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# In the hearts of men I have noticed a chill, no small one; of loving ardour I have long seen none among the Berendeys
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-serdtsakh-liudei-zametil-ia-ostudu-nemaluiu-goriachnosti-liubovnoi-ne-vizhu-ia-davno-u-berendeev/
- Published: 2024-12-10T11:09:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T09:18:22.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Books, Mores

In the hearts of men I have noticed a chill,  
No small one; of loving ardour  
I have long seen none among the Berendeys.  
The service of beauty has vanished from them;  
In the young I do not see glances  
Moistened with bewitching passion;  
I do not see pensive maidens, sighing  
Deeply. In their languorous little eyes  
There is no lofty longing of love,  
But quite other passions show themselves:  
Vanity, envy of other women's finery,  
And the rest. Among the married the cooling  
Is more noticeable still: at their wives, beauties  
Wondrous, with falcon eyes,  
At the splendid swan-white  
Of their supple shoulders, the Berendey husbands,  
Drowsy, gaze with indifference.  
Methinks I... ah, old age, old age! Where are you,  
Merry years gone by  
Of hot feelings and frequent infatuations?  
Wondrous deeds did the sickness of love  
Work in my soul: both kind and tender  
Was then the happy Berendey,  
And ready to receive anyone into his arms  
Held open. Now I am old and grey,  
And yet I do not understand how one can  
Be cold, remain passionless  
At the sight of rosy, full-bosomed wives.  
But let us not turn aside,  
Let us return to what went before. And the wives!  
One cannot say that they have lost altogether  
Their warm attachment to their husbands,  
And yet conjugal fidelity  
Has lost a little, so to speak,  
Of its unshakeability and its certainty.  
In short, my friend, the chill of the heart  
Is everywhere: hearts have grown cold,  
And there you have the riddle of our misfortunes  
And of the frost: for the cold of our feelings  
Yarilo the Sun is angry with us  
And avenges himself with frost. Is that clear?

*Literal translation*

Alexander Ostrovsky, *The Snow Maiden*  
Illustration: Boris Zvorykin

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_14520@10-12-2024_14-09-13.jpg)