The nightingale and the cuckoo | In the forests, in the darkness of the idle night

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by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837)

Translation © by Lyle Neff

Соловей и кукушка

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG

В лесах, во мраке ночи праздной
Весны певец разнообразный
Урчит, и свищет, и гремит;
Но бестолковая кукушка,
Самолюбивая болтушка,
Одно куку своё твердит,
И эхо вслед за нею то же.
Накуковали нам тоску!
Хоть убежать. Избавь нас, Боже,
От элегических куку!

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Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837), "Соловей и кукушка", written 1821 [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 César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Соловей и кукушка", op. 57 (Двадцать пять стихотворении Пушкина = Dvadcat' pjat' stikhotvorenii Pushkina (25 Poems of Pushkin)) no. 22 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Lyle Neff) , "The nightingale and the cuckoo", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-09-20
Line count: 10
Word count: 41

The nightingale and the cuckoo

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

In the forests, in the darkness of the idle night,
A diverse singer of the spring
Hums, and whistles, and thunders;
But the confused cuckoo-bird,
The selfish chatterbox,
Insists on its sole "cuckoo"-call,
And the echo after her is the same.
They "cuckoo" melancholy to us!
If only to escape. Deliver us, o Lord,
From the elegiac "cuckoo"-call.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2014 by Lyle Neff, (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.
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Based on:

a text in Russian (Русский) by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837), "Соловей и кукушка", written 1821
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2014-02-11
Line count: 10
Word count: 58