The Gypsies (poem)
| Author | Alexander Pushkin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Цыганы [Tsygany] |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | Narrative poem, Romanticism |
|
Publication date
|
1827 |
The Gypsies (Russian: Цыганы) is a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin, originally written in Russian in 1824 and first published in 1827. The last of Pushkin's four 'Southern Poems' written during his exile in the south of the Russian Empire, The Gypsies is also considered to be the most mature of these Southern poems, and has been praised for originality and its engagement with psychological and moral issues. The poem has inspired at least eighteen operas and several ballets.
The poem opens with an establishment of the setting in Bessarabia and a colorful, lively description of the activities of a gypsy camp there:
Между колесами телег,
Полузавешанных коврами,
Горит огонь; семья кругом
Готовит ужин; в чистом поле
Пасутся кони; за шатром
Ручной медведь лежит на воле.
Between the wheels of the carriages
hanging carpets folded over in two
burns a flame, and the family around it
cook their supper; in the fresh field
the horses are at pasture; beyond the camp
a tame bear lies uncaged.
The poem is written almost exclusively in iambic tetrameter, and this regular metre is established from the outset:
Once the scene is set, the characters are introduced: an old man is waiting for his daughter Zemfira to return home while his dinner grows cold. When she arrives, she announces that she has brought home with her a man, Aleko, who has fled the city because the law is pursuing him.
At this point the narrative style changes: the omniscient narrator steps aside and the majority of the rest of the poem takes the form of a dialogue, following the tradition of closet drama. The Old Man and Zemfira welcome Aleko, but he retains lingering doubts about the possibility of happiness at the Gypsy camp:
Уныло юноша глядел,
На опустелую равнину
И грусти тайную причину
Истолковать себе не смел.
...
Wikipedia