Eugene Onegin

Sole heir to all the kin he knew.

Ludmila's and Rusln's adherents!*

Without a foreword's interference,

May I present, as we set sail,

The hero of my current tale:

Ongin, my good friend and brother,

Was born beside the Neva's span,

Where maybe, reader, you began,

Or sparkled in one way or other.

I too there used to saunter forth,

But found it noxious in the north.*

3

An honest man who'd served sincerely,

His father ran up debts galore;

He gave a ball some three times yearly,

Until he had no means for more.

Fate watched Eugene in his dependence;

At first Madame was in attendance;

And then Monsieur took on the child,

A charming lad, though somewhat wild.

Monsieur l'Abb, a needy fellow,

To spare his charge excessive pain,

Kept lessons light and rather plain;

His views on morals ever mellow,

He seldom punished any lark,

And walked the boy in Letny Park.*

4

But when the age of restless turnings

Became in time our young man's fate,

The age of hopes and tender yearnings,

Monsieur l'Abb was shown the gate.

And here's Oneginliberated,

To fad and fashion newly mated:

A London dandy, hair all curled,

At last he's ready for the world!

In French he could and did acutely

Express himself and even write;

In dancing too his step was light,

And bows he'd mastered absolutely.

Who'd ask for more? The world could tell

That he had wit and charm as well.

5

We've all received an education

In something somehow, have we not?

So thank the Lord that in this nation

A little learning means a lot.

Onegin was, so some decided

(Strict judges, not to be derided),

A learned, if pedantic, sort.

He did possess the happy forte