Translation of Poem by Fyodor Tyutchev, "Я знал ее еще тогда," "I knew her even way back when"

 

Fyodor Tyutchev

(1803-1873)

 

Я знал ее еще тогда,

В те баснословные года,

Как перед утренним лучом

Первоначальных дней звезда

Уж тонет в небе голубом...

 

И всё еще была она

Той свежей прелести полна,

Той дорассветной темноты,

Когда, незрима, неслышна,

Роса ложится на цветы...

 

Вся жизнь ее тогда была

Так совершенна, так цела,

И так среде земной чужда,

Что, мнится, и она ушла

И скрылась в небе, как звезда.

 

 

1861 г.

Ф.И.Тютчев. Полное собрание стихотворений.
Ленинград, "Советский писатель", 1957.

 

 

Literal Translation

I knew her already,

Back in those legendary years,

When before the morning ray

Of primordial days a star

Already drowns in the azure sky…

 

And she was still

Full of the fresh charm,

Of that predawn murk

When, invisible, inaudible,

The dew descends on the flowers…

 

All of her life back then was

So complete, so perfectly right,

And so alien to her earthly environment

That, so it seems, she had already departed

And hidden away in the sky, like a star.

 

d

 

Literary Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie

 

I knew her even way back when,

In realms of fairyland wherein,

When faced with ray of morning’s light,

A newborn star gave up the fight,

And drowned in sky-blue skies’ chagrin.

 

And ever so replete was she

With utter charm, her mien carefree,

Like unto the white, still dawn

That hovers unseen, lingers on,

As dew alights on bloom and tree.  

 

Her whole pure life back then was such,

So right, imbued with her soft touch,

From all this world removed, afloat,

E’en then, methinks, she’d sailed her boat

To starlight refuge far, remote.