While translating a small anthology of Russian poems on the theme of freedom, I was struck once again by the rhetorical power of Zinaida Gippius’s verse. Robert Chandler, Irina Mashinski, and I included three of her poems in The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, and I feature one of these, as well as two others, in my 1917. Below are another two. The first is drawn from the “freedom” anthology, and the second appeared in a special issue of Chtenia: Readings from Russia (Summer 2014) dedicated to Russian writing about World War I.
Freedom
I can’t submit myself to man.
Who’d choose to be a slave?
We judge each other all life long —
and then? A lonely grave.
I can’t submit myself to God,
because I love Him so.
For God has set me on this road —
where else am I to go?
I tear the nets that bind mankind —
happiness, sadness, dreams.
We aren’t slaves — we are Divine —
His children, free as He.
I only plead, in the name of the Son,
with God, the Creator of Being,
‘Father, for ever may they remain
as one — Your will and mine!’
1904
Without Justification
No, I will never make my peace.
There’s truth in all my curses.
I won’t forgive, won’t throw myself
into the iron embraces.
Like everyone, I’ll die, I’ll kill —
ruin myself, like everyone —
but I refuse to stain my soul
by justifying what goes on.
When death is near, in darkness, fire,
let my heart not forget:
One cannot justify the war!
One can’t, one simply can’t.
And if this is God’s Hand at work —
this awful, bloody road —
my spirit will not shrink or shirk,
but rise against the Lord.
April 1916, SPB
Свобода
Я не могу покоряться людям.
Можно ли рабства хотеть?
Целую жизнь мы друг друга судим, —
Чтобы затем — умереть.
Я не могу покоряться Богу,
Если я Бога люблю.
Он указал мне мою дорогу,
Как от нее отступлю?
Я разрываю людские сети —
Счастье, унынье и сон.
Мы не рабы, — но мы Божьи дети,
Дети свободны, как Он.
Только взываю, именем Сына,
К Богу, Творцу Бытия:
Отче, вовек да будут едино
Воля Твоя и моя!
1904
Без оправданья
Нет, никогда не примирюсь.
Верны мои проклятья.
Я не прощу, я не сорвусь
В железные объятья.
Как все, пойду, умру, убью,
Как все — себя разрушу,
Но оправданием — свою
Не запятнаю душу.
В последний час, во тьме, в огне,
Пусть сердце не забудет:
Нет оправдания войне!
И никогда не будет.
И если это Божья длань —
Кровавая дорога —
Мой дух пойдет и с Ним на брань,
Восстанет и на Бога.
Апрель 1916, СПБ
Thank you for sharing these. Gippius is a poet I’d somehow missed until recently, but her work and life are fascinating!
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Yes, she certainly deserves a wider readership! I do hope her moment will come.
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Her husband, fellow Silver Age writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky, is also largely unknown in the Anglophone world and deserves more attention.
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Indeed! But he was, at one point, far better known — especially for his historical novels. The “Christ and Antichrist” trilogy was published by the Modern Library in Bernard Guilbert Guerney’s translation.
http://www.modernlib.com/authors/mAuthors/merejkowskiJackets.html
https://www.libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/2347.htm
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[…] Two excellent translations of one of my favorite poets, Zinaida Gippius, by Boris Dralyuk, […]
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