Poetry
Silentium!
Fyodor Tyutchev · 1833
Opening lines
Молчи, скрывайся и таи
И чувства и мечты свои —
Пускай в душевной глубине
Встают и заходят оне
Безмолвно, как звезды в ночи, —
Любуйся ими — и молчи.
Be silent, hide away and conceal
Both your feelings and your dreams;
Let them in the depths of your soul
Rise and set
Soundlessly, like stars in the night;
Admire them, and be silent.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from rvb.ru
Synopsis
Be silent, says the poem, hide and keep to yourself your feelings and your dreams: let them rise and set in the depths of the soul in silence, like stars in the night; admire them, and be silent. How could the heart express itself? How could another understand you, and know what you live by? A thought once spoken is a lie; by stirring the springs, you muddy them.
Context
The poem dates from 1830. It first appeared on 16 March 1833 in Molva, a supplement to the Teleskop, in Moscow, then in 1836 in the journal Sovremennik, and again in 1854, the year of its author's first collection. The Latin word of the title means silence. Long regarded as a minor poet, the author was rediscovered by the Russian Symbolists, from Soloviov to Blok, and this poem has become one of his emblematic texts.
Who it is for
Three stanzas of six lines, each ending on the same word; the Latin title is kept as it is in translation.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's typical poem, with a rhythm made for silent reading rather than for the voice.