PICTURING RACHMANINOFF

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin

​Translated by Alyssa Gillespie

The Snowslide

The breakers surging in the gloom

Pummel the cliff face, foam and boom,

As high above the eagles scream

And pine trees swish,

And frigid mountain summits gleam

Through drifting mist.

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From thence a snowslide once broke free

And with a dreadful crash careened,

Cascaded, clogged the gorge between

Two rock-faced walls,

And River Terek's mighty stream

Leapt to a halt.

Abruptly chastened and demure,

O Terek, you choked off your roar,

But latter billows' stubborn ire

Burst through the snows…

You rushed your banks in fierce despair

And overflowed.

Long afterward, the snow lay deep,

Unmelting in a massive heap;

The Terek, frenzied, ran beneath,

And made assault

With foam and spray upon the steep

And icy vault.

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Across it led an ample track:

Horses would canter, oxen lag,

Steppe merchants with their laden packs

And camels wend

Where none but Aeolus now walks,

Lord of the wind.