Quotes from work
Boris Godunov

Aleksandr Pushkin Original title Борис Годунов (Russian, 1831)

Boris Godunov is a closet play by Alexander Pushkin. It was written in 1825, published in 1831, but not approved for performance by the censor until 1866. Its subject is the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar from 1598 to 1605. It consists of 25 scenes and is written predominantly in blank verse.


Aleksandr Pushkin photo
Aleksandr Pushkin photo

“Ah! heavy art thou, crown of Monomakh!”

Boris Godunov (1825)

Aleksandr Pushkin photo
Aleksandr Pushkin photo

“Pimen [writing in front of a sacred lamp]:
One more, the final record, and my annals
Are ended, and fulfilled the duty laid
By God on me a sinner. Not in vain
Hath God appointed me for many years
A witness, teaching me the art of letters;
A day will come when some laborious monk
Will bring to light my zealous, nameless toil,
Kindle, as I, his lamp, and from the parchment
Shaking the dust of ages will transcribe
My true narrations.”

(Variant translation):
One more story, just one more,
And then my history's completed,
All my chronicles written down
And my sinner's debt repaid to God.
Not for nothing.
The Lord appointed me to bear witness
For many many years and it was he
Taught me the art of creating books.
One day, in the far future,
some hard-working monk
Will find my painstaking,
anonymous writings.
He'll light his lamp,
as I light mine,
He'lll shake the dust of centuries from these scrolls.
Then he'll copy out, carefully, these true accounts,
So the descendants of today's Christians
May know the past of their native land
Remember their mighty Tsars warmly
For their glory and their knidness
And our Lord's mercy on their sins and crimes.
In my old age I live my life anew.
Pushkin, Alexander (2012). Pushkin's Boris Gudunov. Oberon Books.
Boris Godunov (1825)

Similar authors

Aleksandr Pushkin photo
Aleksandr Pushkin 33
Russian poet 1799–1837
Mikhail Lermontov photo
Mikhail Lermontov 34
Russian writer, poet and painter
Ivan Turgenev photo
Ivan Turgenev 7
Russian writer
Alexander Herzen photo
Alexander Herzen 9
Russian author
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol 39
Russian writer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky photo
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 5
Russian composer
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky 155
Russian author
Anton Chekhov photo
Anton Chekhov 222
Russian dramatist, author and physician
Charles Baudelaire photo
Charles Baudelaire 133
French poet
Robert Southey photo
Robert Southey 51
British poet