The Gypsies
The Gypsies - context Summary
Composed 1824, Published 1827
Written amid Romantic interest in exotic cultures, Pushkin's narrative poem describes an idealized encounter with a Gypsy camp and the poet's yearning for their freedom and simplicity. It frames the Gypsies as symbols of unrooted liberty and art’s transient nature, contrasting wandering communal life with the bard’s solitary role. The poem reflects Pushkin’s fascination with outsider cultures and explores longing for escape from settled society.
Read Complete AnalysesOver shores covered by forest, In the time of a mute eve’s Noise and songs sail your tents over, Over fires you cook with. Hello, tribe whose life’s so easy! I discern your fires’ dance; In the days, sunk in the Lethe, I’d have lived in your gay tents. In the first rays of the morning Your free trace will be quite lost, But your peaceful out-going Will not have the bard of yours. He, the roaming lodgings’ treasure And the tricks of the gay old, Had left for the country pleasures And the mute his home holds. Translated by Yevgeny Bonver
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