They sleep in the darkness of the night. Different translations of one Goethe poem

Wait a little, rest and you
From the poem "From Goethe" (1840) by M. Yu. Lermontov (1814-1841):
Mountain peaks
Sleep in the darkness of the night;
quiet valleys
Full of fresh haze;
The road is not dusty
Sheets do not tremble ...
Wait a bit,
You will rest too.

This is a translation of the famous poem by the German poet and scientist Johann Wolfgang Goethe, "Mountain Peaks", made by M. Yu. Lermontov.
Quoted: as a formula for consolation in a difficult situation (jokingly-iron.).

Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: "Lokid-Press". Vadim Serov. 2003 .


See what "Wait a little, you will rest too" in other dictionaries:

    If you die, then you will rest (inosk.) There is no peace here. Wed Wait a little, rest and you. M. Yu. Lermontov. (with him.) "Mountain peaks". Wed Warte nur, balde Ruhest du auch. Gothe. Ein gleichs. Wed Im Grab ist Ruh. H. Heine. Bergstimme. 2. Wed. Mors… Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

    - (inosk.) there is no rest here Cf. Wait a little, rest and you. M.Yu.Lermontov. (from German) Mountain peaks. Wed Warte nur, balde Ruhest du auch. Gothe. Ein gleichs. Wed Im Grab ist Ruh. H. Heine. Bergstimme. 2. Wed. Mors laborum ac miseriarum quies… … Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary

    paraphrase- PERIPHRA´Z, periphrase (from the Greek περίφρασις retelling), 1) a stylistic device that consists in replacing a word or phrase with a descriptive turn of speech, which indicates the signs of an unnamed object directly. P. is built on the principle ... Poetic dictionary

    MOTIVES of Lermontov's poetry. The motif is a stable semantic element in lit. text, repeating within a series of folklore (where the motif means the minimum unit of plot construction) and lit. artistic prod. Motive m. b. considered in the context of all creativity ... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

    - (Goethe), genus. Aug 28 1749 in Frankfurt am Main. Welcomed by his life. The caresses and pampering of a smart and developed mother, a cozy atmosphere that breathed contentment and culture, a lot of fun, songs, games and fairy tales, a lot of books, early ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

    - “FROM GOETHE” (“Mountain peaks ...”), verse. late L. (1840), associated with the second "Wanderer's Night Song" ("Wanderers Nachtlied") by J. W. Goethe. The type of connection has not been finalized. In some works, verse. Goethe is considered only as an excuse for ... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

    WINGED WORDS, aphoristic. and figurative speeches created by L. in his poetry and prose and then included in oral and written speech preim. as sayings and thus replenished phraseological. fund rus. lit. language. The fate of Lermont. K. s. heterogeneous... Lermontov Encyclopedia

    trochee- (from Greek choreios, from choros chorus) two-syllable poetic size, in which the stress falls on the first syllable of the foot. Chorea scheme: / / / . Heading: The structure of a poetic work Gender: Two-syllable sizes Example: Three-foot trochee: Does not dust ... ... Terminological dictionary-thesaurus on literary criticism

As a child, I read the famous poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mountain Peaks".
It struck me with its beauty and incredible poetry. I can't resist quoting it in full:

Mountain peaks
Sleeping in the darkness of night
quiet valleys
Full of fresh haze.
The road is not dusty
Sheets do not tremble
Wait a bit,
You will rest too.

Over the years I have come across similar poems by many Russian poets. Then I realized that this was all a translation of the same poem by Goethe - which he wrote, returning from hunting, first with coal on the door, so as not to forget, and only then on paper:

Uber allen Yipfeln
ist Ruh
Yn allen Wipfeln
Sprest du
kaum einen Hauch.
Die Vgleinschweigen in Walde.
Warte nur, balde
ruhest du aux.

This poem is a real gem of poetry. But here is M.Yu. Lermontov so cut it, translating it into Russian, that it turned out to be a perfect diamond, even surpassing Goethe's verse.

Here are two more translations of Russian poets.

Translation by Valery Bryusov:

On all peaks
Peace;
In the leaves, in the valleys
None
The features will not tremble;
The birds sleep in the silence of the forest,
Just wait: soon
You will fall asleep too.

Translation of Innokenty Annensky:

Above the mountain
Silence.
In the foliage, already black,
You won't feel
Not a breath.
In more often the flight calmed down ...
Oh wait!... A moment.
Quiet and you ... will take.

It is up to readers to judge how good these translations are.

In one of the literary magazines, I came across a translation of Goethe's poem by a Japanese poet. Then, there was a translation from Japanese into French by a French poet, and a translation by a German poet again into his native German language, in which Goethe wrote.
At the same time, a strong transformation of the original took place:

Stille ist im Hfvillon aus Gade.
Krahen flyen stumm
Zu beschneiten Kirschbaumen
In Mondlicht.
Ych sitze
and wine.

I bring a subscript:

Quiet in the jade arbor
Crows silently fly
To the snow-covered cherry trees
In the moonlight
I am sitting
And I cry.

And now, decades later, after my reading of Goethe's poem, I ventured to make my own translation:

On top of the black
silence.
And behind the black cloud
the moon is hidden.
Birds sleep in the oak forest
frozen bushes
In a moment, close your eyelashes
you are tired.

Evgeny Kashcheev.

P.s.
Some time later, my daughter Olga Shefova also translated this verse:

Translation from Goethe

Embraced by peace
Peaks away.
Vast space
For the gaze of love.

Roads in slumber
In a dream, a quiet garden.
Only a lonely path
Anxious hug.

Reviews

Generalized translation (the most correct: because Yandex, Google, Promt translators helped me):

Above all summits
it's calm
In all tops
you will feel
barely a hint.
Who flies in silence in the forest.
Meteorological station only, Balda,
you rest too.

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"From Goethe (Mountain Peaks ...)" Mikhail Lermontov

Mountain peaks
Sleep in the darkness of the night;
quiet valleys
Full of fresh haze;
The road is not dusty
Sheets do not tremble ...
Wait a bit,
You will rest too.

Analysis of Lermontov's poem "From Goethe (Mountain Peaks ...)"

The small masterpiece, created in 1840, was destined to have a long life in art: Bryusov, Annensky, Pasternak turned to it, and composers set poems to music. Romances, which sing about mountain peaks, began to appear from the 40s. 19th century In total, there are more than 40 musical versions of Lermontov's octostich.

The name of the work refers to the source - "The Wanderer's Night Song", written by a German classic. The lyrical hero of the short work is fascinated by the calmness of the landscape painting. Gradually plunging into the atmosphere of silence, he feels a spiritual unity with natural forces. This unity can heal a person tired of life's anxieties.

Lermontov's variation is usually referred to as a free translation. Indeed, only the first line and the last couplet of the original are accurately reproduced. The natural sketch depicted by the Russian author looks different: the artistic space is expanding, it includes not only a forest thicket against the backdrop of mountains, but “quiet valleys” and a road. Having surveyed the majestic panorama, the lyrical hero stops at the element of the foreground - the foliage on the trees.

The German poet focuses on two details of the landscape: the complete absence of wind and the silence of the birds. With their help, the motives of stillness and peace, fundamental to the poem, are supported. Lermontov resorts to personifications that enliven the numb nature: “sleep”, “do not tremble”. Another iconic technique is the game with the dual meaning of the definition: the haze is “fresh”, cool and giving renewal. The real signs of the picture of the night are filled with philosophical meaning. The coming twilight brings not only cold, but eternal sleep, long-awaited reassurance to the exhausted hero.

The symbolic allegorical landscape is a sign of the mature Lermontov style. The movement of "heavenly clouds", a lonely pine tree covered with snow, or a "beautiful palm tree" - depicting a natural sketch, the author tells about the state of the soul: loneliness and restlessness, doom to wandering and a thirst for peace.

The final lines of both authors are united by the motif of reassurance, but Lermontov's interpretation is more tragic: his version of rest-sleep is overshadowed by the semantics of death as a welcome liberation from life's hardships and suffering. The theme of cosmism comes to the fore: the soul, freed from earthly captivity, merges with eternal immortal nature.

When translating, incidents and misunderstandings often occur. One of the most famous mistakes is the one that occurred in connection with the translation, or rather, with the translations of Goethe's poem, known to the Russian reader in the translation of M. Yu. Lermontov "Mountain Peaks":

Mountain peaks

Sleeping in the darkness of night

quiet valleys

Full of fresh haze.

The road is not dusty

Sheets do not tremble.

Wait a bit,

You will rest too.

Wanderers Nachtlied

Uber allen Gipfeln
East Ruh,
In allen Wipfeln
Spurest du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur, balde
Ruhest du aux.

Interlinear:

The wanderer's night song

Above all peaks
peace.
In all the tops (trees)
you will feel
hardly a whiff.
The birds were silent in the forest.
Just wait: soon
You will rest too.

An interesting story happened with this poem by Goethe. In 1902 it was translated into Japanese. Nine years later, a certain Frenchman, who was interested in the poetry of the peoples of the Far East, found it in the Japanese press. Perhaps there was no reference to Goethe in the text, or it escaped his attention, but he mistook it for an original Japanese work. Whatever it was, but the poems were translated from Japanese into French. These "Japanese" poems in French translation caught the eye of a German translator. Obviously, when he read them, he did not have any associations with a poem that was undoubtedly familiar to him. He translated it from French into his native language. Goethe's verse became unrecognizable. Here's what its interlinear translation looks like:

Quiet in the jade arbor

Silently the crows fly

To the snow-covered cherry trees

In the moonlight