Аннотация: The Fairy Tale, devoted March 8, about Lermontov. Translation from Russian into English. Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Сказка к 8 Марта о Лермонтове".
The Fairy Tale, devoted March 8, about Lermontov
After departure from the small town of Taman my soul became the restless. My thoughts continuously came back to the my water nymph, to my undine.
Труды, заботы ночь и днем,
Все, размышлению мешая,
Приводит в первобытный вид
Больную душу: сердце спит,
Простора нет воображенью...
И нет работы голове...
Зато лежишь в густой траве
И дремлешь под широкой тенью
Чинар иль виноградных лоз...
(The works, the cares in the solar days and hours of the nights,
Everything, hampering the thoughts,
Leads to primitive kind of
The sick soul: the heart is asleep,
There is no scope for imagination...
And no the head work...
But lying in the thick grass
you'll sleep under a wide shade
of a sycamore trees or grapevines ...)
(...)
У медных пушек спит прислуга.
Едва дымятся фитили;
Попарно цепь стоит вдали;
Штыки горят под солнцем юга.
(Near a copper cannons the arms servants sleep.
Barely a wicks smoke;
In pairs the chain costs in the distance;
Bayonets burn under the sun of the South.)
In battles I have been seriously wounded, captured by the opponents. I fled from captivity with got at my disposal documents of a Cossack officer. And again I have appeared in the small town of Taman.
My wound justified my rest in Taman.
I have found the lodge on the seashore where I have for the first time got acquainted with my mermaid.
My days have been devoted to the recovery of my strength and my health.
I swam more and more, further and further. The familiar fisherman has a little taught me to steer the sailing vessel.
Every morning I did a little journey by horse.
Somehow in the sea we together with the fisherman have met the foreign ship. It has appeared, the captain spoke French. We have drunk a little French wine in his cabin.
I have read several poems and have given as keepsake to the captain a beautiful silver military flask.
He has in reply presented me several books in foreign languages. I had the some knowledge since the childhood. Books have given me the chance to refresh the childish knowledge.
So the days and has been going. Horseback riding, swimming in the sea, sailing, learning foreign languages.
After some time, I was already able to the independently sailing.
Somehow, being in the Crimea, I went along the coast. In one place the flow of rainwater has exposed the stone, the edge of which was trimmed in the shape of a semicircle. Hoping to find something interesting, I have a little cleaned the earth with a knife.
Hope did not deceive me. Densely to each other vessels of the most various form, from five to eleven centimeters high, stood and lay. Two vessels are painted with a beautiful ornament, palmettes, meanders and some figures. There were also a crooked knife, fragments of the sword, the twisted bronze decoration and a clay figure of the goddess with two flutes, the gold coins and jewelry.
I have transported all found objects toward the my little house.
Thus began my fascination with archaeology.
The little house, I lived in, was on the edge of a cliff. And I often admired the sea.
'Я долгие часы просиживал один,
И память их жива поныне
Под бурей тягостных сомнений и страстей,
Как свежий островок безвредно средь морей
Цветет на влажной их пустыне.'
("I spent long hours alone,
And their memory is still alive
Under the storm of painful doubts and passions, -
As a fresh island harmlessly among the seas
Blossoms on their damp desert.")
One stormy day I saw the flashing between waves white sail.
My heart was beating faster.
The sail was approaching, but at some point the sail has disappeared.
I rushed to the beach.
It seemed to me that among the waves I see a human. I rushed into the raging sea and swam. The drowning human was already unconscious, and his body at times was hidden under the surface of the water.
It was that eighteen-year-old girl with whom I have got acquainted in Taman earlier. To see her I came back to the Taman.
I have pulled out her body on the coast and have made artificial respiration. She has begun to breathe. I have carried her in a house and cared for her health.
Her surprise knew no bounds. I explained that I had returned to Taman due to the military wound and that my health requested a long rest.
Next day we have found fragments of the sailing vessel which has sunk during a storm on which she floated, and bodies of his drowned passengers. Among the drowned persons there was also her comrade.
Since then, during horseback riding, swimming in the sea, sailing, learning foreign languages, I was not alone. With me was my songbird.
Soon we were married.
Once, swimming in one of the bays, I decided to dive to the bottom. The water was clear. I found the wreckage of the sunken ship.
Among fragments something has sparkled! It turned out that the ship was carrying several boxes of gold coins.
I was more and more interested in archeology. We moved to Europe.
During this period in Paris real estate prices fell, and I have bought several houses at once.
In one of the houses we settled down with my Undine. Here was my Parisian library. Other houses gave the income necessary for my archaeological excavations.
I added to the knowledge gained at the Moscow University - listened to several cycles of lectures at the Paris and Neapolitan universities.
I was drawn to Greece, and in this country we spent the most part of time with my beauty woman.
I drew attention to the low prices of land lots in Athens. Gradually acquired several plots. Soon the prices rose, I sold the plots profitably, and on the money I built our house in the Greek capital.
The house was decorated with frescoes on modern and archaeological themes.
On one of the frescoes depicts a young girl in a striped dress with loose braids - a real mermaid.
I have published several books with my travel diaries and descriptions of my archaeological excavations. On the basis of several books to me degree of the doctor of philosophy has been awarded.
Our archaeological studies were quite successful.
We found huge gold treasures and opened several of the ancient palaces.
My Undine and I made presentations at a joint meeting of several archaeological societies in one of the European capitals.
The treasures we found are housed in European museums.
We made a trip around the world. We visited Scotland, the places where my ancestors lived.
И арфы шотландской струну бы задел,
И по сводам бы звук полетел...
(And I would touch a strings of Scottish harps,
And the sounds would fly through the arches ...)
However, my beauty woman dedicated more and more her time to the our Athenian house and to our numerous children.
At some point, my earthly journey was over. It happened almost-that on the site of the antique city, where I came as a tourist
That's what happened after the end of the earthly path.
I met Louis Antoine de Bougainville. Among the roses he watched the flight of the snowflakes. The wind carried them to a flight around the globe. We greeted each other. De Bougainville was so kind as to quote my poem 'Парус' ("The Sail"):
Под ним струя светлей лазури,
Над ним луч солнца золотой...
А он, мятежный, просит бури,
Как будто в бурях есть покой!
("A stream of light azure in the depths,
Ray of the Sun Golden in the heights...
And he, the man of freedom, asks for a storm,
As if in the storms there is a rest!")
I have explained that I was inspired for the writing of this poem by his global cruise and his gallant act in relation to the women - by the ship of his expedition the woman has for the first time made a round-the-world trip.
De Bougainville has invited me to the port to be present at a greeting of the next super-catamaran which has set up the next record of speed during the global cruise under a sail.
Since then I sometimes walks with him for meetings of the super-catamarans.
My hope is - to meet my undine in the following life.
Than to complete my story? Probably, those the words, what I have begun with. Taman - the finest the small town from all seaside cities of Russia. I there slightly haven't died from hunger. Moreover in additives I was wanted to be drowned. But there I have found the happiness.
March 5, 2018 17:53.
Translation from Russian into English: March 6, 2018 14:06, 17:19.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Сказка к 8 Марта о Лермонтове'.