No More Learning

My gratitude do not disdain,
Admirer of the peaceful Muse,
Whose memory doth not refuse
My light productions to retain,
Whose hands indulgently caress
The bays of age and helplessness.


End of Canto the Second.


CANTO THE THIRD

The Country Damsel

'Elle etait fille, elle etait amoureuse'--Malfilatre

Canto The Third

[Note: Odessa and Mikhailovskoe, 1824. ]

I

"Whither away? Deuce take the bard! "--
"Good-bye, Oneguine, I must go. "--
"I won't detain you; but 'tis hard
To guess how you the eve pull through. "--
"At Larina's. "--"Hem, that is queer!
Pray is it not a tough affair
Thus to assassinate the eve? "--
"Not at all. "--"That I can't conceive!
'Tis something of this sort I deem.
In the first place, say, am I right?
A Russian household simple quite,
Who welcome guests with zeal extreme,
Preserves and an eternal prattle
About the rain and flax and cattle.
"--

II

"No misery I see in that"--
"Boredom, my friend, behold the ill--"
"Your fashionable world I hate,
Domestic life attracts me still,
Where--"--"What! another eclogue spin?
For God's sake, Lenski, don't begin!
What! really going? 'Tis too bad!
But Lenski, I should be so glad
Would you to me this Phyllis show,
Fair source of every fine idea,
Verses and tears et cetera.
Present me. "--"You are joking. "--"No. "--
"Delighted. "--"When? "--"This very night.
They will receive us with delight. "

III

Whilst homeward by the nearest route
Our heroes at full gallop sped,
Can we not stealthily make out
What they in conversation said? --
"How now, Oneguine, yawning still?