No More Learning

[Note: The serfs destined for military service used to have
a portion of their heads shaved as a distinctive mark. ]

XXXIII

In her friends' albums, time had been,
With blood instead of ink she scrawled,
Baptized Prascovia Pauline,
And in her conversation drawled.
She wore her corset tightly bound,
The Russian N with nasal sound
She would pronounce _a la Francaise_;
But soon she altered all her ways,
Corset and album and Pauline,
Her sentimental verses all,
She soon forgot, began to call
Akulka who was once Celine,
And had with waddling in the end
Her caps and night-dresses to mend.

XXXIV

As for her spouse he loved her dearly,
In her affairs ne'er interfered,
Entrusted all to her sincerely,
In dressing-gown at meals appeared.
Existence calmly sped along,
And oft at eventide a throng
Of friends unceremonious would
Assemble from the neighbourhood:
They growl a bit--they scandalise--
They crack a feeble joke and smile--
Thus the time passes and meanwhile
Olga the tea must supervise--
'Tis time for supper, now for bed,
And soon the friendly troop hath fled.

XXXV

They in a peaceful life preserved
Customs by ages sanctified,
Strictly the Carnival observed,
Ate Russian pancakes at Shrovetide,
Twice in the year to fast were bound,
Of whirligigs were very fond,
Of Christmas carols, song and dance;
When people with long countenance
On Trinity Sunday yawned at prayer,
Three tears they dropt with humble mein
Upon a bunch of lovage green;
_Kvass_ needful was to them as air;
On guests their servants used to wait
By rank as settled by the State. (27)

[Note 27: The foregoing stanza requires explanation. Russian
pancakes or "blinni" are consumed vigorously by the lower
orders during the Carnival. At other times it is difficult
to procure them, at any rate in the large towns.

The Russian peasants are childishly fond of whirligigs, which
are also much in vogue during the Carnival.

"Christmas Carols" is not an exact equivalent for the Russian
phrase. "Podbliudni pessni," are literally "dish songs," or
songs used with dishes (of water) during the "sviatki" or Holy
Nights, which extend from Christmas to Twelfth Night, for
purposes of divination. Reference will again be made to this
superstitious practice, which is not confined to Russia. See Note 52.

"Song and dance," the well-known "khorovod," in which the dance
proceeds to vocal music.
"Lovage," the _Levisticum officinalis_, is a hardy plant growing
very far north, though an inhabitant of our own kitchen gardens.
The passage containing the reference to the three tears and
Trinity Sunday was at first deemed irreligious by the Russian
censors, and consequently expunged.

_Kvass_ is of various sorts: there is the common _kvass_ of
fermented rye used by the peasantry, and the more expensive
_kvass_ of the restaurants, iced and flavoured with various fruits.

The final two lines refer to the "Tchin," or Russian social
hierarchy. There are fourteen grades in the Tchin assigning
relative rank and precedence to the members of the various
departments of the State, civil, military, naval, court,
scientific and educational. The military and naval grades from
the 14th up to the 7th confer personal nobility only, whilst
above the 7th hereditary rank is acquired. In the remaining
departments, civil or otherwise, personal nobility is only
attained with the 9th grade, hereditary with the 4th. ]

XXXVI

Thus age approached, the common doom,
And death before the husband wide
Opened the portals of the tomb
And a new diadem supplied. (28)
Just before dinner-time he slept,
By neighbouring families bewept,
By children and by faithful wife
With deeper woe than others' grief.
He was an honest gentleman,
And where at last his bones repose
The epitaph on marble shows:
_Demetrius Larine, sinful man,
Servant of God and brigadier,
Enjoyeth peaceful slumber here_.

[Note 28: A play upon the word "venetz," crown, which also
signifies a nimbus or glory, and is the symbol of marriage
from the fact of two gilt crowns being held over the heads
of the bride and bridegroom during the ceremony. The literal
meaning of the passage is therefore: his earthly marriage
was dissolved and a heavenly one was contracted. ]

XXXVII

To his Penates now returned,
Vladimir Lenski visited
His neighbour's lowly tomb and mourned
Above the ashes of the dead.
There long time sad at heart he stayed:
"Poor Yorick," mournfully he said,
"How often in thine arms I lay;
How with thy medal I would play,
The Medal Otchakoff conferred! (29)
To me he would his Olga give,
Would whisper: shall I so long live? "--
And by a genuine sorrow stirred,
Lenski his pencil-case took out
And an elegiac poem wrote.