Eugene Onegin

by Alexander Pushkin

45 And so, life’s afternoon has started, As I must now admit, I see. But let us then as friends be parted, My sparkling youth, before you flee! I thank you for your host of treasures, For pain and grief as well as pleasures, For storms and feasts and worldly noise, For all your gifts and all your joys; My thanks to you. With you I’ve tasted, Amid the tumult and the still, Life’s essence … and enjoyed my fill. Enough! Clear-souled and far from wasted, I start upon an untrod way To take my rest from yesterday. 46 But one glance back. Farewell, you bowers, Sweet wilderness in which I spent Impassioned days and idle hours, And filled my soul with dreams, content. And you, my youthful inspiration, Come stir the bleak imagination, Enrich the slumbering heart’s dull load, More often visit my abode; Let not the poet’s soul grow bitter Or harden and congeal alone, To turn at last to lifeless stone Amid this world’s deceptive glitter, This swirling swamp in which we lie And wallow, friends, both you and I!