aleksandr sergeyevic puşkin 'in 1817 yılında başladığı 1820 yılında yayınladığı, epik bir peri masalı şeklinde yazdığı şiirdir. ithaf, öndeyiş, altı şarkı ya da kanto ve sondeyişten oluşan manzum eserdir. kiev hükümdarı vilademir'in kızı ludmila'nın şeytan bir büyücü tarafından kaçırılmasını ve cesur şövalye ruslan'ın onu bulup kurtarmak için gösterdiği çabaları anlatan bir manzum hikayedir.
For you, queens of my soul, my treasured
Young beauties, for your sake did I
Devote my golden hours of leisure
To writing down, I'll not deny,
With faithful hand of long past ages
The whispered fables.... Take them, pray,
Accept these playful lines, these pages
For which I ask no praise.... But stay!
For my reward-I need not seek it-
Is hope: Oh, that some girl should scan,
As only one who's lovesick can,
These naughty songs of mine in secret!
PROLOGUE
On seashore far a green oak towers,
And to it with a gold chain bound,
A .learned cat whiles away the hours
By walking slowly round and round.
To right he walks, and sings a ditty;
To left he walks, and tells a tale....
What marvels there! A mermaid sitting
High in a tree, a sprite, a trail
Where unknown beasts move never seen by
Man's eyes, a hut on chicken feet,
Without a door, without a wdndow,
An evil witch's lone retreat;
The woods and valleys there are teeming
With strange things.... Dawn brings waves that, gleaming,
Over the sandy beaches creep,
And from the clear and shining water
Step thirty goodly knights escorted
By their Old Guardian, of the deep
An ancient dweller.... There a dreaded
And hated tsar is captive ta'en;
There, as all watch, for cloud banks headed,
Across the sea and o'er a plain,
A warlock bears a knight. There, weeping,
A princess sits locked in a cell,
And Grey Wolf serves her very well;
There, in a mortar, onward sweeping
All of itself, beneath the skies
The wicked Baba-Yaga flies;
There pines Koshchei and lusts for gold....
All breathes of Russ, the Russ of old
There once was I, friends, and the с
As near him 'neath the oak I sat
And drank of sweet mead at my leisure,
Recounted tales to me.... With pleasure
One that I liked do I recall
And here and now will share with all...
