Евгений Онегин / Eugene Onegin

And now ’tis night, the guardian moon

Sails her allotted course on high,

And from the misty woodland nigh

The nightingale trills forth her tune;

Restless Tattiana sleepless lay

And thus unto her nurse did say:

XVII

“Nurse, ’tis so close I cannot rest.

Open the window – sit by me.”

“What ails thee, dear?” – “I feel depressed.

Relate some ancient history.”

“But which, my dear? – In days of yore

Within my memory I bore

Many an ancient legend which

In monsters and fair dames was rich;

But now my mind is desolate,

What once I knew is clean forgot —

Alas! how wretched now my lot!”

“But tell me, nurse, can you relate

The days which to your youth belong?

Were you in love when you were young?” —

XVIII

“Alack! Tattiana,” she replied,

“We never loved in days of old,

My mother-in-law who lately died[31 - A young married couple amongst Russian peasants reside in the house of the bridegroom’s father till the “tiaglo,” or family circle is broken up by his death.

]

Had killed me had the like been told.”

“How came you then to wed a man?” —

“Why, as God ordered! My Ivan

Was younger than myself, my light,

For I myself was thirteen quite;[32 - Marriages amongst Russian serfs used formerly to take place at ridiculously early ages. Haxthausen asserts that strong hearty peasant women were to be seen at work in the fields with their infant husbands in their arms.

The inducement lay in the fact that the “tiaglo” (see previous note) received an additional lot of the communal land for every male added to its number, though this could have formed an inducement in the southern and fertile provinces of Russia only, as it is believed that agriculture in the north is so unremunerative that land has often to be forced upon the peasants, in order that the taxes, for which the whole Commune is responsible to Government, may be paid. The abuse of early marriages was regulated by Tsar Nicholas.]

The matchmaker a fortnight sped,

Her suit before my parents pressing:

At last my father gave his blessing,

And bitter tears of fright I shed.

Weeping they loosed my tresses long[33 - Courtships were not unfrequently carried on in the larger villages, which alone could support such an individual, by means of a “svakha,” or matchmaker.