Menacing the one who slew him
  Scowls the brow’s relentless feud,
By his noble life blood crimsoned
  O’er his lips his hair is glued.

Through the half-closed eyelids glancing
  Still the lust of quarrel mocks,
From his head deep underneath him
  Flow the matted raven locks.”

Motionless upon her beaches
  Did the grey Sea still remain,
And the Terek foaming yellow
  In displeasure spoke again.

“So then, take him as a present,
  As I nothing fairer know
On this round earth,—­for thee only
  This rare prize I’ve guarded so!

’Tis a mountain Cossack’s body
  Wafted ‘mid my billows’ dance,
See his hair,—­no silk is softer—­
  See his shoulder’s gold expanse!

See how o’er his red lips speechless
  Now the seated eyes find rest;
Trickling yet the purple life blood
  From the small wound on his breast.

For a young and holy maiden,
  Weeps lamenting, every heart! 
One sole Cossack in the village,
  In this mourning takes no part.

From the confines of his country
  Rode he forth with boding grey,
’Neath the dagger of the Tscherkes
  He has breathed his soul away.”

And the Terek paused; behold now
  In the gleaming foam flood drowned,
Silvered in the spraying billows
  Dips a head with rushes crowned.

And the hoary one’s lips whisper
  Haughty words of youthful fire,
And the eyes lit with love lustre
  Flame with passionate desire.

Foaming, rushing on swift longing,
  Seethed he up in youthful zest—­
And the Terek flood was wedded
  With him in embraces blest.

LERMONTOFF.

ON DEPARTURE FOR THE CAUCAS

Farewell my hateful Russian country! 
  People of lord and serf you are—­
Farewell, salute, bent knee and hand-kiss,
  Three-masters, uniform and star!

Soon will the Caucas now conceal me,
  There I shall not discovered be
By eyes and ears of paid, false sergeants—­
  Who all do hear and all do see!

LERMONTOFF.

TO THE CLOUDS

Clouds—­ye eternal wanderers in hunting grounds of air,
High o’er the verdant Steppes, wide through the blue of heaven—­
Coursing fraternal,—­say, must ye exiled as I
From the beloved North to the far South be driven?

O tell me, were ye outlawed thus by Fate’s behest? 
Drives ye forth open hate, or secret grudge flee ye? 
Follows ye unappeased an evil-doer’s curse? 
Are ye pursued by poisonous words of calumny?

Ah no!  Only from the unfruitful earth ye fly;
Free are your sufferings, your blessedness is free,
Ye know not wretchedness that holds us here in chains,
Know not the joy of home or exile’s misery!

LERMONTOFF.