Russian Poetry
POEMS IN PROSE
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Russian Literature – Russian Poetry – Children’s books – Ivan Turgenev – Poems – Obsolete Russian Words and their meaning
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In Memory Of J. P. Vrévsky
In the mire, on damp, stinking straw, under the pent-house of an old carriage-house which had been hastily converted into a field military hospital in a ruined Bulgarian hamlet, she had been for more than a fortnight dying of typhus fever.
She was unconscious—and not a single physician had even glanced at her; the sick soldiers whom she had nursed as long as she could keep on her feet rose by turns from their infected lairs, in order to raise to her parched lips a few drops of water in a fragment of a broken jug.
She was young, handsome; high society knew her; even dignitaries inquired about her. The ladies envied her, the men courted her … two or three men loved her secretly and profoundly. Life smiled upon her; but there are smiles which are worse than tears,
A tender, gentle heart … and such strength, such a thirst for sacrifice! To help those who needed help … she knew no other happiness … she knew no other and she tasted no other. Every other happiness passed her by. But she had long since become reconciled to that, and all flaming with the fire of inextinguishable faith, she dedicated herself to the service of her fellow-men. What sacred treasures she held hidden there, in the depths of her soul, in her own secret recesses, no one ever knew—and now no one will ever know.
And to what end? The sacrifice has been made … the deed is done.
But it is sorrowful to think that no one said “thank you” even to her corpse, although she herself was ashamed of and shunned all thanks.
May her dear shade be not offended by this tardy blossom, which I venture to lay upon her grave!
September, 1878.
Translated from the Russian by Isabel F. Hapgood
< < < How Fair, How Fresh Were The Roses
Masha > > >
Russian Literature – Russian Poetry – Children’s books – Ivan Turgenev – Poems – Obsolete Russian Words and their meaning
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