle endormie.

  Among some ancient ballads thrust,

  He found them in an almanac,

  And the sagacious Triquet back

  To light had brought them from their dust,

  Whilst he “belle Nina” had the face

  By “belle Tattiana” to replace.

  XXVIII

  Lo! from the nearest barrack came,

  Of old maids the divinity,

  And comfort of each country dame,

  The captain of a company.

  He enters. Ah! good news to-day!

  The military band will play.

  The colonel sent it. Oh! delight!

  So there will be a dance to-night.

  Girls in anticipation skip!

  But dinner-time comes. Two and two

  They hand in hand to table go.

  The maids beside Tattiana keep —

  Men opposite. The cross they sign

  And chattering loud sit down to dine.

  XXIX

  Ceased for a space all chattering.

  Jaws are at work. On every side

  Plates, knives and forks are clattering

  And ringing wine-glasses are plied.

  But by degrees the crowd begin

  To raise a clamour and a din:

  They laugh, they argue, and they bawl,

  They shout and no one lists at all.

  The doors swing open: Lenski makes

  His entrance with Oneguine. “Ah!

  At last the author!” cries Mamma.

  The guests make room; aside each takes

  His chair, plate, knife and fork in haste;

  The friends are called and quickly placed.

  XXX

  Right opposite Tattiana placed,

  She, than the morning moon more pale,

  More timid than a doe long chased,

  Lifts not her eyes which swimming fail.