Aleksandr Pushkin

In the worldly steppe, so mournful and endless,
Three springs mysteriously fought through withered earth:
The spring of youth is speedy and rebellious,
It boils and runs, and ripples in a blaze.
Castalian spring, in worldly steppe, enlivens
Exiles, whose fate is doleful and hard.
The last of them -- the cold spring of oblivion --
Will always help to quench the thirst of hearts.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, September, 1999
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, January, 2000