Yevgeny Onegin

DEDICATION

to P. A. Pletnyov (1792–1865)

Not for the stately world’s amusement,

But as your friend, I’d have been pleased

To dedicate for your perusal

A better pledge, a worthier piece

Truer to your exalted spirit,

Brimming with limpid poetry,

And holy dreams by which to fill it

With high thoughts, yet simplicity...

Still, take this pledge. To you I will it,

A hash of chapters set in rhyme,

Half-humoristic and half-tragic,

Some idealistic, some pragmatic,

The casual fruits of too much time,

Swift inspirations and insomnia,

The callowness of withered years,

Cold, intellectual phenomena,

A heart, a lifetime, washed with tears.