Lyrics

The late great Russian writer left behind dozens of works and several hundred poems. The poet's lyric poetry fully justifies the translation of the genre's name from Greek: ‘λυρικός’ – performed to the sounds of the lyre. In total, Pushkin's approximately 500 works have inspired over 3,000 musical compositions.

Pushkin's ‘K***’ (‘I Remember a Wondrous Moment’, 1825) is considered one of the best love poems in Russian. Mikhail Glinka composed a romance of the same name to its lyrics. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov set the text ‘On the Hills of Georgia Lies the Night's Gloom’ (1829) to music. Russian composer Feofil Tolstoy, meanwhile, composed a melody for the poem ‘I Loved You…’ (1929).

Translated by Babette Deutsch, Maurice Baring, Thomas B Shaw, Max Easterman, Constance Garnett, Oliver Elton, Alfred Hayes, A.F.B.Clark, T.Keane, Publisher Random House, 1936