Сладко пел душа-соловушко
В зелёном моём саду;
Много, много знал он песенок,
Слаще не было одной.

Ах! та песнь была заветная,
Рвала белу грудь тоской;
А всё слушать бы [хотелося]1,
Не рассталась [бы ввек]2 с ней.

Вдруг подула со полуночи:
Будто на сердце легла, 
Снеговая непогодушка 
И [мой садик]3 занесла.

Со того ли со безвременья
Опустел зелёный сад :
Много пташек, много песен в нём,
[Только]4 милой не слыхать.

A. Varlamov sets stanzas 1-3

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View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Glière: "хотелось" ("khotelos'") (?)
² Glière: "ввек бы" ("vvek by")
³ Varlamov: "садок мой" ("sadok moj")
⁴ Glière: "А всё" ("A vsjo")

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Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

• by Ivan Ivanovich Lazhechnikov (1792 - 1869), no title, appears in Последний Новик Роман (Poslednij Novik Roman) [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 Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Aliabev (1787 - 1851), "Сладко пел душа-соловушко", published 1831 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (1875 - 1956), "Сладко пел душа соловушко", op. 36 (Шесть романсов (Shest' romansov) = Six Romances) no. 1 (1908) [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Aleksandr Yegorovich Varlamov (1801 - 1848), "Соловушка", stanzas 1-3 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

• ENG English (Jennifer Gliere) , copyright © 2016, (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: 16
Word count: 73

Sweetly sang my beloved Nightingale
in my green garden;
many, many songs he knew,
there was none sweeter.

Ah! I treasured that song,
my heart would leap from my white breast;
I wanted to listen to everything
and never part from him. 

But it stopped suddenly one midnight;
the deep, silent snow 
lay in my heart even as it
had taken away my garden.

From that eternity
my green garden has returned;
there are many birds, many songs there,
but I do not hear anything sweet.