Mikhail Lermontov - И скучно, и грустно... (I skuchno, i grustno...) (English translation)

Mikhail Lermontov – И скучно, и грустно...

English translation

Russian

Original lyrics

И скучно, и грустно...

И скучно и грустно, и некому руку подать

В минуту душевной невзгоды...

Желанья!... что пользы напрасно и вечно желать?

А годы проходят - все лучшие годы!

Любить... но кого же?.. на время - не стоит труда,

А вечно любить невозможно.

В себя ли заглянешь? там прошлого нет и следа:

И радость, и муки, и всё там ничтожно...

Что страсти? - ведь рано иль поздно их сладкий недуг

Исчезнет при слове рассудка;

И жизнь, как посмотришь с холодным вниманием вокруг -

Такая пустая и глупая шутка...

English

Translation#12 3 4 5

Such boredom, such sadness

Such boredom, such sadness, no shoulder in sight to lean on

in moments of inner disquiet.

All wishes are pointless and only weigh down on your soul

as seasons keep passing, your own precious springtime.

To love? Oh but whom, then? To love for a while is a waste,

yet never can love be unfading.

You dig through your feelings and find of your past not a trace.

All joyhood, all anguish all trite and degrading.

What's passion, if sooner or later sobriety follows each trance,

and hunger takes leave after lunchtime.

And life, once you give it a calm and unprejudiced glance, —

is silly and empty, a joke with no punchline.

metered

poetic

rhyming

singable

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This is a poetic translation - deviations from the meaning of the original are present (extra words, extra or omitted information, substituted concepts).

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Submitted by

Alexander Evstyugov-Babaev on 2025-09-26

Author's comments:

Sheet music with this translation included to verify that everything lines up fine:
https://musescore.com/user/27897310/scores/13767892

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