The Poet and the Tsar | I walked through a gallery

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by Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941)

Translation © by Sergey Rybin

Поэт и Царь

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG FRE

Потусторонним
Залом цареи. 
-- [Кто]¹ непреклонный
Мраморный сей?

Столь величавый
В золоте барм? 
-- Пушкинской славы
Жалкий жандарм.

Автора -- хаял,
Рукопись -- стриг. 
Польского края --
Зверский мясник. 

Зорче вглядися!
Не забывай:
Певтсоубийтся
Царь Николай
Первый!

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¹ Tsvetaeva: "A"

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Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

by Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941), written 1931 [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), "Поэт и Царь", op. 143a no. 4, from Шесть стихотворении Марини Цветаевой = Shest' stikhotvorenii Marini Cvetajevoj, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sergey Rybin) , "The Poet and the Tsar", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le poète et le tsar", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: John Versmoren

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 17
Word count: 32

The Poet and the Tsar

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

I walked through a gallery 
of deceased Tsars.
Who is this unbending 
proud statue?

So majestic in the gold 
of his regalia. --
A pitiful gendarme 
of Pushkin's glory.

He bad-mouthed the author 
and chopped up his manuscripts,
A savage butcher 
of the Polish land.

Look at him 
with a watchful eye!
Don't forget – the Poet's murderer 
is Tsar Nicholas 
the First.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2020 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in Russian (Русский) by Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941), written 1931
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2020-09-16
Line count: 17
Word count: 62