Status Updates From Eugenio Onegin

Alas, in fripp'ry light and trifling
I've frittered much of life away.
Take balls—for moral growth, they're stifling;
If not, I'd love them still today
I love youth's frenzy and its bluster,
Its joy, its ardor, and its luster,
And ladies' fancy, frilly clothes;
I love their limbs, though I'd suppose
You'll find in Russia three or fewer
Well-tapered pairs of ladies' legs
But there's one special pair that plagues…

I burnt so much of life's brief candle
In levity I now regret!
Still, balls—but for the model scandal
They breed, I should adore them yet.
I thrill to ardent youth's outpouring,
The crush and blaze, the spirit's soaring,
Those beauties artfully arrayed;
I love their feet—though I'm afraid
Throughout our land you won't discover
Three pairs of shapely female feet.
Ah—one I long could not delete
From memory…

Alas, on pleasure 's wild variety
I've wasted too much life away!
But, did they not corrupt society,
I'd still like dances to this day:
the atmosphere of youth and madness,
the crush, the glitter and the gladness,
the ladies' calculated dress:
I love their feet—though I confess
that all of Russia can't contribute
three pairs of handsome ones—yet there
exists for me one special pair!
one pair!…

A man who's active and incisive
can yet keep nail-care much in mind:
why fight what's known to be decisive? custom is despot of mankind.

We've all absorbed, by candles burning,
A jot of this, a tad of that.
So thank the lord, to shine in learning
In our old land is quite old hat.

Brutal! 🤣😂🤣

We all meandered through our schooling
haphazard; so, to God be thanks,
it's easy, without too much fooling,
to pass for cultured in our ranks.

🤣😂🤣

I.5

Since we pick up our education
In bits and pieces here and there,
To earn a brilliant reputation
With us, thank god, is no affair.

I.5

Slow going. One stanza at a time, and it's hard to get any sort of flow going. It might take me all year to read this one.