Pushkin: Imitations of the Quran
The Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
These are a few highlights from a number of poems Pushkin wrote in imitation of the tone of the Quran, and drawing on themes of prophecy, etc. While these are not among his most famous poems by any means, they clearly informed one of his most famous: The Prophet, which draws on both an Islamic hadith and on imagery from the Book of Isaiah. I’ll try to add a bit more information on these later!
For now, it may be worth noting that the last line of the first poem here contains the phrase дрожащая тварь (trembling creature), which almost surely inspired Dostoevsky’s famous phrase, from Crime and Punishment (said by Raskolnikov): “Тварь ли я дрожащая или право имею?” (Am I a trembling beast, or do I have the right?) Though тварь is often translated as “beast” or “animal,” and can be used as an insult, its traditional meaning is more in keeping with the verb творить (to create), with which it shares a root. It could refer generally to all created things, to all of creation, to all creatures… or it could refer specifically to one created being, one creature.
Finally, some might wish to compare the spectacular Crimean Sonnets written by the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, who shared a rather tense friendship with Pushkin; as with Pushkin, his sonnets were inspired by time spent in exile in the south of the Russian Empire, where he was exposed to Islam (among the Crimean Tatars). Mickiewicz too attempts to imitate the Quran in some of his sonnets (in “Chatyr-Dag,” for example), as the Polish “pilgrim” featured in the sonnets struggles to learn about and engage with a culture that is foreign to him.
I
Клянусь четой и нечетой,
Клянусь мечом и правой битвой,
Клянуся утренней звездой,
Клянусь вечернею молитвой:
Нет, не покинул я тебя.
Кого же в сень успокоенья
Я ввел, главу его любя,
И скрыл от зоркого гоненья?
Не я ль в день жажды напоил
Тебя пустынными водами?
Не я ль язык твой одарил
Могучей властью над умами?
Мужайся ж, презирай обман,
Стезею правды бодро следуй,
Люби сирот, и мой Коран
Дрожащей твари проповедуй.
I
I swear, by even and by odd;
I swear by the sword and by righteous battle;
I swear by the morning star,
I swear by the evening prayer:
No, I have not abandoned you.
Whom, after all, into an abode of calm
Did I lead, out of love for his head,
And hide from keen-eyed persecution?
Was it not I who, on a day of thirst, gave you to drink,
From the waters of the desert?
Was it not I who endowed your tongue
With mighty power over the minds of men?
Take courage, then; despise deceit;
Pursue with cheer the path of truth;
Show love to orphans; and preach my Quran
To all of trembling creation.
III
Смутясь, нахмурился пророк,
Слепца послышав приближенье:
Бежит, да не дерзнет порок
Ему являть недоуменье.
С небесной книги список дан
Тебе, пророк, не для строптивых;
Спокойно возвещай Коран,
Не понуждая нечестивых!
Почто ж кичится человек?
За то ль, что наг на свет явился,
Что дышит он недолгий век,
Что слаб умрет, как слаб родился?
За то ль, что бог и умертвит
И воскресит его — по воле?
Что с неба дни его хранит
И в радостях и в горькой доле?
За то ль, что дал ему плоды,
И хлеб, и финик, и оливу,
Благословив его труды,
И вертоград, и холм, и ниву?
Но дважды ангел вострубит;
На землю гром небесный грянет:
И брат от брата побежит,
И сын от матери отпрянет.
И все пред бога притекут,
Обезображенные страхом;
И нечестивые падут,
Покрыты пламенем и прахом.
III
Disturbed, the Prophet frowned,
Having heard the blind man draw near:
He flees, lest vice dare
Display its perplexedness before him.
The copy of the heavenly book was granted
To you, o Prophet, not the for the sake of the obstinate;
Proclaim the Quran in all tranquility,
Without coercing the dishonorable!
Why is man so puffed up in vainglory?
Because he was born naked into the world?
Because he breathes a lifetime short in length?
Because he shall die weak — just as, weak, he was born?
Because God shall both put to death
And resurrect as he so wills?
Because from heaven he preserves man’s days,
Both in joys and in bitter misfortune?
Because God has granted him all fruits,
And bread, and date, and olive,
Having blessed his labors,
His garden, his hillside, his field of grain?
Yet twice will the angel trumpet;
The thunder of heaven will smite the earth:
And brother shall flee brother,
And the son shall recoil from his mother.
And all shall come before God,
Disfigured with fear;
And the dishonorable shall fall to the ground,
Covered by flame and dust.
The Shahada, from a calligraphy exhibit at Topkapı Palace in Istanbul.
V
Земля недвижна — неба своды,
Творец, поддержаны тобой,
Да не падут на сушь и воды
И не подавят нас собой.
Зажег ты солнце во вселенной,
Да светит небу и земле,
Как лен, елеем напоенный,
В лампадном светит хрустале.
Творцу молитесь; он могучий:
Он правит ветром; в знойный день
На небо насылает тучи;
Дает земле древесну сень.
Он милосерд: он Магомету
Открыл сияющий Коран,
Да притечем и мы ко свету,
И да падет с очей туман.
V
The earth is unmovable — the vaults of heaven,
O Creator, are upheld by you,
Lest they fall upon the land and waters,
And crush us beneath themselves.
You lit the sun amidst the universe,
That it give light to the heaven and the earth,
Like flax soaked in oil,
It shines in the crystal of its lamp.
Pray to the Creator: He is mighty:
He guides the wind; on a sweltering day
He sends the clouds into the sky;
He gives the earth the sheltering boughs of the trees.
He is merciful: to Mohammad
He revealed the radiant Quran,
That we too might make our way towards light,
That the fog might fall from our eyes.
Illuminated Quran from the Museum of Islamic Art in Istanbul, showing the first Sura (Al Fatiha).
IX
И путник усталый на бога роптал:
Он жаждой томился и тени алкал.
В пустыне блуждая три дня и три ночи,
И зноем и пылью тягчимые очи
С тоской безнадежной водил он вокруг,
И кладез под пальмою видит он вдруг.
И к пальме пустынной он бег устремил,
И жадно холодной струей освежил
Горевшие тяжко язык и зеницы,
И лег, и заснул он близ верной ослицы —
И многие годы над ним протекли
По воле владыки небес и земли.
Настал пробужденья для путника час;
Встает он и слышит неведомый глас:
«Давно ли в пустыне заснул ты глубоко?»
И он отвечает: уж солнце высоко
На утреннем небе сияло вчера;
С утра я глубоко проспал до утра.
Но голос: «О путник, ты долее спал;
Взгляни: лег ты молод, а старцем восстал;
Уж пальма истлела, а кладез холодный
Иссяк и засохнул в пустыне безводной,
Давно занесенный песками степей;
И кости белеют ослицы твоей».
И горем объятый мгновенный старик,
Рыдая, дрожащей главою поник…
И чудо в пустыне тогда совершилось:
Минувшее в новой красе оживилось;
Вновь зыблется пальма тенистой главой;
Вновь кладез наполнен прохладой и мглой.
И ветхие кости ослицы встают,
И телом оделись, и рев издают;
И чувствует путник и силу, и радость;
В крови заиграла воскресшая младость;
Святые восторги наполнили грудь:
И с Богом он дале пускается в путь.
IX
And the weary traveler murmured against God:
He languished with thirst and hungered for shade.
Wandering three days and three nights in the desert,
His eyes, heavy with the heat and dust,
He cast all around with hopeless longing —
And suddenly, beneath a palm tree, he sees a well.
And he hastened his course toward that desert palm,
And greedily, with that cold stream, he refreshed
His grievously burning tongue and eyes;
And he lay down, and fell asleep, beside his loyal donkey —
And many years flowed past above him,
By the will of the Master of Heaven and Earth.
And the hour of awakening came for the traveler;
He rises, and hears an unknown voice:
"Was it long ago you feel so deeply asleep in the desert?”
And thus he answers: high already did the sun
Shine yesterday in the morning sky;
Deeply did I sleep from one morning to the next.
But the voice spoke: “O traveler, longer than that did you sleep;
Look: you lay down young, and arose an old man;
The palm is long reduced to dust, and the cold well
Has run out and gone dry in the waterless desert,
Long blown over by the sands of the steppes;
And the bones of your donkey shine white.”
And the woe-stricken man, turned old in an instant,
Weeping, hung his trembling head…
And then did a miracle occur in the desert:
That which was past is now alive again, with newfound beauty;
Again the palm tree sways its shade-rich head;
Again the well is filled with coolness and darkness.
And the ancient bones of the donkey arise;
They’ve been clothed in a body, and utter a bray;
And the traveler feels both strength and joy;
Resurrected youth courses anew in his blood;
Holy delights have filled his chest:
And with God’s blessing he continues on his way.
