The night is mournful | The night is mournful, like my dreams

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by Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870 - 1953)

Translation © by Sergey Rybin

Ночь печальна, как мечты мои

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG FRE GER

Ночь печальна, как мечты мои...
Далеко, в глухой степи широкой,
Огонек мерцает одинокий...
В сердце много грусти и любви.

Но кому и как разскажешь ты,
Что зовёт тебя, чем сердце полно?
Путь далек, глухая степь безмолвна,
Ночь печальна, как мои мечты.

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Text Authorship:

by Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870 - 1953), no title, written 1900 [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 Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (1875 - 1956), "Ночь печальна", op. 14 (Шесть романсов (Shest' romansov) = Six Romances) no. 1 (1904) [sung text checked 1 time]
by Sergey Grigoryevich Grasgof (b. 1881), "Ночь печальна, как мечты мои" [sung text not yet checked]
by Vassily Vasilyevich Nechayev (1895 - 1956), "Ночь печальна", op. 1 no. 6 (1918), published 1922 [ voice and piano ], from Девять юношеских песен для голоса с фортепиано (Devjat' junosheskikh pesen dlja golosa s fortepiano) = Dix pièces pour les jeunes, no. 6, Moscow [sung text checked 1 time]
by Sergei Vasil'yevich Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943), "Ночь печальна", op. 26 (Пятнадцать романсов = Pjatnadcat' romansov (Fifteen songs)) no. 12 (1906) [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sergey Rybin) , "The night is mournful", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La nuit est triste", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 41

The night is mournful

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

The night is mournful, like my dreams...
Far away, in the vast and silent steppe,
A little lonely light flickers.
My heart is full of sadness and love.

But to whom, and how, can you tell
What calls to you, what fills your heart?
The path is long, the vast steppe is silent,
The night is mournful, like my dreams.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2026 by Sergey Rybin, (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 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870 - 1953), no title, written 1900
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-03-16
Line count: 8
Word count: 60