Тучки небесные, вечные странники!

Тучки небесные, вечные странники! 
Степью лазурною, цепью жемчужною
Мчитесь вы, будто как я же, изгнанники
С милого севера в сторону южную. 

Кто же вас гонит: судьбы ли решение? 
Зависть ли тайная? злоба ль открытая? 
Или на вас тяготит преступление? 
Или друзей клевета ядовитая? 

Нет, вам наскучили нивы бесплодные... 
Чужды вам страсти и чужды страдания;
Вечно холодные, вечно свободные,
Нет у вас родины, нет вам изгнания.

Translation(s): ENG ENG FRE GER

List of language codes

About the headline (FAQ)

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Authorship

• by Mikhail Yur'yevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), "Тучи", first published 1840 [ author's text checked 1 time]

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

• by Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev (1884 - 1949), "Тучки небесные", from Liricheskije Stranicy (na temu "Odinochestvo Lermontova"), no. 4. [ sung text not verified ]
• by Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg (1841 - 1907), "Тучи" [ sung text not verified ]
• by Nikolai Nikolayevich Cherepnin (1873 - 1945), "Тучки небесныя", op. 2 (2 хора для смешанных голосов a cappella (2 khora dlja smeshannykh golosov a cappella)) no. 2 [mixed chorus a cappella], Leipzig, Belaieff [ sung text not verified ]
• by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Тучи", op. 19 (Семь романсов и дуэтов = Sem' romansov i du`etov (Seven romances and duets)) no. 6. [duet] [ sung text not verified ]
• by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky (1813 - 1869), "Тучки небесные" [ sung text verified 1 time]
• by Nikolai Platonovich Ogaryov (1813 - 1877), "Тучи" [ sung text not verified ]
• by Aleksandr Alekseyevich Olenin (1865 - 1944), "Тучки небесные", op. 24 (Пять песен для голоса с фортепиано (Pjat' pesen dlja golosa s fortepiano)) no. 2, published 1924 [voice and piano], Moscow, Gos. Izdatelstvo Muz. Sektor [ sung text not verified ]
• by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), "Тучи небесныя", op. 13 (2 трехголосных женских хора (2 trekhgolosnykh zhenskikh khora)) no. 1 [three-part women's chorus and harmonium or fortepiano ad libitum], Leipzig, Belaieff [ sung text verified 1 time]
• by Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (1829 - 1894), "Тучи", op. 36 (Zwölf Lieder aus dem Russischem von F. Bodenstedt) no. 4 (1849-51) [voice and piano], Wien, Spina, also set in German (Deutsch) [ sung text not verified ]
• by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (b. 1948), "Тучи", op. 159 no. 2 (2009) [voice and violoncello], from Ot sosny do luny, no. 2. [ sung text verified 1 time]
• by Aleksandr Yegorovich Varlamov (1801 - 1848), "Тучи" [ sung text not verified ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (1802 - 1870) , "Les nuages", appears in Impressions de voyage, Paris, Éd. Michel Lévy frères, first published 1865 ENG ENG GER by Jules Bouval.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt (1819 - 1892) , "Die Wolken", appears in Russische Dichter, first published 1866 ENG ENG FRE by Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein.
  • Go to the text.
    

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

• ENG English [singable] (Dmitri Smirnov) , "The clouds", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi) , "To the clouds", appears in Russian Lyrics, first published 1916

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project, and I have been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your gift is greatly appreciated.      - Emily Ezust

The clouds

Clouds in the sky, you are ceaselessly wandering!
As pearly chains in the azure steppes glimmering
Exiled as I have been, constantly hurrying
From native North into South you are quickening.

What drives you there: the command of your destiny?
Some secret jealousy? Or open wickedness?
Or crimes hang heavy on you or some mutiny?
Or your friends' calumny is cruel and poisonous?

No, you were bored to death with these fields' fruitlessness
With all these passions and alien misery,
Ice cold eternally, in steady idleness
You have no homeland and suffer no outlawry.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The material directly above is protected by copyright and appears here by special permission. If you wish to copy it and distribute it, you must obtain permission or you will be breaking the law. Once you have permission, you must give credit to the author and display the copyright symbol ©. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law.

Authorship

• Singable translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2009 by Dmitri Smirnov, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
  
  Contact:
  
  
  (licenses at lieder dot net)
  
  
  

• a text in Russian (Русский) by Mikhail Yur'yevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), "Тучи", first published 1840 FRE GER
• This text was set to music by the following composer(s): Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev, Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg, Nikolai Nikolayevich Cherepnin, César Antonovich Cui, Aleksandr Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky, Nikolai Platonovich Ogaryov, Aleksandr Alekseyevich Olenin, Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein, Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov, Aleksandr Yegorovich Varlamov. Go to the text.

Text added to the website: 2009-11-04.
Last modified: 2017-07-31 13:35:52
Line count: 12
Word count: 94