O you, my grain-field, little grain-field

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by Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count (1817 - 1875)

Translation © by Lyle Neff

Уж ты, нива моя, нивушка

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG FRE

Уж ты, нива моя, нивушка, 
Не скосить тебя с маху единого,
Не связать тебя всю во единый сноп!
Уж вы, думы мои, думушки, 
Не стряхнуть вас разом с плеч долой,
Одной речью-то вас не высказать!
По тебе-ль, нива, ветер разгуливал, 
Гнул колосья твои до-земли,
Зрелы зерна-все разметывал!
Широко вы, думы, порассыпались, 
Куда пала какая думушка.
Там всходила люта печаль-трава, 
Выростало горе горючее.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Новѣйшіе русскіе писатели: опыт христоматіи періода русской словесности после Гоголя, составил А. Цветков, С.-Петерсбург, Издание Ф. Павленкова, 1883.

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Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

by Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count (1817 - 1875), no title [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 Jules Bleichmann (1868 - 1909), "Нивушка", op. 21 no. 3, published [1896] [ mixed chorus a cappella ], St. Petersburg, Wispolsky [sung text not yet checked]
by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Уж ты, нива моя", op. 67 (Восемьнадцать стихотворении А.К. Толстого = Vosem'nadcat' stikhotvorenii A. K. Tolstogo (18 Poems of A. K. Tolstoy)) no. 4, published 1904 [ voice and piano ], Moscow, P. Jurgenson [sung text not yet checked]
by Boris Aleksandrovich Fitingof-Shel (1829 - 1901), "Уж ты, нива моя", 1879 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Viktor Nikandrovich Paskhalov (1841 - 1885), "Уж ты, нива моя, нивушка", 1873 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Sergei Vasil'yevich Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943), "Уж ты, нива моя!", op. 4 (Шесть романсов = Shest' romansov (Six songs) ) no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Lyle Neff) , no title, copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) [singable] (Guy Laffaille) , "Ô toi, mon champ de blé !", copyright © 2015, (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: 13
Word count: 62

O you, my grain‑field, little...

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

O you, my grain-field, little grain-field,
one cannot mow you with a single stroke,
one cannot tie you all up into a single sheaf!
O you, my thoughts, little thoughts,
one cannot all at once get rid of you,
one cannot express you with one utterance!
The wind would stroll through you, grain-field,
would bend your ears [of grain] to the earth,
and toss all the mature grains!
You, [my] thoughts, would scatter yourselves far and wide,
to where some little thought would fall.
In that place a cruel grass of sadness would sprout,
a burning grief would spring up.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2015 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in Russian (Русский) by Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count (1817 - 1875), no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-04-06
Line count: 13
Word count: 100