Eugene Onegin (Russian Literature Classic). Alexander Pushkin

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      VIII

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      But upon all that Eugene knew

      I have no leisure here to dwell,

      But say he was a genius who

      In one thing really did excel.

      It occupied him from a boy,

      A labour, torment, yet a joy,

      It whiled his idle hours away

      And wholly occupied his day —

      The amatory science warm,

      Which Ovid once immortalized,

      For which the poet agonized

      Laid down his life of sun and storm

      On the steppes of Moldavia lone,

Far from his Italy — his own.⁴

⁴ Referring to Tomi, the reputed place of exile of Ovid. Pushkin, then residing in Bessarabia, was in the same predicament as his predecessor in song, though he certainly did not plead guilty to the fact, since he remarks in his ode to Ovid:

      To exile self-consigned,

      With self, society, existence, discontent,

      I visit in these days, with melancholy mind,

      The country whereunto a mournful age thee sent.

      Ovid thus enumerates the causes which brought about his banishment:

      “Perdiderint quum me duo crimina, carmen et error,

      Alterius facti culpa silenda mihi est.”

      Ovidii Nasonis Tristium, lib. ii. 207.