Novice Mzyri Mikhail Lermontov Poem by Yuri Starostin

Novice Mzyri
Mikhail Lermontov



Mikhail Lermontov.

Novice Mzyri

Novice Mzyri - in Georgian means 'non-employees Monk', a sort of 'novice'. (Note Lermontov.)



Tasting, tastes a little honey, and lo al dying.

1st Book of Kingdoms



1

A few years ago,

There whereas, plums, noise,

Embraced, like the two sisters,

The streams of Aragva and Kura

There was the monastery. Beside the mountain

And now the pedestrian sees

The pillars of the collapsed gate,

And the tower and the church vault;

But not much is smoked under it

The spoons bless fragrant smoke,

Not to hear the singing in the late hour

Of the begging monks for us.

Now the gray-haired old man,

The half-dead guard of the ruins,

By the people and by the death is forgotten,

Sweeps away the dust from the gravestones,

Whose the inscription says

About the glory of the past - and about that

How depressed by his crown,

Same king, in same year,

To Russia have handed his people.



***


And God's grace come in

At Georgia! It is blossomed

Since then, in the shadow of their gardens,

Do not fear of an enemies

Behind the face of the friendly bayonets.



2

Once the russian general

From the mountains to Tiflis go passed;

The child prisoner he was carrying.

He become sick, did not survive

The proceedings of the long journey;

He was, it seemed, about six years old,

As a serna of the mountains, fearful and wild

And weak and flexible, like a reed.

But in him the grievous evil

Revive the mighty spirit

Of his fathers. No a complaints he

Languished, even a faint moan

From the children's lips was not flying,

By the sign the food he is rejected

And quietly, proudly died.

One monk be sorry

Have looked the impatient, and in the walls

Of the care he is remained,

By the friendly art have saved.

But be a stranger to the childish pleasures,

Firstly he ran from all,

Wandered be silent, lonely,

Watched, breathed a sigh, to the east,

Hearded by the unclear anguish

On his natives side.

But after he got used to the prison,

Began to understand the foreign language,

Was baptized by the Holy Father

And, with the noisy light is unfamiliar,

Already wanted in his prime

Have utter the vows,

Then suddenly one day he disappeared

By the autumn night. The dark forest

Dragged through the mountains circles.

Three days all are searching for him

Were in vain, but then

Unconscious him in the desert found

And once again brought to the monastery.

He was terribly pale and thin

And was weak, as soon a long labor,

The disease or the hunger he is experienced.

He did not respond to an interrogation

And day by day noticeably sluggish.

And it was near him end;

Then the monk came to him

With the exhortations and prayer;

And, proudly listening, the patient

Stood up, gathering the rest of a forces

And so for a long time, he said:



3

'You listen to my confession

Come here, thank you.

All the same better to someone

By the words can relieve my chest;

But to a people I have not done evil,

And because my business

Little use to you to know

And the soul can tell miles?

I've lived a little, and lived in the captivity.

These two lives in one,

But just full of an alarm,

I would exchange if I could.

I knew the power of the only thought,

One - but the fiery passion:

It is like a worm lived in me,

Gnawed the soul and burn down.

She was calling my dreams

From the stuffy cells and prayers

To the wonderful world of the alarms and battles,

Where the clouds are hiding in the rocks,

Where the people are free as an eagles.

This passion in the darkness of the night

I have nurtured by the tears and sadness;

It before the heaven and earth

I now confess aloudly

And do not pray for a forgiveness.



4

The old man! I've heard many times,

Somewhat you saved me from death -

Why? .. Morose and lonely,

By the storm the detached leaf

I grew up in the gloomy walls

By the soul the child, by the fate the monk.

I could not tell to anyone

The sacred words 'father' and 'mother.'

Of course you would, old man,

To had I lost the habit in the monastery

From these sweet names -

In vain: the sound of its were born

With me. And I have seen at other

The motherland, home, friends, relatives,

And I did not find at me

Not only the lovely souls - the graves!

Then, not wasting the empty tears,

In my soul I said the swear:

Although for a moment in sometime

My burning chest

Press down with the sorrow to the other breast,

Although to the unfamiliar, but to the native.

Alas! Now those dream

Died in the full beauty,

And I go have live in a foreign land

I die by a slave and an orphan.



5

I am not afraid the grave:

There, say, the suffering sleep

In the cold eternal silence;

But sorry to part the life to me.

I am young, young... Did you know

The dissolute youth dreams?

Either did not know or forgot,

As hated and loved;

As the heart do beaten vivere

At the sight of the sun and the fields

With the high corner towers,

Somewhere the air is fresh and there at times

In the deep borehole the walls,

The child of an unknown country,

Standing close, the young dove

Is sitting, scared the storm?

Let now a lovely light

To you is fasting, you're weak, you are grey hair,

And you've lost the habit of a desire.

What is the need? You was lived, man!

You have in the world to forget somewhat,

You was lived - by this way I could to live!



6

You want to know what I saw

In the will? -The lush fields

The hills covered by the crown

The trees that grews around,

Noisy by the fresh crowd,

As the brothers in a circular dance.

I saw the pile of the dark rocks,

When the flow separates its.

And I'm guessing their thoughts:

To me that was given by above!

Outstretched in the air for a long time

The stone embrace of its,

And eager to meet the every moment;

But the days run, the year run -

Its will never meet again!

I saw the mountain ranges,

The bizarre-s as the dreams,

When in the hour of the dawn

The smoked as the altars,

Are its heights in the blue sky,

And the cloud for the cloud,

Leaving its secret overnight,

To the east directed run -

As soon the white caravan

The stray birds from the far lands!

In the distance I could see through the fog,

In the snow, burning like a diamond

Gray-haired immutable Caucasus;

And it was to my heart

Easy, I do not know the reason.

The secret voice said to me,

That once and I lived there,

And in my memory

The past become more clearer, clearer...



7

And I remembered my father's house,

Our gorge and around

In the shadow the spilled aul;

I could hear the evening roar

Of the fleeing herds to home

And the far barking of the acquaintances dogs.

I remembered the dark-skinned old men

In the light of the moon evenings

Against the father's porch

Sitting with the importance of the person;

And the shine of the rimmed nozhon

Of the long daggers... and as the dream

All this by the vague one by one

Suddenly ran before me.

And my father? he is like a living

In his battle dress

He come to me, and I remembered

The chainmail ringing, and the glitter guns

And the proud unbending sight,

And my younger sisters...

The rays of their sweet eyes

And the sound of their songs and speeches

Over the cradle mine...

In the gorge there the stream ran.

It was noisy, but not deep;

To its, to the golden sand,

To play I was leaving at noon

And by the look watched the swallows,

When they were before the rain

Slip the waves by the wing.

And I remembered our peaceful home

And before the evening hearth

The long stories about

How was lived the people of the old days,

When the world was still lush-ed.



8

You want to know what I was doing

In the will? Lived - and my life

Without these three blissful days

Would be more sadder and darker

Of the powerless to your old age.

Once upon a time I thought

To look at the far fields,

To know whether the land is beautiful,

To know to the will or to the prison

On this light we are born.

And in the hour of the night, a terrible hour,

When the storm frighten you,

When crowding at the altar,

You were bow lying on the ground,

I ran away. Oh, I like a brother

Embrace the storm would be happy!

By the eyes the clouds I follow,

By the hand caught the lightning...

Tell me that among these walls

Could you give me in return

Of that short but lively friendship,

Between the rough heart and the storm? , .



9

I ran for a long time - somewhere, where?

I do not know! no a star

To lit up the hard way.

I was happy to breathe

In my aching chest

The overnight freshness of this forest,

And all! I have a lot of hours

Ran, and finally, tired,

Lay among the tall grasses;

Listen: there is no chase.

The storm subsided. The pale light

Wore by the long strip

Between the dark sky and the earth,

And I discerned, as the pattern,

Her teeth of the far mountains;

Prope, I lay in silence,

Sometimes in the gorge the jackal

Screamed and cried like a child,

And, shining by the smooth scales,

The snake are slithered among the stones;

But the fear do not gripped my soul:

I am, as a beast, was a stranger to the people

And crawling and hiding like a snakes.



10

At the bottom deeply underneath me

The feed enhanced by the storm

Make a noise, and his noise is deaf

To the hundreds of an angry voices

Is similar. Although no a words

I have to heed that talk,

The incessant murmur, the eternal debate

With the stubborn heaps of the stones.

So suddenly it is muted down, so more stronger

It was hear in silence;

And now, in the hazy high above

The birds have sing up, and the east

Get rich; the breeze

Moved the raw leafs;

The sleepy flowers have breathed,

And as its are to meet the day

I keep up my head...

I looked around, do not hide:

I was scared, at the edge

Of the threatening chasm I lay

Where do howled, twisting, the angry shaft;

The steeps of the rocks there rows;

But only the evil spirit on its goes walked,

When the downward-ed from the heaven

In the underground gorge it was disappeared.



11

Around me the blossoming God garden was;

The plants rainbow outfit

Keeps the step of the celestial tears

And the curls of the vines clusters

Curled, showing between the trees

By the transparent green leafs;

And full of a grapes on its,

The earrings likeness expensived

Hung magnificently, and at times

To its the birds flews is the skittish swarm

Again I fell to the ground

And became listen again

To the magic, strange voices;

They whispered in the bushes,

As soon its speech were go

About the secrets of the heaven and earth;

And all the voices of nature

Merged here, no the hear

In the solemn hour of the much-vaunted

Only is the proud voice of the people.

In vain that I felt then,

Those thoughts - so there is no a trace of its;

But I'd wanted to tell them,

To live, even mentally, again.

In that morning the vault of the heaven was

So pure that the angel flying

The studious eye could follow;

He was so transparent deep

So full of the smooth blue!

I'm in it by the eyes and the soul

Drowning until the midday heat

Do not dispersed my dreams.

And by the thirst I was parched.



12

Then to the flow from the height

Holding on to the flexible bushes

With the plate on a plate I do as I could,

Began to descend. From under the feet

The torned stone sometimes

Barreling down - for its the reins

Smoke, the dust curling by the column;

Buzzing and jumping, then

It was swallowing by the wave;

And I was hanging over the deep,

But the youth is rather strong,

And the death did not seem scary!

As soon as I'm from the abrupt heights

Went down, the freshness of the mountain water

Was wafted toward me,

And I eagerly fell to a wave.

Suddenly - the voice – the light footsteps...

Instantly hiding between the bushes

Involuntary by the trembling holds,

I picked up the timid look

And listen eagerly began:

And closer and closer still go sounded

The Georgians voice of the young,

So artless alive

So sweet free, as

Only the sounds of the friendly names

It was accustomed to utter.

That a simple song was

But in the thought it lain down,

And to me, only the dusk comes,

Its invisible spirit singing.



13

Holding the jug over her head,

Georgian by the narrow path

Went to the coast. Occasionally

She slipped between the stones,

Laughing his embarrassment.

And her outfit was poor;

And she go easy, to back

The long bends of the veil

Throwing back. The summer Heat

Covered by the gold shadow

Her face and chest, and the heat

Breathing out of her mouth and cheeks.

And the darkness of the eyes was so deep,

So full of the mysteries of the love,

That my fervent thoughts

Were perplexed. I only remember

The crock ringing - when the jet

Poured slowly into it,

And the whisper... nothing more.

When I woke up again

And the blood flues the heart from,

She was too far away;

And went, though quieter - but easy,

Go slim under her burden,

As the poplar, the king of her fields!

Nearby, in the cool darkness,

It seemed to the rock the rooted

Two saklya by the amicably couple;

Above the one flat roof

The blue smoke was streaming.

I see as now is,

As quietly opened the door...

And the lock again! ..

To you, I know, do not understand

My anguish, my sorrow;

And if I could - I would be sorrow:

The memories of those minutes

In me, let die with me.



14

Exhausted by the works of the night,

I lay down in the shade. The gratifying sleep

Shutters being the eyes to me...

And again I saw in a dream

The image of young Georgians.

And by the strange sweet sorrow

Again, my chest moah.

I have long struggled to breathe -

And woke up. Et the moon

At the top was shining, and alone

Only the cloud snuck up behind its,

As for his prey,

The embrace greedy opened.

The world was dark and silent;

Only by the silver fringe

The tops of the chain of a snow

Far did flashed before me

Yes in the shore the splashing stream.

In a familiar sacklya the twinkle

So was tremble, so ashed out again:

In the heaven, in the midnight hour

So the shining star dim!

I wanted to... but I'm there

Did not dare to climb. I have one goal -

Going on the native country -

Had in mind, and overcome

The suffering of the hunger as I could.

And by the right road

I go on, timid and silent.

But soon, in the depths of the forest

The sight lost the mountains

And then began to stray from the way.



15

In vain be fury at times

I tore by the desperate hand

The bramble tied by the ivy:

Go the wood was, the eternal forest is around,

The scarier and thicker every hour;

And by the millions of the black eyes

The night darkness is watched

Through the branches of each bush.

My head was spinning;

I began to climb to the trees;

But even on the edge of heaven

All the same the notched wood had.

Then I fell to the ground;

And cried in a frenzy,

And chewed the raw chest land

And the tears, the tears began to flow

To its by the fuel dew...

But, believe me, the human help

I did not want ... I was a stranger

For them forever, like a beast of the steppe;

And if even the minute shout

Was changed me- I swear, old man,

I'd pulled my weak tongue.



16

Do you remember the childhood years:

The tears I did not know never;

But then I cried without a shame.

Who could see? Only the dark forest

And the month sailing on the skies!

The lit by its beam

The covered by the moss and sand,

By the impenetrable wall

The surrounded in front of me

The meadow was. Suddenly, in it

The shadow flashed, and the two fires

Sparks raced... and then

Some animal in a single jump

Popped out of the thicket and lay down,

Playing, on his back on the sand.

That was the eternal desert guest -

The mighty leopard. The crude bone

He nibbled and fun squealed;

So the bloody look rushed,

Gently shaking by the tail,

For the full month - and on it

The wool was flow by a silver.

I waited, grabbing the horny bitches

The minute battle, the heart suddenly

Sparked by the thirst for the combat

And the blood... yes, the hand of fate

Led me by the different way...

But now, I am sure,

That could not be in the land of the fathers

The last daring.



17

I was waiting for. And in the shadow of the night

He sensed the enemy, and the howling

Is long, mournful as a moan

Give up sudden... and he began

Angrily by the paw to dig a sand,

He got up on his hind legs, then lay down,

And the first frantic leap

To me by the horrible death was threatened...

But I warned him.

The strike was my true and fast.

Reliable my bitches like an ax,

Cut his wide forehead...

He groaned as the man

And overturned. But again,

Although the blood flows from the wound

By the thick, broad wave,

The battle raged, a deadly fight!



18

To me, he have threw on the chest:

But in the throat I could pile in time

And there twice to turn

My weapon... he howled

Rushed by the last effort,

And we, the gossip, like a pair of a snakes,

Embraced stronger of the two friends,

Fell at once, and in the mist

The fight went on the ground.

And I was fearful at that moment;

Like a leopard of a desert, angry and wild,

I blazed, screamed as he is;

As soon I am was born

In a family of a leopards and wolves

Under the fresh forest canopy.

It seemed that the words of the people

I forgot - and in my breast

That terrible shout was born,

As from the childhood my language

For other sound was not used to...

But my enemy become weak,

Rush, slow breathing,

Pressed me in the last time...

The pupils of his motionless eyes

Glinted menacingly - and then

Closed quietly by the eternal sleep;

But with a triumphant enemy

He meet the death the face to face,

As in the battle to be the warrior! ..



19

You see on my breast

The deep traces of the claw;

Yet its were not overgrown

And not closed, but the land

Crude cover refreshes its

And the death will alive forever its.

About its then I forgot,

And, once again holded the rest of a forces

I go walked in the depths of the forest...

In vain I argued with the destiny:

She was laughed over me!



20

I came out of the woods. And

The day woke up, and dance

Of the luminaries parting is disappeared

In its rays. The misty forest

Spoke. At afar the aul

Began to smoke. The confused hum

In the valley with the wind ran...

I sat down and began to listen up;

But it mute with the wind.

And I threw the looks around:

That edge seemed to me is known.

And it was terrible to me, to understand

I could not for a long time, that again

I returned to my prison;

That it is useless so many days

The secret thought I caressed,

Suffered, languished and be strain,

And all why do? .. To do in the prime of life,

Barely looking into the light,

At the sonorous murmur oak

Knowing the bliss of freedom,

To carry to the grave mine

The ennui of the saint motherland

The hopes defrauded reproach

And your sorrow shame! ..

Still in the doubt shipped,

I thought - this is a thrill dream...

Suddenly a far bell ringing

Give up in the silence again -

And then everything became clear to me...

Oh, I recognized it at once!

From the children's eyes more than once

It drove the vision of the alive dreams

About the near and dear relatives,

About the will of the wild steppes,

About the lungs, rabid horses

About the wonderful battle between the rocks,

Where the one I won to everyone! ..

And I listened without a tears, without a force.

It seemed that the ringing was leaving

From the heart - as someone

By the iron hit me in the chest.

And then I understand vaguely,

That to my home the track

Do not lay so never.



21

Yes, I deserve my lot!

The mighty horse in the stranger desert

Throwing the bad rider,

At home from afar

Will Find a direct and concise way...

What is I am before him? In vain the chest

Full of the desire and longing:

So the powerless and empty heat,

The game of the dreams, the disease of the mind.

The prison of its print on me

Have left... That kind is the flower

Of the prison: grow up alone

And it was pale between the raw plates,

And long the leafs of young

Not blossomed, still waiting a rays

Life-giving. And many days

Passed, and the good hand

Sadly touch the flower,

And it was removed to the garden,

In the neighborhood of the roses. From all sides

Breathed the sweetness of life...

But what is go? As soon as the day breaks,

Its scorching ray have burned

The flower studied in the prison...



22

And like it, go burned me

The fire of the ruthless day.

In vain I hid in the grass

My tired head:

Its withered leaf by the crown

Thorns on my forehead

Twine, and in the face by the fire

The earth is was breathing to me.

Blazing fast in the sky,

The sparks swirled from the white rocks

Streamed the vapor. God's world slept

In a deaf stupor

By the heavy sleep of the despair.

At least the shouted corncrake,

Or the dragonflies live trill

Was heard, or the stream

Childish prattle... Only the snake

By the dry weeds go rustling,

Flashing by the yellow back

As by the golden inscription

The covered blade till the bottom

Reins the crumbly sand.

Glided gently, then,

Playing, luxuriate on it,

By the triple ring twisted;

So, as be suddenly burned,

She rush about, jumped

And hiding in the far bushes...



23

And all was in heaven

The light and quiet. Through the couples

Two mountains loomed in the far.

Our monastery due to one

Brights by the glittering battlements.

Below Aragva and Kura

Encircling by the border of silver

The soles of the fresh islands

By the roots of the bushes whispering

Its ran together and easy...

Until its I was away!

I wanted to get up - in front of me

All spun with rapidity;

I wanted to cry -the dry tongue

Was soundless and motionless ...

I was dying. Pine me

The dying delirium.

It seemed to me,

As I lay on the wet bottom

Of the deep river - and

Around a mysterious haze was.

And thirst for the eternal singing,

As the ice the cold stream,

Murmuring, was poured into my chest...

And I'm just afraid to go sleep -

So was sweet, enjoy me...

And above me in the sky

The wave crowd to the wave.

And the sun shining through the crystal waves

Shone sweeter of the moon...

And the motley fish herd

In the rays plays sometimes.

And I remember one of its:

She's friendly other

Caressed to me.By the squama

The covered by the gold

Her back is. She weave

Above my head more than once,

And her look of the green eyes

Was sadly gentle and deep...

And I could not to wonder by:

Her silvery voice

Whispered me the strange speech,

And sang, and again fell silent.

It said:

'My child,

Stay with me here:

In the water the goodwill habitation

And the cold and quiet are.


...


I will convene my sisters:

We are by the round dancing

Cheer up the misty eyes

And your tired spirit.


...


Go to sleep, your bed is soft,

Your cover is transparent.

The years will pass, the century will pass

Under the wonderful voices of the dreams.


...


Oh my dear! Do not hide,

I love you,

I love as the freestyle jet

I love as my life... '


And for a long, long time I listened to;

And fancied, the sonorous jet

Drain its quiet murmur

With the words of the golden fish.

Here I have forgotten. The God's light

In the eyes faded.The mad ravings

To the impotence of the body have succumbed...



24

So I found and was get up...

You know the rest are.

I have finished. Believe my words

Believe or not, I do not care.

It saddens me only one thing:

My corpse is cold and silent

Will not fester in his native land,

And the story of my bitter agony

Do not call between the walls of the deaf

The mournful attention of anyone's

By mine dark name.



25

Farewell, my father... give me the hand:

Do you feel the fire in my...

Know this flame from the young days,

Hide, was lived in my breast;

But now it has no a food,

And it burned its prison

And return again to one

Who are to all by the legitimate succession

Gives the suffering and peace...

But what is to me in its? - Lets in the paradise

In the holy, in the edge out a cloud

My spirit will find a shelter...

Alas! - For a few minutes

Between the abrupt and dark rocks,

Where I'm kidding played

I would exchanged the paradise and eternity...



26

When I will dying,

And, believe, you have not to wait long

You prove to transfer me

In our garden, to the place where

The white acacia two bushes blooms...

The grass between is so often,

And the fresh air is so fragrant,

And so the translucent- golden

Leaf is playing in the sun!

There prove to put me.

By the blue radiance of the day

I have up drink at last time.

There is visible and Caucasus!

Perhaps it was its height

Send me a farewell greeting,

Send with the cool breeze...

And near to me before the end

The native sound will hear again!

And I'm thinking that the friend

Or the brother, bending over me,

Rub out by the attentive hand

With the face death a cool sweat

And in a low voice that sings

He told me about the dear country...

And with that thought, I go to sleep,

And damn no one! .. '

1839