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

But still it lay disquieted

And still the wicked waves were seething

In pride of victory, as though

A flame was smoldering below;

And heavily was Neva breathing

Like to a horse besprent with foam

Who gallops from the battle home.

Evgeny watches, and descrying

By happy chance a boat, goes bluing

To hail the ferryman; and he,

Unhired and idle, willingly

Convoys him for a threepence, plying

Through that intimidating sea.

The old tried oarsman long contended

With the wild waters, hour by hour,

Sunk in the trough, the skiff descended

Mid rollers, ready to devour

Rash crew and all – at last contriving

To make the farther shore.

Arriving,

Evgeny – evil is his lot! —

Runs to the old street, – and knows it not.

All, to his horror, is demolished,

Leveled or ruined or abolished.

Houses are twisted all awry,

And some are altogether shattered,

Some shifted by the seas; and scattered

Are bodies, flung as bodies lie

On battlefields.

Half-fainting, and excruciated,

Evgeny rushes on, awaited

By destiny with unrevealed

Tidings, as in a letter sealed.

He scours the suburb; and discerning

The bay, he knows the house is near;

And then stops short, ah, what is here?

Retreating, and again returning,

He looks – advances – look again.

�Tis there they dwelt, the marks are plain;

There is the willow.

The gate was standing, in the past;

Now, washt away! No house! – O’ercast

With care, behold Evgeny wander

Forever rounds and rounds the place,

And talk aloud, and strike his face

With his bare hand. A moment after,

He breaks into a roar of laughter.

The vapors of the night came down

Upon the terror-stricken town,

But all the people long debated

The doings of the day, and waited

And could not sleep. The morning light

From pale and weary clouds gleamed bright

On the still capital; no traces

Now of the woes of yesternight!

With royal purple it effaces

The mischief; all things are proceeding

In form and order as of old;

The people are already treading,

Impassive, in their fashion, cold,

Through the cleared thoroughfares, inheeding;

And now official folk forsake

Their last night’s refuge, as they make

Their way to duty.