Selected Poems of Pushkin

Author: (Russian) Pushkin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-05-01
Features: The name of the great Russian poet Pushkin is well-known to a broad readership in China. The introduction of Pushkin's works to China has a history of nearly a century. Starting from the introduction and translation of Pushkin's works by predecessors such as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, and Zheng Zhenduo, and through the continuous efforts of later generations, by the end of this century, Pushkin's works had appeared before readers in numerous individual volumes and various collections and complete editions. June 6, 1999, marked the bicentenary of the poet's birth. Russia celebrated this day as a national holiday. Cities in China, such as Beijing and Shanghai, also held various forms of celebration on this day. People's Literature Publishing House published the commemorative collection "Pushkin and Me" to mark the centennial of Pushkin in China on this very day. Due to the special historical ties between China and Russia, Pushkin has long been one of the most beloved foreign poets among Chinese readers. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on June 6, 1799, in Moscow to a declining noble family. His father admired French culture, his uncle was a poet, and the family had a well-stocked library. At the time, famous Russian poets such as Karamzin, Zhukovsky, and Baratynsky often visited their home as guests. Thus, he was exposed to literature, especially poetry, from a young age. With a French teacher in the family, he could write poems in French by the age of eight. From 1811 to 1817, he was sent to the Imperial Lyceum in St. Petersburg, which was established for noble children by the Tsar. It was from this time that his true poetic activities began. The invasion of Napoleon in 1812 and the Russian counterattack's victory inspired his patriotic sentiments. His poem "Reminiscences of the Imperial Lyceum," written in 1814, won the admiration of the great poet Derzhavin, propelling him into the literary world. In 1817, after graduating from the Imperial Lyceum, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a 10th-class civil servant. Russia was still a feudal serfdom at the time, but due to the activities of progressive noble intellectuals opposing tyranny and striving for freedom, Russia began to enter a period of national awakening. During his school years, Pushkin was deeply influenced by the liberal ideas of some professors and intellectuals both inside and outside the school, and his thoughts and spirit aligned with this progressive movement. His powerful poem "Ode to Freedom," written in 1817, was widely circulated in manuscript form and drew great attention from the intellectual community. However, poems like "Ode to Freedom," which represented his work, angered the Tsar. From 1820 to 1824, the poet was exiled to the southern part of Russia. In July 1824, he was further exiled to Mikhailovskoye Village near Pskov, the estate of his mother. Yet during this period, his fame and influence continued to grow. On December 14, 1825, the Decembrist uprising was brutally suppressed. By the end of 1825, Tsar Alexander I passed away, and the newly ascended Tsar Nicholas I, to deceive public opinion, "pardoned" the poet in September 1826 and recalled him to Moscow, but kept him under the surveillance of the gendarmerie. On February 18, 1831, Pushkin married Natalia Goncharova, and in May, they moved to St. Petersburg, where he continued to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On March 8, 1837, he was fatally wounded in a duel with Georges d'Anthès, a fugitive from the French Bourbon monarchy, and died on the 10th. However, Pushkin's turbulent life gave him opportunities. Hardships and suffering bore fruit. During his exile, he continued to write lyrical poems on various themes, expressing the emotions of a vibrant and dynamic era, while also infusing Russian poetry with new vitality through his long poems on significant subjects. The satirical long poem "Ruslan and Ludmila," written from 1817 to 1820, shook the Russian literary world. The four long poems composed during his four years of southern exile—"The Captive of the Caucasus," "The Brothers Karamazov," "The Fountain of Bachchisarai," and "The Gypsies"—created a true Romantic period in Russian literary history. The poetic novel "Eugene Onegin," written from 1823 to 1830, irrefutably established his status as a great poet and thinker. The realistic poetic drama "Boris Godunov," completed in Mikhailovskoye in 1825, demonstrated his intellectual growth beyond the Decembrists. Life demanded that the poet return from the mists of Romanticism to reality. After 1825, realism replaced Romanticism and became the mainstream of his creative work. The long poem "Count Nulin" (written at the end of 1825) and "Poltava" (1828) were already works of realism. To delve deeper into the realities, from the 1830s, he shifted to writing prose while continuing to compose narrative and philosophical lyrical poems, completing the long poem "The Bronze Horseman" in 1833. Through his poems, prose, poetic dramas, and poetic fairy tales, Pushkin pioneered a new era in Russian literature, rapidly bringing Russian literature, which had lagged behind Western Europe, up to par. Thus, he is rightly recognized as the founder of modern Russian literature, the creator of the Russian literary language, and the "sun of Russian poetry." It can be said that Pushkin's entire creative career is a vivid historical reflection of the forward movement of Russian society in the early decades of the 19th century, a lively scroll depicting all aspects of social life. Reading Pushkin reminds us first and foremost of his image as the voice and representative of his time. From the "Ode to Freedom" onward, a series of poems celebrating freedom, including satirical poems directed at the Tsar and his corrupt officials, as well as epistolary poems praising friendship during periods of revolutionary decline, all reflect the turbulent social life of his era. In his "Letter to Chaadaev" (1818), he clearly declared: "While the fire of freedom burns in my breast, / While the song of honor yearns in my soul, / My friend, let us with all our might / Serve our homeland with splendid passion!" In another poem written that same year, he said: "And my voice, more precious than gold, / Is the echo of the Russian people." In his poem "The Prophet" (1826), he proudly spoke of his sacred mission as a poet: "God's voice calls to me: / To traverse the seas and the earth, / To kindle the hearts of men / With my language." In his "Monument," written a year before his death, he summarized his life: "I shall long be respected and beloved by the people: / Because with my lute I awakened people's noble feelings, / Because I sang of freedom in my cruel age, / And I called for compassion for those who fell." Maxim Gorky once said: "Pushkin to Russian literature is like Leonardo da Vinci to European art—both are giants." History has proven this assertion to be true. As an artist poet, he celebrated not only the major events that moved the times forward but also the richness of life. "I sing again of fantasy, nature, and love, / Of loyal friendship, and fine people" ("To Chaadaev," 1821). His years of exile gave him the opportunity to connect with the lower strata of society and to explore the beauty of his homeland, expressing his melancholy while also painting magnificent landscapes of his country: vast villages, boundless steppes, dense forests, the quiet Don River, the majestic Caucasus Mountains, the free and roaring sea, the enchanting nights of the south, and the snow-covered north. Such scenes are in his works. It is no wonder that some people at the time said that after reading Pushkin, the suppressed emotions of the Russian people seemed to be liberated, and they came to know their great homeland and its beauty through him. This at least reflects the mindset of intellectuals at the time. The theme of love occupies a significant place in Pushkin's lyrical and narrative poems. From a young age, he regarded love as a sacred emotion. In 1814, he declared: "When you are intoxicated with passionate love, / Do not forget the Muse of love; / There is nothing in the world more blessed / Than to love and sing of love" ("To Baratynsky"). In 1816, he went further: "I cherish the torment of love, / Even if I die, let me love to the very end!" ("My Wish"). Thus, his love poems are always tender and delicate. Common human emotions—love at first sight, the pain of longing, the torment of jealousy, the shyness of hesitation, the desperate confessions, and the sweetness of memories—are all skillfully transformed into his beautiful and moving verses. His famous poem "To Kerner" ("I Remember That Marvelous Moment"), written in 1825, is often read repeatedly by Chinese readers as a representative of his love poems. In love, he fully absorbs the beauty of the world; in love, he sincerely seeks solace for his turbulent life; in love, he continuously draws strength for his creativity and courage for life. In reality, freedom, love, friendship, and nature are often present together in Pushkin's poems, forming the whole of his creative work. As a pioneering poet, the long poem holds a very important place in Pushkin's creative output. Major literary, social, and national issues of the time were all expressed through his increasingly mature and superb poetic art in his long poems. The poetic fairy tales he wrote after 1830 form a fascinating part of his entire creative legacy. He absorbed the forms of folk tales while also literary refining them with poetic rhythms, providing children with a literary treasure. Pushkin was a well-read man. He widely read the works of masters from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and regarded his predecessors as his teachers, thus carrying forward the legacy of his predecessors, drawing on the strengths of all previous thinkers and poets, integrating them, and forging his own path. Aside from some early works still bearing the shadows of his predecessors, he quickly developed his own style: rooted in real life, drawing nourishment from folk literature, continuously expanding the realm of language, employing various rhymes, and enriching and developing the Russian poetic garden. He took the existing forms in Russian poetry, such as epistles, romances, elegies, and dialogues, and developed them to their fullest under the backdrop of a new era. He also wrote numerous imitations of Greek, Dantean, Goethean, Hafizian, and Quranic poems, extending horizontally into the world, further infusing the Russian poetic garden with the spirit of the global poetic garden. Pushkin's poetry is concise, precise, simple, flowing, beautiful, harmonious, rich, and complete. Musicality is another important feature of his work. Some critics directly call his poetry the music of language and the poet the musician of language, saying that the descriptive power and musicality of his poetry achieve a unity rarely seen in the arts of the world. The lyrical poems and long poems, as well as two poetic fairy tales, selected in this "Selected Poems of Pushkin" are from the "Collected Works of Pushkin" published by People's Literature Publishing House, in volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4, and are his important works. The selected works are arranged chronologically, highlighting the characteristics of different periods and showing the trajectory of the poet's creative development—his youth, the Romantic period, and the Realist period. In this way, the overall outline of Pushkin's poetic creation becomes clear at a glance. This "Selected Poems" has also been published in the form of a series of world literature masterpieces by People's Literature Publishing House and as a standalone volume.