Gavrila Derzhavin

Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin in 1811

Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin (Гаврии́л (Гаври́ла) Рома́нович Держа́вин, July 14, 1743 – July 20, 1816) was the greatest Russian poet before Alexander Pushkin, as well as a statesman. Although his works are traditionally considered literary classicism, his best verse is rich with antitheses and conflicting sounds in a way reminiscent of John Donne and other metaphysical poets.

Quotes

• Ты есть! — Природы чинъ вѣщаетъ,
  Гласитъ мое мнѣ сердце то,
  Меня мой разумъ увѣряетъ,
  Ты есть; — и я ужъ не ничто!
  Частица цѣлой я вселенной.
  • Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art!
    Direct my understanding then to Thee;
    Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart:
    Though but an atom midst immensity.
  • Бог ('God'; 1784, 1814) st. 8. Translated by John Bowring, Specimens of the Russian Poets, vol. 1 (1821) p. 3. Reported in Josiah H. Gilbert (ed.) Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) p. 283

• Кто перед ратью будет, пылая,
  Ездить на кляче, есть сухари;
  В стуже и в зное меч закаляя,
  Спать на соломе, бдеть до зари;
  Тысячи воинств, стен и затворов
  С горстью россиян все побеждать?
  • Who will ride fiery, ahead of the legions,
    Nag for a steed, and crusts for meal,
    Temper his sword in the heat and in ice storms,
    Sleep on straw pallets, labor 'til dawn,
    Bring down the armies, the walls and the forts
    With but a handful of stout Russian men?
  • Снигирь ('The Bullfinch'; 1800) st. 2

• Рѣка временъ въ своемъ стремленьи
  Уноситъ всѣ дѣла людей
  И топитъ въ пропасти забвенья
  Народы, царства и царей.
  А если что и остается
  Чрезъ звуки лиры и трубы,
  То вѣчности жерломъ пожрется
  И общей не уйдетъ судьбы!
  • The current of Time's river
    Will carry off all human deeds
    And sink into oblivion
    All peoples, kingdoms and their kings.
    And if there's something that remains
    Through sounds of horn and lyre,
    It too will disappear into the maw of time
    And not avoid the common pyre... [lines broken]
  • Lines found at Derzhavin's table after his death.
  • For another translation, see Wikisource: "Time's river in its rushing current". Also: Ales Adamovich and Daniel Granin, A Book of the Blockade, translated by Hilda Perham (Moscow: Raduga, 1983 [1982]) p. 224

External links

• Works by Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin at Project Gutenberg
• Illustrated timeline
• Luba Golburt, "Derzhavin's monuments: Sculpture, Poetry, and the Materiality of History", Toronto Slavic Quarterly 13, Summer 2005, retrieved 23 October 2006.