Pushkin quote, "Kakov ia prezhde byl"

[Timothy D. Sergay]

With greetings to Paul and all colleagues on SEELANGS:

An English translation of "Kakov ia prezhde byl" (mid-Sept. to early 
November, 1826) is available, it's by Babette Deutsche:

The man I was of old, that man I still remain:
Lighthearted, soon in love. You know, my friends, 'tis vain
To think I can behold the fair without elation,
And timid tenderness and secret agitation.
Has love not played with me and teased me quite enough?
In Cytherea's nets, wrought of such sturdy stuff,
Like a young hawk have I not struggled long and striven?
Unchastened by the pangs whereby I have been driven,
Unto new idols I my old entreaties bring...

Source:
The Complete Works of Alexander Pushkin, Volume Three: Lyric Poems, 
1826-1836. Downham Market, Norfolk: Milner and Company; Distributed by 
Charles Schlacks, Jr., Publisher, 1999. Page 34. (NB: there are a 
significant number of garbled readings of Pushkin in the translations newly 
commissioned for these volumes.)

I don't see any extrametrical unstressed syllable in the Russian at the 
beginning, by the way.

Tim Sergay

>
> I have been unable to discover any other English translation, but that 
> doesn't mean none exists. Perhaps [francophone colleague name] could offer 
> something? The original meter is iambic hexameter: ._._._, ._._._: (where 
> period represents unstressed and underscore represents stressed), like the 
> French if we elide the second syllable of "aut'fois"; the Russian has an 
> extra unstressed (pickup) syllable at the beginning.
>

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