TAURIDA (A.S. Pushkin) - art song

Music by ALEXANDER FEHT ( www.feht.com ) Music scores: http://www.feht.com/images/Pushkin_Songs_X3.pdf Performed by Nikolay Dorozhkin (tenor) and Sergey Chechyotko (pianist) _______________________________________ TAURIDA (in Russian) Alexander Pushkin You, Darkness, inscrutable to intuition, A refuge for sightless desperation, Nothingness! Vacant apparition, I do not seek your comfort! Fallen out of love with mundane delusions, Having seen no happy days since my birth, I still don't trust in you, You are alien to the human thought, A proud mind is terrified by your perspective! Thus a wanderer, taking in from heights The eternal roar of alpine streams, Plunging his sight into the abyss, Is tormented by an unconscious fear, Trembling, hesitating: before his eyes All objects stir and darken, He is chilled, his faculties are numbing, He is feeling for support around him, Everything rushes, fades, and disappears... And chilling swoon of a fainting fit Makes him drop on the edge of precipice... Of course, my spirit is immortal -- But, having flown into the other universe, Can it be true that there, beyond that funereal pale, I'll lose all earthly feelings, I shall become an alien to this world? Can it be true that there, where all things coruscate In imperishable glory and beauty, Where the pure fire devours The very imperfection of existence, Fleeting impressions of this life Would not survive somehow in my soul, That I won't feel the slightest of regrets, That I'll forget the yearning of my love? Love! What else, beyond the grave, Could possibly outlive me? The memory of my beloved, it is immortal, What is my soul without her? Why not believe you, poets? Oh yes, a secretive swarm of shadows From the shores of the sorrowful Lethe Flies far and gathers on this earthly shore. They ruefully revisit places Where life was dear to them, And, appearing in dreams, Console their abandoned friends... They, imparadised in immortality, Wait for their brothers in Elysium, As a family waits, on the day of celebration, For their late-coming guests... Thus, if it is permitted to leave From where shines eternal light, Where happiness is constant and immutable, My spirit, fly thereupon to Gourzouf, To that felicitous land of sparkling waves Caressing the resplendent shore, Where that translucent luxury of nature Irradiates hills and meadows, Where cliffs are frowning from above... You are with me again, delight! Monotonous anxiety of gloomy thoughts Calmed down within my soul. My faculties restored, my mind is clear. Some nameless, strange affection! It imbues me, With overflowing melancholy: You, animated fields, Hills of Taurida, the enchanting realm, I visit you again, I drink again your sweet, voluptuous air, It is as if I hear a near, familiar song Of a bliss long-lost... _______________________________________ [Композитор: Александр Фет Исполнители: Николай Дорожкин (тенор), Сергей Чечетко (фортепиано) ТАВРИДА Александр Пушкин]