Демон

MIKHAIL 

LERMONTOV

THE DEMON

УДК 372.8
ББК  81.2 Англ-93 
Л49

ISBN 978-5-9925-1427-8

Лермонтов, Михаил Юрьевич.

Л49  
Демон : книга для чтения на английском языке / 
М. Ю. Лермонтов. — [пер. с рус. Ирины Железновой, Аврил Пайман, Юджина М. Кайдена]. — СанктПетербург : КАРО, 2020. — 192 с.  — (Русская классическая литература на иностранных языках).

ISBN 978-5-9925-1427-8.

Предлагаем вниманию читателей сборник поэтических 
произведений Михаила Юрьевича Лермонтова (1814–1841) в 
переводе на английский язык. В книгу вошли знаменитые поэмы «Демон» (1838), «Мцыри»(1839), «Песня про царя Ивана 
Васильевича, молодого опричника и удалого купца Калашникова» (1837) и избранные стихотворения 1831–1841 годов. 
Романтические герои Лермонтова, наделенные непреклонной волей и сильными страстями, стали символическим выражением неодолимого стремления человека к свободе. 
Для широкого круга читателей.
УДК 372.8 
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

© КАРО, 2019 
Все права защищены

CONTENTS

M. Y. Lermontov  
An article by Moissaye J. Olgin  ......................................6

The Demon  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ..........................................17

Mtsyri  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova ..................................69

The Lay of Tsar Ivan Vassilyevich,  
His Young Oprichnik and  
the Stouthearted Merchant Kalashnikov  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 103

POEMS  ............................................................................. 127
The Аngel  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 129
Ballad  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 130
The Сhains of Mountains Blue I Love... 
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 132
To***  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 134
The Reed  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 136
The Sail  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 138

Not Byron — of a Different Kind…  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 139
The Mermaid  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 140
On the Death of the Poet  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 142
Borodino  
Translated by Eugene M. Kayden  ........................... 146
The Dagger  
Translated by Eugene M. Kayden  ........................... 151
The Captive  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 152
When Comes a Gentle Breeze…  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 154
Though We Have Parted, on My Breast…  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 155
Pray, Laugh Not at a Gloom of Dark Foreboding 
Born… Translated by Irina Zheleznova  ............... 156
Meditation  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 157
The Poet  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 160
Three Palms  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 163
How Frequently Amidst the Many-Coloured 
Crowd... Translated by Avril Pyman  ..................... 167
A Cossack Lullaby  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 170

Because  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 173
Such Emptiness, Heartache  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 174
To A. O. Smirnova 
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 175
To a Child  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 176
The Captive Knight  
Translated by Eugene M. Kayden  ........................... 178
Farewell to Russia  
Translated by Eugene M. Kayden  ........................... 179
Mountain Heights  
Translated by Eugene M. Kayden  ........................... 180
Clouds  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 181
The Dream 
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 182
No, Not on You My Passion’s Bent…  
Translated by Avril Pyman  ....................................... 184
The Cross Atop a Cliff  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 185
Lone’s the Mist-Cloaked Road Before Me Lying… 
Translated by Irina Zheleznova   ............................. 186
The Sea Princess  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 188
The Cliff  
Translated by Irina Zheleznova  .............................. 191

When we think of Lermontov, we see in our 
minds a huge mountain-peak somewhere in the 
heart of the Caucasus. Eternal silence reigns in its 
clefts and gorges. Its mass of ice and stone looks a 
picture of gloomy solitude. It seems to be indifferent 
to the turmoil of life. Still, there is boiling lava deep 
in its heart. Time and again it shakes from the fury 
of compressed inner forces. On its bare stony body 
little trees with lacy foliage climb higher and higher; 
and when the world is in bloom, winds laden with 
fragrance blow on its ragged brow, bringing the lure 
of distant lands.
Such is the poet Lermontov. This is, perhaps, why 
he loved the Caucasus all his life.
He is the most tragic of the Russian poets. From 
his very boyhood he was full of disdain for humanity, 

M. Y. LERMONTOV  
(1814–1841)

M. Y. Lermontov 
7

whose life he thought shallow, empty, and ugly; at 
the same time, he was irresistibly attracted by this 
very meaningless life. He cherished the ideal of a 
demon, a proud, lonely, and powerful superhuman 
creature challenging peaceful virtues and conventional happiness; at the same time he was fiercely 
craving for mortal love and sunlit human happiness, 
the absence of which filled his heart with pain. He 
had a cool and strong intellect, a power of analysis 
and criticism which revealed the futility of endeavor 
in this world and dictated an attitude of bored aloofness; at the same time he was torn by mad passions 
prompting him to the most unreasonable actions. 
He was inclined to protest, to repudiate, to curse, 
and almost without noticing he drifted into a prayer 
or saw the vision of an angel singing his quiet song 
over “a world of grief and tears.” Altogether he is a 
profoundly unhappy nature, just the reverse of his 
older brother Pushkin.
If Pushkin is primarily the poet of the Russian 
soul and Russian nature, Lermontov is the first of 
the great Russian poets of the spirit. And if Pushkin 
is fundamentally national, acquiring international 
significance through his closeness to his native 
land, Lermontov is of universal value in himself as 
expressing those doubts and moods and gropings 
which are common to all cultured men. This did not 

M. Y. Lermontov

prevent him from being a genuine Russian poet. One 
is even justified in looking for a connection between 
his dark rebellious moods and the dark conditions 
of the society in which he lived.
Lermontov is a self-centered poet. “The most 
characteristic feature of Lermontov’s genius,” 
Vladimir Solovyov1 says, “is a terrific intensity of 
thought concentrated on himself, on his ego, a terrific power of personal feeling.” This, however, is no 
self-centeredness. Lermontov seeks refuge within 
himself because he finds no values in the ephemeral existence of the world. He sinks into brooding 
moods not because he finds in them satisfaction, but 
because life does not quell his thirst for harmony and 
truth. He is at war with society, with humanity, with 
the universe. He is at war even with God in the name 
of some great unearthly beauty which only at rare 
moments gives to his soul her luminous forebodings.
If Pushkin is the poet of all the people, Lermontov is the poet of the thinking elements in it. As such 
he played a colossal rôle in the spiritual history of his 
country. Generation after generation learned from 
him to hate the sluggishness of Russian life and the 
convention of every life, to repudiate compromises, 

1 Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov (1853–1900) — a Russian 
philosopher, theologian, poet, pamphleteer and literary 
critic. — Ed.

M. Y. Lermontov 
9

to understand the longing of the soul for things nonexistent, and to cherish freedom in the broad sense 
of the word.
Lermontov’s form is in full accord with his 
moods, varying from the most exquisite tenderness 
to “verses coined of iron, dipped in poignancy and 
gall,” from slow, thoughtful, and melancholy lines 
to volcanic outbursts of fury. In expressing delicate 
shades of emotions and in dignified refinement 
Lermontov is, perhaps, even superior to Pushkin. 
There is more of the elusive quality in his poems, 
that which cannot be expressed in definite words.

Horrified by the triviality of life, by its corruption 
and helplessness, Lermontov sounded the motive of 
indignation. This indignation, so rare in Russia, utterly alien to Pushkin, timidly sounding in the work 
of Tchatzky1, unknown to Gogol, was something new 
and unheard of. Through Lermontov’s indignation, 
the Russian citizen for the first time became aware of 
himself as a real human being. The feeling of human 
dignity was stronger in Lermontov than all other feelings. It sometimes assumed unhealthy proportions, 
it led him to satanical pride, to contempt for all his 
surroundings. And in the name of this human dignity, 

1 Tchatzky (Chatsky) is the main character of the comedy 
“Woe from Wit” by A. Griboedov. — Ed.

M. Y. Lermontov

unrecognized and downtrodden, he raised the voice 
of indignation.
It appeared to him that not only society, those 
hangmen of freedom and genius, but also the Deity 
that gave him life, are making attempts on his inalienable rights as a man and are preventing him from 
living a full, eternal life which alone was of value to 
him. He saw no prospect of eternal life, no fullness of 
existence, no love without betrayal, no passion without satiety, and he did not wish to agree to less, as a 
deposed ruler does not wish to receive donations from 
the hand of the victor. . . .
Lermontov is a religious nature, but his religion is 
primarily a groping, an indefinite, hazy admittance of 
life’s tragic mystery. 

Evg. Solovyov (Andreyevitch)1

Lermontov introduced into literature the struggle against philistinism. Not, perhaps, till the end of 
the nineteenth century did philistinism meet a more 
ruthless, merciless foe. His aversion to philistinism is 
the key to his entire conception of life. His hatred for 
everything ordinary led him to his outspoken individualism and brought him near to that real romanticism which was unknown in Russia before him. It also 

1 Evgeniy Andreyevitch Solovyov (1866–1905) — a Russian 
literary critic, literary historian and writer. — Ed.

M. Y. Lermontov 
11

imbued him with that contempt for the surrounding 
world which it is customary to view as Lermontov’s 
characteristic pessimism. Lermontov, however, is not 
only a pessimist. Lermontov believed that life in itself 
could be beautiful, even at present. It could be beautiful, and it was all soiled under philistine rule, — this 
was for him the tragic contradiction. Hence his pessimism, his misanthropy, his hatred for life. He sees 
ethical philistinism in all social groups, in all society, 
in humanity at large. From this standpoint he is perhaps the most outspoken individualist in all Russian 
literature.

Ivanov-Razumnik1

The leading motives of Lermontov’s charming 
and sparkling poetry were a protest against the re-
strictions of individual freedom, a detached attitude 
towards an oppressing world, and the lure of another 
world which though not shaped clearly, not based on 
a definite foundation, is possessed of an irresistible 
power. This luring world is ordinarily somewhere in 
the past; it is a reminiscence, not a hope; at times it 
is heaven, at times, nature, at times, an idea, unclear 
yet so wonderful that the very sounds which give an 

1 Razumnik Vasilyevich Ivanov-Razumnik (real surname — 
Ivanov; 1878–1946) — a Russian writer, philosopher and 
literary critic. — Ed.

M. Y. Lermontov

inkling of its dark meaning cannot be listened to ‘without emotion.’ It is this better world which gives real 
meaning to a soul reminiscent of it, and the idea of this 
world lives in many of Lermontov’s heroes.
The idea of something which does not allow us to 
accept our world as the best of all worlds, an idea appearing to men in the best moments of their life and 
stirring them to action and changes, was very strong 
in Lermontov’s mind. The circumstances of his personal life and the conditions of his time might have 
strengthened his longing for another world; fundamentally, however, this longing is an inherent quality 
of mankind, and through it, Lermontov is close not 
only to his own contemporaries, but also to readers 
of the present and the future.

I. Ignatov1

What an abundance of power, what a variety of 
ideas and images, emotions and pictures! What a 
strong fusion of energy and grace, depth and ease, 
elevation and simplicity!
Not a superfluous word; everything in its place; 
everything as required, because everything had been 
felt before it was said, everything had been seen before it was put on the canvas. His song is free, without 

1 Ilya Nikolayevich Ignatov (1858–1921) — a Russian literary 
critic, publicist and theater theorist. — Ed.

M. Y. Lermontov 
13

strain. It flows forth, here as a roaring waterfall, there 
as a lucid stream.
The quickness and variety of emotions are controlled by the unity of thought; agitation and struggle 
of opposing elements readily flow into one harmony, 
as the musical instruments in an orchestra join in one 
harmonious entity under the conductor’s baton. And 
all sparkles with original colors, all is imbued with 
genuine creative thought and forms a new world similar to none.

V. G. Byelinsiky1

Lyrical poems (1828–1841)
Invincible spiritual power; subdued complaints; 
the fragrant incense of prayer; flaming, stormy inspiration; silent sadness; gentle pensiveness; cries of 
proud suffering, moans of despair; mysterious tenderness of feeling; indomitable outbursts of daring desires; chaste purity; infirmities of modern society; pictures from the life of the universe; intoxicating lures of 
existence; pangs of conscience; sweet remorse; sobs of 
passion; quiet tears flowing in the fullness of a heart 
that has been tamed in the storms of life; joy of love; 

1 Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (1811–1848) — a Russian 
literary critic, writer and philosopher, who made great 
contributions to the development of Russian literature. — Ed.