Like the typical Russian, I love Pushkin’s work. It’s so profound and heartbreaking and it captures the very essence of all tortured souls. Unfortunately, it’s really difficult to translate and make it sound as good in English as it sounds in Russian. Nonetheless, I tried. Here’s my favorite Puskin poem, translated by yours truly.
The Angel
By the gates of Eden, an Angel, gentle
Shone with his softly drooping head,
And in the darkness a Demon, rebel
Over the hellish ravine fled
The sp’rit of doubt and of negation
Looked at the other one of good
And in a flame of forced elation
For the first time, he understood
“Pardon,” he said, “but I have seen you
And not in vain you’ve shined me light
Not all in heaven I had hated,
Not all on earth I had despised.”
Alexander Pushkin
Translated by Viktoria Nikola
So intriguing
LikeLike
Isn’t it? I love the concept of a demon falling in love with an angel. And yet, no matter how much love there is, they can’t be together
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the way it’s expressed! I’m sure you’ve done a beautiful job!! (I obviously don’t know Russian, but your talent with English is wonderful!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes translation can totally corrupt the true beauty of the artistic thought of a poem. So kudos to you for sustaining the creative grace of the poet’s thoughts of such a marvelous post! 👏 Strangely by coincidence i had written a poetic collaboration with one of my fellow blogging friends previously, it’s called “Dance With The Devil” which kind of talked about an unfulfilled love between a devil and an angel. Thanks Viktoria for such a beautiful post because of the versatility of your posts, its always an amazing experience to go through your blog posts 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sidharth! I know whenever I translate anything I’m always worried of doing a disservice to the author – so thank you for your kind words and support! I’ll definitely look for you work “Dance with the Devil” – love that title!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes i agree with you but some thoughts are just so poetically blissfully that they overcome the linguistic barrier that might diminish their artistic essence for they speak directly to the heart of the readers. You have an excellent command over English so don’t worry about the disservice part for you present the translated piece in an equally blissful way! Thanks I’m glad you liked the title of my collab , i wrote that poem a long time ago so let me know if you find it tough to locate it, I’ll share the direct link with you to make it easier for you 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes please do! I’ll check it out in the days to come. And thanks again!
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://writingrhymes.wordpress.com/2017/10/29/dance-with-the-devil-collab-with-jyoti/ sorry for the late reply was busy with work but here’s that poem that i was talking about, please do read it whenever you can / feel like 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
gorgeous, all of it, but the last pair of lines … wow
LikeLiked by 1 person
The last two lines are my favorite! I’m glad you liked it 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person