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by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837)
Translation © by Barbara Miller

О, если правда, что в ночи
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Our translations:  ENG
О, если правда, что в ночи,
Когда покоятся живые,
И с неба лунные лучи
Скользят на камни гробовые,
О, если правда, что тогда
Пустеют тихие могилы, —
Я тень зову, я жду Леилы:
Ко мне, мой друг, сюда, сюда!

Явись, возлюбленная тень,
Как ты была перед разлукой,
Бледна, хладна, как зимний день, 
Искажена последней мукой.
Приди, как дальняя звезда,
Как [лёгкий]1 звук иль дуновенье,
Иль как ужасное виденье,
Мне всё равно: сюда, сюда!..

Зову тебя не для того,
Чтоб укорять людей, чья злоба
Убила друга моего,
Иль чтоб изведать тайны гроба,
Не для того, что иногда
Сомненьем мучусь... но, тоскуя,
Хочу сказать, что всё люблю я,
Что всё я твой. Сюда, сюда!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   N. Medtner 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with А.С.Пушкин, Собрание сочинений в 10 т., М., 1956—1962.

1 Medtner: "легкой" ("legkoj")

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

  • by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837), "Заклинание", first published 1830 [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 Vladimir Mikhailovich Alpers (1863 - 1923), "Заклинание" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Mikhail Vasilyevich Antsev (1865 - 1945), "Явись возлюбленная тень" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Feliks Mikhailovich Blumenfeld (1863 - 1931), "Заклинание", op. 1 (6 Романсов с сопровождением фортепиано (6 Romansov s soprovozhdeniem fortepiano)) no. 4 [ tenor or mezzo-soprano and piano ], Leipzig, Belaieff [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Leslie Crabtree (b. 1941), "Заклинание", 2002 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Заклинание", op. 55 (Восемь романсов = Vosem' romansov (Eight romances)) no. 6, published 1897 [ voice and piano ], Leipzig, Belaieff [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg (1890 - 1962), "Заклинание", op. 4 (Два стихотворения (Dva stikhotvorenija) = Two poems) no. 1 (c1913), published 1922 [ voice and piano ], Moscow: Muzgiz [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880 - 1951), "Заклинание", op. 29 (Семь стихотворений А. Пушкина (Sem' stikhotvorenij A. Pushkina)) no. 7 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Dmitry Vitalyevich Morozov (1882 - 1942), "Заклинание" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), "Заклинание", op. 26 (Четыре романса (Chetyre romansa)) no. 2 (1882) [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Yuri Aleksandrovich Shaporin (1887 - 1966), "Заклинание", op. 10 (Пять романсов на стихи А. Пушкина) no. 4 (1934-1937), published 1937 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Taneyev (1850 - 1918), "Заклинание", op. 34 (Тринадсать романсов (Trinadcat' romansov) = Thirteen romances) no. 3 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Pauline Viardot-García (1821 - 1910), "Заклинание", VWV 1041 (1863) [ voice and piano ], from Douze Mélodies sur les Poésies Russes, no. 5, Éd. E. Gérard & Cie., anciennement Meissonnier, also set in French (Français), also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Sergey Vladimirovich Yuferov (1865 - 1927), "Заклинание" [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Louis Pomey (1835 - 1901) , "Évocation" ; composed by Pauline Viardot-García.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Theodor Opitz (1820 - 1896) , "Beschwörung", written 1828 ; composed by Carl Goldmark, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt (1819 - 1892) ; composed by Pauline Viardot-García.
    • Go to the text.

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

  • ENG English (Barbara Miller) , copyright © 2004, (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: 24
Word count: 113

O if it is true, that at night
Language: English  after the Russian (Русский) 
O if it is true, that at night,
When the living are at rest,
And from the moonlit sky the rays
Glide among gravestones,
O if it is true, that then
The quiet graves are emptied
I call to a shade, I wait for Leila:
Toward me, my beloved, come here, come here!

Appear, beloved shade,
As you were before the separation,
Pale, cold, as a winter day,
Distorted by  the last torment.
Come, as a distant star,
As a light sound or breath
Or as a horrible vision,
It is all the same to me: come here, come here!

I call you not in order to
reproach people, whose malevolence
Killed my beloved,
Nor to make visible the secrets of the grave,
Nor for that which  sometimes
Torments myself with doubt but, with longing
I want to say, that I love still,
I am still yours.  Come here, come here!

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles
"Заклинание" = "Plea"
"Явись возлюбленная тень" = "Appear, beloved shade"


Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2004 by Barbara Miller, (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 Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837), "Заклинание", first published 1830
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2004-07-10
Line count: 24
Word count: 151

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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