Raïssa

In the dark night the storm-wind rages,
The gray flash trembles in the sky;
Rolls from the blackening clouds the thunder,
And rattling torrents sweep the wood.

No signs of life, of living beings,
The welcoming roof had shelter’d all,
All but one lost and lonely wanderer--
Raïssa--to the dark night bare.

Despair was seated in her bosom;
The thunder-tempest moved her not;
And even the hurricane’s loud howling
Scarce drown’d Raïssa’s heavy plaints.

Her cheek was like the faded foliage,
Her lip--th’ unwater’d, withering flow’r;
Upon her eye--a veil of darkness,
And fearful were her bosom’s throbs.

There hurried from her snowy bosom,
Which savage, thorny boughs had torn,
Of burning blood a crimson rivulet--
It fell upon the green damp ground.

Above the sea, a granite mountain
Raised proudly its gigantic head;
Raïssa scaled it, wandering lonely
Through clefts and stony pyramids.

The deep raged furiously--the lightning
Frightfully flash’d;--the mountain-waves
Roll’d, lifting up their maddening voices;
And the earth trembled as they spoke.

Raïssa look’d around--was silent:
But soon her tones of sorrow burst,
And mingled with the raging tempest--
‘Lost--lost for ever! Woe is me!

‘Kronīd--Kronīd--O cruel lover!
O whither, whither art thou fled?
Why hast thou left thy own Raïssa
Alone in such a dreadful night?

‘Kronīd--return--return--forgiveness,
Forgetfulness, shall both be thine:
No!--Thou wilt come not to Raïssa--
Why did I know thee--wherefore love?

‘My father and my mother loved me,
And fondest love was their return;
My days roll’d by, on downy pinions,
Midst harmless sports and joyous thoughts.

‘Thou didst approach me like an angel,
And, sighing, these sweet words didst say:
“I love thee--yes! I love--Raïssa!”
My parents’ love I soon forgot.

‘Transported, yet with trembling bosom,
And weeping in that dream of bliss,
Into thy opening arms I threw me,
And gave my heart alone to thee.

‘On thee reposed and dwelt my spirit,
I breathed, I lived for thee alone;
The sun in thy sweet smile was beaming,
Thou wert my present deity.

‘Why, when thy bosom beat with rapture,
Why died I not--in transports then:
Had I not seen thee false and treacherous,
How sweet, how blessed ’twere to die.

‘But ah! while thus securely dreaming
In deepest sleep, another maid
Loved and was loved--and I am banished--
Banished is thy Raïssa now.

‘I thought I lay upon his bosom--
I stretch’d my arms t’ embrace him there--
I but embraced the heedless breezes--
He was already far away.

‘The dream was fled--and I awoke me--
I call’d thee--all was still as death:
I sought thee with strain’d eye--but vainly--
My friend, my friend was no where found.

‘I hurried to a mountain-summit,
I--hapless-spirited! Kronīd
Is fled afar with his Liudmilla!
Then sank I senseless on the earth.

‘And since that miserable moment
My days, my nights in sorrow flow;
I seek thee--every where I call thee--
But never hast thou heard my voice.

‘And now the spirit-worn Raïssa
Calls on thee for the last, last time;--
For peace has left my soul for ever.--
Farewell! and be without me blest!’

So spoke Raïssa--and she threw her
Into the sea. The thunder roar’d:
The heavens announced that she had perish’d
To him that had destroy’d her there.