Night, City Lane, Streetlamp, Drugstore
Alexander Blok (Алекса́ндр Блок, 1880-1921) was the principal representative of Russian Symbolism, a modernist literary movement influenced by its European counterpart but deeply imbued with Eastern Orthodox religious and mystical thought. He is one of the central figures of the Silver Age of Russian poetry, a period of extraordinary artistic intensity at the turn of the twentieth century.
In his work, Blok united two historical epochs: the mystical symbolism that foresaw the collapse of the old world, and the revolutionary storms through which a new world struggled to be born. His poetry moves between rapture and despair, faith and doubt, spiritual longing and political urgency, reflecting the inner tensions of both the poet and his time.
This poem expresses in short two stanzas a sense of the mingling of eternity with ennui. Eternity is not exalted but weary, transforming immortality into a form of quiet despair rather than transcendence.
Ночь, у́лица, фона́рь, апте́ка,
бессмы́сленный и ту́склый свет.
Живи́ ещё хоть че́тверть ве́ка -
всё бу́дет так. Исхо́да нет.
Умрёшь - начнёшь опя́ть снача́ла
и повтори́тся всё, как встарь:
Ночь, ледяна́я рябь кана́ла,
Апте́ка, у́лица, фона́рь.
Night, city lane, streetlamp, drugstore,
meaningless and feeble light.
Live another quarter of a century -
all will be so. There's no escape.
You'll die, and you'll start again from the beginning,
and it will all repeat, as in the past:
Night, icy ripples on the canal,
Drugstore, city lane, streetlamp.