Translation of Poem by A.A. Fet, "Не ворчи, мой кот-мурлыка," "Stop your purring, grumbler cat"

 

 

A.A. Fet

(1820-1892)

 

Не ворчи, мой кот-мурлыка,

В неподвижном полусне;

Без тебя темно и дико

В нашей стороне;

 

Без тебя всё та же печка,

Те же окна, как вчера,

Те же двери, та же свечка,

И опять хандра…

 

У соседа ненароком

Я сказал ей слова три

О прекрасном, о высоком –

Скука – хоть умри!

 

Неотвязчивая вьюга

Разыгралася в трубе...

От двоякого недуга

Так не по себе.

 

Не ворчи же, кот мурлыка,

В неподвижном полусне;

Без тебя темно и дико

В нашей стороне.

1843

 

                                                         Literal Translation

 

Don’t growl, my purring cat,

In your immobile half sleep;

[Even] without you it’s dark and wild

In our quarters [here where we make our home].

 

[Even] without you there’s the same stove,

The same windows as yesterday,

The same doors, the same candle,

And once more there’s depression…

 

At the neighbor’s, as if by chance,

I said two or three words to her

About the beautiful and lofty;

So dreary I could die!

 

An oppressive snowstorm

Is raging about in the chimney…

This two-fold indisposition

Makes me so ill at ease.

 

So don’t growl, my purring cat,

In your immobile half sleep;

[Even] without you it’s dark and wild

In our quarters [here where we make our home].

 

d

 

Literary Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie

 

Stop your purring, grumbler cat,

As you lie there half asleep;

Bad enough this dark dim flat,

Grumbling makes things still more bleak.

 

Bad enough this same dull stove,

These same windows as before,

Doors and candle in alcove,

And heartache ever more…

 

Chanced to meet her just next door,

Shared my thoughts on lofty spheres,

On the things sublime that soar;

Now I’m shamed and sick to tears!

 

In the chimney havoc reigns,

Winds of snowstorm whirl and reel,

Exacerbate the soul’s deep strains,

All beside myself I feel.

 

So stop purring, grumbler cat,

As you lie there half asleep;

Bad enough this dark dim flat,

Grumbling makes things still more bleak.