The bronze Horseman / Медный всадник. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Moody,

Distraught Ruslan is… In the cave

A bearded ancient, his mien grave

And quiet, sits. A lamp is burning

Near him, a book lies on his knee;

Engrossed in it, its pages he

With careful hand is slowly turning.

“I bid you welcome, knight! At last!”

Says he in greeting, smiling warmly.

“Here have I twenty long years passed

Of my old age, and grim and lonely

They’ve been… But now has come the day

For which, foreseeing it, I waited.

To meet, we two, my son, were fated,

Now sit and hear me out, I pray…

Ludmila from you has been taken;

You flag, you droop, by hope forsaken

And faith itself… ’Tis wrong! For brief

With evil and its partner, grief,

Will be, I promise, your encounter.

Take heart; with strong, sound spirit counter

The blows of fortune, banish woe,

And, sword aloft held, northward go!

��He who has wronged you, O my daring

Young stalwart, is old Chernomor.

A wizard, he is known to carry

Young maids off to the hills.

Long years he’s reigned there. None has ever

His castle seen, but through its door

You’ll pass, I know, and end forever

The villain’s rule; by your hand he

Will perish – so ’tis meant to be!…

I may not yield to indiscretion

And say aught more; your destiny

Yourself from this day on you fashion.”

Our knight falls at the elder’s feet

And in delight his hand he kisses.

The world a bright place seems, and sweet

Life is again; forgot distress is…

But then the sudden joyful glow

His face leaves, and it pales and darkens.

“Do not despair but to me harken,”

The old man says. “I know what so

Disquiets you: you are in fear of

The warlock’s love, eh, knight?… Be calm

The truth is, o my youthful hero,

That he can do the maid no harm.

From sky the stars he’ll pluck, I’ll wager,

Or shift the moon that sails on high,

But change the law of time and aging

He cannot, hard as he may try.

Though he lets none her chamber enter

And jealous watch keeps at her door,

He is the impotent tormentor

Of his fair captive, nothing more.

While never far from her, he curses

His lot, and soundly – but, my knight,

’Tis time for you to rest: the earth is

Enclosed in shadow; it is night.”

On soft moss lies Ruslan, a flame

Before him flickering.