Translations: The Bestest of the Best: TWELVE, Fyodor Tyutchev, "Слезы людские," TEARS

 

Fyodor Tyutchev
(1803-1873)

 

Слезы людские, о слезы людские,
Льетесь вы ранней и поздней порой…
Льетесь безвестные, льетесь незримые,
Неистощимые, неисчислимые, —
Льетесь, как льются струи дождевые
В осень глухую порою ночной.

Autumn, 1849

Literary Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie

Tears

O tears of humanity, humankind’s tears,
Flowing in early times, flowing for years…
You flow in obscurity, flow on invisibly,
Never exhaustibly, ever innumerably –
Flowing the same way that rainwater streams
In desolate autumn through nocturnal dreams.

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 Translator’s Note

According to I.S. Aksakov, “once, on a rainy evening in autumn, Tyutchev returned home by hired droshky, almost wet through, and said to his daughter, ‘j’ai fait quelques rimes [I’ve composed a few verses].’ While they were helping him out of his [wet] clothing, he dictated to her the lines of his charming poem, ‘Tears of humanity.’” See two-volume collection of Tyutchev’s works, Moscow (Nauka Publishers), 1965, Vol. 1, p. 383.