To a critic | A poet was describing a lady. I cite

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by Aleksandr Mikhailovich Glikberg (1880 - 1932), as Sasha Chyorny

Translation © by Leonard Lehrman

Критику

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG FRE LIT

Когда поэт, описивая даму, начнёт:
,,Я шла по улице. В боко впился корсет``
Здесь я не понимал конечно
прямо что, мол, под дамою скривается поэт.
Я истину тебе по-друшески открою:
поэт мужчина и даже с бородою.

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Text Authorship:

by Aleksandr Mikhailovich Glikberg (1880 - 1932), as Sasha Chyorny [author's text not yet checked 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 Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906 - 1975), "Критику", op. 109 no. 1 (1960), from Пять сатир = Pjat' satir, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English [singable] (Leonard Lehrman) , "To a critic", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "À un critique", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , "Kritikui", copyright © 2022, (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: 6
Word count: 36

To a critic

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

A poet was describing a lady. I cite:
I thought my corset as I walked did not feel right."
The "I" should not of course be taken literally, 
nor does the lady hide the poet from the light. 
The poet is in fact, if truth you would be steer'd to, 
a man – and further, he even has a beard too!

Text Authorship:

Singable translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2017 by Leonard Lehrman, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., please ask the copyright-holder(s) directly.
Leonard Lehrman. Contact: ljlehrman (AT) nassaulibrary (DOT) org

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Based on:

a text in Russian (Русский) by Aleksandr Mikhailovich Glikberg (1880 - 1932), as Sasha Chyorny
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2017-10-15
Line count: 6
Word count: 61