No, I'm not Byron; I am, yet

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov 1814 (Moscow) – 1841 (Pyatigorsk, Caucasus Oblast)



No, I'm not Byron; I am, yet,
Another choice for the sacred dole,
Like him - a persecuted soul,
But only of the Russian set.
I early start and end the whole,
And will not win the future days;
Like in an ocean, in my soul,
A cargo of lost hopes stays.
Who, oh, my ocean severe,
Could read all secrets in your scroll?
Who'll tell the people my idea?
I will or God or none at all!

Another translation by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi:

I AM NOT BYRON

I am not Byron--yet I am
One fore-elected, yet one more
Unknown, world-hunted wanderer,
A Russian in my mood and mind.

Scant from my seed the corn was ripe,
My mouth spoke young, was early hushed;
In depths of my own soul, the wreck
Of hope lies as in deep-sea sunk.

Who shall the counsels of the sea,
Its awe sublime unloose? Who shall
Read clear my spirit and my soul?
Unless it be a Poet--no man!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
133

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBABCBCXBXX D X XXXX XXXX DXBX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 832
Words 168
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 12, 1, 1, 4, 4, 4

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism. more…

All Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov poems | Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov Books

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