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by Mikhail Yur'yevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841)
Translation by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi (1863 - 1943)

Тучки небесные, вечные странники!
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Our translations:  CHI 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.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   G. Sviridov 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

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

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

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

  • by Mikhail Yur'yevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), "Тучи", first published 1840 [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 Irina Vladimirovna Arseyeva (1941 - 1999), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev (1884 - 1949), "Тучи", from Liricheskije Stranicy (na temu "Odinochestvo Lermontova"), no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg (1841 - 1907), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Fyodor Fyodorovich Bogdanov (b. 1904), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Nikolai Nikolayevich Cherepnin (1873 - 1945), "Тучки небесныя", op. 2 (2 хора для смешанных голосов a cappella (2 khora dlja smeshannykh golosov a cappella)) no. 2 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], Leipzig, Belaieff [sung text not yet checked]
  • by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Тучи", op. 19 (Семь романсов и дуэтов = Sem' romansov i du`etov (Seven romances and duets)) no. 6 (1881), published 1881 [ vocal duet with piano ], St Petersburg, Bessel [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky (1813 - 1869), "Тучки небесные" [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Anton Antonovich Derfeldt (1810 - 1869), "Тучки небесные" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Yosif Yosifovich Genishta (1795 - 1853), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Vladimir Sergeyevich Ivannikov (1906 - 1987), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Sergey Fyodorovich Kaidan-Deshkin (1901 - 1972), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Pavel Aleksandrovich Kavelin (1834 - 1909), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Grigory Grigoryevich Lobachev (1888 - 1953), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Gavriil Yakimovich Lomakin (1812 - 1885), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Sergey Mikhailovich Lyapunov (1859 - 1924), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Aleksandr Borisovich Matyukhin (b. 1947), "Тучки небесные" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Olga Vasilyevna Nikolskaya (b. 1916), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Nikolai Platonovich Ogaryov (1813 - 1877), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Aleksandr Alekseyevich Olenin (1865 - 1944), "Тучки небесные", op. 24 (Пять песен для голоса с фортепиано (Pjat' pesen dlja golosa s fortepiano)) no. 2, published 1924 [ voice and piano ], Moscow, Gos. Izdatelstvo Muz. Sektor [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Aleksandr Petrov , "Тучки небесные" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Aleksei Alekseyevich Petrov (1859 - 1919), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Ivan Alexandrovich Pomazansky (1848 - 1918), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Sergey Alekseyevich Razoryonov (1909 - 1996), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), "Тучи небесныя", op. 13 (2 трехголосных женских хора (2 trekhgolosnykh zhenskikh khora)) no. 1 [ three-part women's chorus and harmonium or fortepiano ad libitum ], Leipzig, Belaieff [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (1829 - 1894), "Тучи", op. 36 (Zwölf Lieder aus dem Russischem von F. Bodenstedt) no. 4 (1849-51) [ voice and piano ], Wien, Spina, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Fyodor Ivanovich Silin , "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Mikhail Nikolayevich Simansky (1910 - 2002), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (1948 - 2020), "Тучи", op. 159 no. 2 (2009) [ voice and violoncello ], from Ot sosny do luny, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Vladimir Timofeyevich Sokolov (1830 - 1890), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Konstantin Nikolayevich Startsev , "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Georgiy Vasil'yevich Sviridov (1915 - 1998), "Тучи" [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Aleksandr Yegorovich Varlamov (1801 - 1848), "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Vasily Alekseyevich Vonlyarlyarsky (1814 - 1853), "Тучки небесные" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Nikolay Ivanovich Zabusov , "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by F. A. Zaikin , "Тучи" [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (1802 - 1870) , "Les nuages", appears in Impressions de voyage, Paris, Éd. Michel Lévy frères, first published 1865 ; composed by Jules Bouval.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt (1819 - 1892) , "Die Wolken", appears in Russische Dichter, first published 1866 ; composed by Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein.
    • Go to the text.

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • 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!

Text Authorship:

  • by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi (1863 - 1943), "To the clouds", appears in Russian Lyrics, first published 1916 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Russian (Русский) by Mikhail Yur'yevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), "Тучи", first published 1840
    • Go to the text page.

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

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