Thursday, 8 October 2026

Final scene of Alexander Sumarokov’s tragedy “Dimitry the Pretender” and the death of its hero

There is a tragedy by Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov called "Dimitry the Pretender". And it contains these lines:

...

Parmen
(with a drawn sword, tearing Ksenia from his hands)

Your cruelties and your thunderings are over!
Our people are delivered from deaths, persecutions, wounds,
The tyrant in his impotence is a terror to no one.

Literal translation

Dimitry

Begone, soul, to hell, and be a captive for ever!

(Stabs himself in the breast with a dagger and, expiring, falls into the arms of the guards.)

Ah, if only the whole universe had perished with me!

Literal translation

End of the tragedy

A curious thing, aphoristic. And so I have the feeling that the end of the tragedy is, after all, not far off.

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