Tuesday, 6 October 2026

Gavriil Derzhavin wrote “Anacreon by the Stove” in 1795 about Maria, her harp and Cupid

Share
Gavriil Derzhavin wrote “Anacreon by the Stove” in 1795 about Maria, her harp and Cupid

Should Anacreon chance
To visit Maria,
Between them Cupid
Would flit like a butterfly.
The winged godling flew
Around the beauty,
And fitted his feathered arrows
To his bow.
He shot from her heavenly
And blue eyes,
And from the roses on her charming lips,
And from the lilies on her breast.
But when Maria took up
The ringing harp
And let her voice sound
Into the golden strings,
Under her scarlet fingers
The god fluttered more briskly still,
With the sharpest arrows
He struck hearts and burned them.
Anacreon by the stove
Sighed then, sitting there,
"Like a moth from the candle,
I too shall burn," he said.

Literal translation

Gavriil Derzhavin, Anacreon by the Stove, 1795

Report a translation error

Read more