Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood We were once close, intimate friends…. But there came an evil moment and we parted like enemies. Many years passed…. And lo! on entering the town where he lived I learned that he was hopelessly ill, and wished to see me. I went to him, I entered his chamber…. […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood A BAS-RELIEF A tall, bony old woman with an iron face and a dull, impassive gaze is walking along with great strides, and pushing before her, with her hand as harsh as a stick, another woman. This woman, of vast size, powerful, corpulent, with the muscles of a Hercules, […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood Once upon a time a fool lived in the world. For a long time he lived in clover; but gradually rumours began to reach him to the effect that he bore the reputation everywhere of a brainless ninny. The fool was disconcerted and began to fret over the question […]

Translated From The Russian By Isabel Hapgood There existed once a city whose inhabitants were so passionately fond of poetry that if several weeks passed and no beautiful new verses had made their appearance they regarded that poetical dearth as a public calamity. At such times they donned their worst garments, sprinkled ashes on their […]

Translated From The Russian By Isabel Hapgood Who in Bagdad does not know the great Giaffar, the sun of the universe? One day, many years ago, when he was still a young man, Giaffar was strolling in the suburbs of Bagdad. Suddenly there fell upon his ear a hoarse cry: some one was calling desperately […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood A sumptuous, luxuriously illuminated ball-room; a multitude of cavaliers and ladies. All faces are animated, all speeches are brisk…. A rattling conversation is in progress about a well-known songstress. The people are lauding her as divine, immortal…. Oh, how finely she had executed her last trill that evening! And […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood “THOU SHALT HEAR THE JUDGMENT OF THE DULLARD….”Pushkin “Thou shalt hear the judgment of the dullard….” Thou hast always spoken the truth, thou great writer of ours; thou hast spoken it this time, also. “The judgment of the dullard and the laughter of the crowd.”… Who is there that […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood “If you desire thoroughly to mortify and even to injure an opponent,” said an old swindler to me, “reproach him with the very defect or vice of which you feel conscious in yourself.–Fly into a rage … and reproach him! “In the first place, that makes other people think […]

Translated From The Russian By Isabel Hapgood Along a street of the capital is skipping a man who is still young.–His movements are cheerful, alert; his eyes are beaming, his lips are smiling, his sensitive face is pleasantly rosy…. He is all contentment and joy. What has happened to him? Has he come into an […]

Translated From The Russian By Isabel Hapgood When I was living in Petersburg,–many years ago,–whenever I had occasion to hire a public cabman I entered into conversation with him. I was specially fond of conversing with the night cabmen,–poor peasants of the suburbs, who have come to town with their ochre-tinted little sledges and miserable […]

Translated From The Russian By Isabel Hapgood It seems to me as though I am somewhere in Russia, in the wilds, in a plain country house. The chamber is large, low-ceiled, with three windows; the walls are smeared with white paint; there is no furniture. In front of the house is a bare plain; gradually […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood The last day of July; for a thousand versts round about lies Russia, the fatherland. The whole sky is suffused with an even azure; there is only one little cloud in it, which is half floating, half melting. There is no wind, it is warm … the air is […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood “Never yet has human foot trod eitherthe Jungfrau or the Finsteraarhorn.” The summits of the Alps…. A whole chain of steep cliffs…. The very heart of the mountains. Overhead a bright, mute, pale-green sky. A hard, cruel frost; firm, sparkling snow; from beneath the snow project grim blocks of […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood I was walking across a spacious field, alone. And suddenly I thought I heard light, cautious footsteps behind my back…. Some one was following me. I glanced round and beheld a tiny, bent old woman, all enveloped in grey rags. The old woman’s face was visible from beneath them: […]

Translated From The RussianBy Isabel Hapgood I was passing along the street when a beggar, a decrepit old man, stopped me. Swollen, tearful eyes, blue lips, bristling rags, unclean sores…. Oh, how horribly had poverty gnawed that unhappy being! He stretched out to me a red, bloated, dirty hand…. He moaned, he bellowed for help. […]

Translated From The Russian By Isabel Hapgood I had a comrade-rival; not in our studies, not in the service or in love; but our views did not agree on any point, and every time we met, interminable arguments sprang up. We argued about art, religion, science, about the life of earth and matters beyond the […]

In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on my country’s fate, thou alone art my stay and support, mighty, true, free Russian speech! But for thee, how not fall into despair, seeing all that is done at home? But who can think that such a tongue is not the gift of a great […]

I was going from Hamburg to London in a small steamer. We were two passengers; I and a little female monkey, whom a Hamburg merchant was sending as a present to his English partner. She was fastened by a light chain to one of the seats on deck, and was moving restlessly and whining in […]

Calmly and gracefully thou movest along the path of life, tearless andsmileless, and scarce a heedless glance of indifferent attention rufflesthy calm. Thou art good and wise … and all things are remote from thee, and of noone hast thou need. Thou art fair, and no one can say, whether thou prizest thy beauty or […]

Stay! as I see thee now, abide for ever in my memory! From thy lips the last inspired note has broken. No light, no flash is in thy eyes; they are dim, weighed down by the load of happiness, of the blissful sense of the beauty, it has been thy glad lot to express–the beauty, […]