Translation by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi (1863 - 1943)

Тучки небесные, вечные странники!
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Available translation(s): ENG
Тучки небесные, вечные странники! 
Степью лазурною, цепью жемчужною
Мчитесь вы, будто как я же, изгнанники
С милого севера в сторону южную.1 

Кто же вас гонит: судьбы ли решение? 
Зависть ли тайная? злоба ль открытая? 
Или на вас тяготит преступление? 
Или друзей клевета ядовитая?2 

Нет, вам наскучили нивы бесплодные... 
Чужды вам страсти и чужды страдания;
Вечно холодные, вечно свободные,
Нет у вас родины, нет вам изгнания.

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Note: an earlier spelling of "небесные" is "небесныя", still preserved in some of the titles below.

1 Sviridov adds (from stanza 1): "/ Мчитесь вы, тучки небесные."
2 Sviridov adds (from previous lines):
Тучки небесные, мчитесь вы,
Вечные, вечные странники!
Кто же вас гонит: судьбы ли решение?
Зависть ли тайная?
Тучки небесные, вечные странники!

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Note on Transliterations

Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

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

  • ENG English [singable] (Dmitri Smirnov) , "The clouds", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi) , "To the clouds", appears in Russian Lyrics, first published 1916


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: 65

To the clouds
Language: English  after the Russian (Русский) 
Clouds -- ye eternal wanderers in hunting grounds of air,
High o'er the verdant Steppes, wide through the blue of heaven -- 
Coursing fraternal, -- say, must ye exiled as I
From the beloved North to the far South be driven?

O tell me, were ye outlawed thus by Fate's behest?
Drives ye forth open hate, or secret grudge flee ye?
Follows ye unappeased an evil-doer's curse?
Are ye pursued by poisonous words of calumny?

Ah no! Only from the unfruitful earth ye fly;
Free are your sufferings, your blessedness is free,
Ye know not wretchedness that holds us here in chains,
Know not the joy of home or exile's misery!

Authorship:

Based on:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-02-02
Line count: 12
Word count: 108