The floating chain of clouds is thinning (Pushkin, set by Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov, Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov) (The LiederNet Archive: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)

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by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837)

Translation © by Kyle Gee

Редеет облаков летучая гряда

Language: Russian (Русский)

Available translation(s): ENG ENG ENG FRE

Редеет облаков летучая гряда.
Звезда печальная, вечерняя звезда!
Твой луч осеребрил увядшие равнины,
И дремлющий залив, и чёрных скал вершины.
Люблю твой слабый свет в небесной вышине;
Он думы разбудил, уснувшие во мне:
Я помню твой восход, знакомое светило,
Над мирною страной, где всё для сердца мило,
Где стройны тополы в долинах вознеслись,
Где дремлет нежный мирт и тёмный кипарис,
И сладостно шумят полуденные волны.
Там некогда в горах, сердечной думы полный,
Над морем я влачил задумчивую лень,
Когда на хижины сходила ночи тень —
И дева юная во мгле тебя искала
И именем своим подругам называла.

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Authorship

by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837), no title, written 1820 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov (1866 - 1901), "Элегия" [ sung text not verified ]
by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), "Редеет облаков", op. 42 (Четыре романса (Chetyre romansa)) no. 3. [ sung text verified 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Dmitri Smirnov

The floating chain of clouds is thinning

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

The floating chain of clouds is thinning.
Wistful star, Evening-star!
Your have turned the fading valleys, the slumbering bay, 
and the tops of the black cliffs silver with your light.
How I love your dim light in the infinite heavens;
It has awoken my inner thoughts long at-rest:
I remember your ascending, familiar moonlight,
over that peaceful country, where all is so dear to my heart,
where elegant poplars rise up in the valleys,
where the tender myrtle and dark cypress sleep,
and the noontime waves resound so sweetly.
There long ago in the mountains, full of ardent desire,
I passed my dreamy idleness on the seashore,
when night's shadow would descend over the homes --
and a young maiden searched for you through the dark
claiming to her friends that you were her very own.

Authorship

Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2014 by Kyle Gee, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Kyle Gee. Contact: kyleanthonygee (AT) gmail (DOT) com
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Based on

a text in Russian (Русский) by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837), no title, written 1820