— A Stanza from Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (Canto 1, Sonnet 11)
He had the knack for seeming smitten
And thus could fool the young naïve;
Could woo or wound the lovesick kitten
With any words he could conceive;
When closing deals, no one was better,
But he could play the long five-setter,
By wit and passion, wearing down,
He used the verbs to get the noun;
Requested and bequested promises,
Lawful espial to her heart,
He crept up, creeped up to impart
(In secret somewhere on the premises)
A lesson to the sighing maid
On laying, lying, getting laid.
— Translated from the Russian of Alexander Pushkin
by Chris Fahrenthold [1]
Links:
[1] https://www.ablemuse.com/v24/bio/chris-fahrenthold
[2] https://www.ablemuse.com/digital-books-24/v24/digital edition/Complete Digital Version of -/Able Muse, Print Edition (Number 24), Winter 2017