To My Friends
To My Friends - meaning Summary
Friendship Shaded by Melancholy
Pushkin addresses former companions who still enjoy youth, love, and carefree evenings. He observes their golden days and admiring maidens with a mix of warmth and distance. The speaker urges them to sing and revel while acknowledging that their happiness deepens his own sorrow; he smiles through tears. The poem captures bittersweet acceptance: celebration of friends’ pleasures coupled with the poet’s reflective melancholy and sense of emotional separation.
Read Complete AnalysesThe chain of golden days and nights Is still your heritage from Deity, And, still, the languid maidens’ eyes Are turned to you as well intently. So, play and sing, friends of my years! Lose very quickly passing evening, And, at your heedless joy and singing, I will be smiling through my tears. Translated by Yevgeny Bonver Today your gods do not deny you These golden nights and golden days, And gentle, fragile ladies eye you With an attentive fervent gaze. Play on, sing on, while you are blessed! Squander away the fleeting night; Through tears, I smile at the sight Of your light-hearted happiness. Translated by Andrey Kneller
Feel free to be first to leave comment.