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by Sergei Aleksandrovich Esenin (1895 - 1925)

Kto ja? Chto ja? Tol'ko lish' mechtatel'
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Kto ja? Chto ja? Tol'ko lish' mechtatel',
Sin' ochej utrativshij vo mgle,
`Etu zhizn' prozhil ja slovno kstati,
Zaodno s drugimi na zemle.
I s toboj celujus' po privychke,
Potomu chto mnogikh celoval,
I, kak budto zazhigaja spichki,
Govorju ljubovnye slova.
«Dorogaja», «milaja», «naveki»,
A v dushe vsegda odno i to zhe,
Jesli tronut' strasti v cheloveke,
To, konechno, pravdy ne najdjosh'.
Ottogo dushe mojej ne zhestko —
Ne zhelat', ne trebovat' ognja.
Ty, moja khodjachaja berjozka,
Sozdana dlja mnogikh — i menja.
No, vsegda ishcha sebe rodnuju,
I tomjas' v nelaskovom plenu,
Ja tebja niskol'ko ne revnuju,
Ja tebja niskol'ko ne kljanu.
Kto ja? Chto ja? Tol'ko lish' mechtatel',
Sin' ochej utrativshij vo mgle,
I tebja ljubil ja tol'ko kstati,
Zaodno s drugimi na zemle.

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Text Authorship:

  • by Sergei Aleksandrovich Esenin (1895 - 1925) [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 Anastasia Vinogradova (b. 1994), no title, op. 26 (Пять песен на слова С. А. Есенина (Pjat' pesen na slova S. A. Jesenina) = Five Songs on Lyrics by S. A. Yesenin) no. 4 (2020) [ soprano and piano ]
        Score: IMSLP [external link]  [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2026-03-23
Line count: 24
Word count: 126

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