Горними тихо летела душа небесами, Грустные долу она опускала ресницы, Слёзы в пространство от них упадая звездами, Светлой и длинной [за нею вились]1 вереницей. Встречные тихо её вопрошали светила: «[Отчего так]2 грустна и о чём эти слёзы во взоре?» Им отвечала она: «я земли не забыла. Много [оставила я там]3 страданья и горя. Здесь я лишь ликам блаженства и радости внемлю, Праведных души не знают ни скорби, ни злобы. О, отпусти меня снова, создатель, на землю, Было-б о [ком]4 пожалеть и утешить кого-бы!»
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View original text (without footnotes)Note on the text (provided by Laura Prichard): Tolstoy wrote this poem to honor Lermonotov’s famous poem "Angel" (1831), which is about an innocent soul encountering earthly sorrow for the first time. Tolstoy’s poem, in a similar meter, gives experience’s answer to innocence, since in this case, the soul longs to return to earth to comfort those who sorrow.
Note on the music (provided by Laura Prichard): Tchaikovsky’s main melody was inspired by, and modelled on, a duet for Christ and Mary Magdalen from Massenet’s oratorio Marie-Magdalen (1873), which he played through in 1880.
1 Cui, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky: "вилися за ней" ("vilisja za nej")2 Cui: "Что ты"; Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky: "Что так" ("Chto tak")
3 Musorgsky: "отвечала там я" ("otvechala tam ja"); Cui, Tchaikovsky: "оставила там я" ("ostavila tam ja")
4 Cui: "чём"
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Note on TransliterationsAuthorship:
- by Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count (1817 - 1875) [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 Anton Stepanovich Arensky (1861 - 1906), "Горними тихо летела душа небесами", op. 64 no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Горними тихо летала", op. 67 (Восемьнадцать стихотворении А.К. Толстого = Vosem'nadcat' stikhotvorenii A. K. Tolstogo (18 Poems of A. K. Tolstoy)) no. 2, published 1904 [ voice and piano ], Moscow, P. Jurgenson [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kuznetsov (1847 - ?), "Горними тихо летела душа небесами" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Klaus Miehling , "Горними тихо летела душа небесами", op. 301 no. 2 (2019) [ voice and piano ], from 20 Lieder nach Alexei K. Tolstoi, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Modest Petrovich Musorgsky (1839 - 1881), "Горними тихо летела душа небесами", 1877, published 1882 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), "Горними тихо летела душа небесами", op. 27 (Четыре романса (Chetyre romansa)) no. 1 (1882) [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (1858 - 1915), "Горними тихо летела душа небесами" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893), "Горними тихо летела душа небесами", op. 47 (Семь романсов = Sem' romansov (Seven romances)) no. 2 (1880) [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by A. Aleksandrova ; composed by Konstantin Afanas'evich Antipov.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "A soul flew quietly to the heavens", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Doucement l'esprit s'envola vers le ciel", 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: 12
Word count: 83