Pushkin, Lukomorye

Gerard van Schagen: Map of Asia, 1689
(fragment showing Lukomorye)
source: Leen Helmink, Antique Maps/van Schagen World
(wikimedia)
no copyright infringement intended

Лукоморье (Lukomorye), is a fictional land in Russian mythology; the Russian word itself is an obsolete term for bight or bay; it can be translated as curved sea-shore or inlet of the sea; mentioned in Слово о плъку Игоревѣ (The Tale of Igor's Army); source of inspiration for Pushkin in his prologue to Руслан и Людмила (Ruslan and Ludmila): he describes an amazing place on the seashore, where fairy creatures live and miracles happen (wiki).

У лукоморья дуб зелёный;

Златая цепь на дубе том:

И днем и ночью кот учёный

Все ходит по цепи кругом;

Идет направо – песнь заводит,

Налево – сказку говорит.

Там чудеса: там леший бродит,

Русалка на ветвях сидит;

Там на неведомых дорожках

Следы невиданных зверей;

Избушка там на курьих ножках

Стоит без окон, без дверей;

Там лес и дол видений полны;

Там о заре прихлынут волны

На брег песчаный и пустой,

И тридцать витязей прекрасных

Чредой из вод выходят ясных,

И с ними дядька их морской;

Там королевич мимоходом

Пленяет грозного царя;

Там в облаках перед народом

Через леса, через моря

Колдун несет богатыря;

В темнице там царевна тужит,

А бурый волк ей верно служит;

Там ступа с Бабою Ягой

Идет, бредёт сама собой;

Там царь Кащей над златом чахнет;

Там русской дух... там Русью пахнет!

И там я был, и мед я пил;

У моря видел дуб зелёный;

Под ним сидел, и кот учёный

Свои мне сказки говорил.

Одну я помню: сказку эту

Поведаю теперь я свету…

(http://wikitranslate.org/wiki/Lukomorye_Pictures_-_U_Lukomorya)

(video by Cornelis Boon)

There is the oak-tree in Lukomorye;
A golden chain is twisted over it:
And day and night a skilfull cat is going
So constantly round the tree;
Once he is going to right hand -
He's singing, telling tales;
Once to the left - the miracles again:
A Goblin in the wood you meet,
On branch is sitting a Mermaid;
There are on the unknown roads
The traces of unknown beasts;
The log-hut on the chicken legs all is
Without doors and windows;
There woods and lands are full of marvels:
At dawn there the waves are rushing
On deserted and sandy shore,
And thirty knights are going flushing
From clear sea waters in turn,
With uncle-tutor following on;
A prince there is captivating a cruel tzar
In passing by the magic land;
Above the forests and the seas far
In view of all the people's high
The wizard is carrying an athlete;
In prison there tzarevna's sobbing,
A grey wolf is her faithful servant;
There the Baba-Yaga is crawling
In old her mortar self-going;
And the tzar Kaschei is bending over
The pile of gold, exhausted all:
There the Russia's smell...
The Russia's flavour!
And I was also sitting there
Beneath the oak-tree, drinking a mead;
The skilful cat was telling tales,
One of them, which I do remember
With pleasure now I present
To all around readers gentle...

English rendering: Lyudmila Purgina

(http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-pushkin-ruslan-and-lyudmila-prologue-transl-rus/)

(video by Лукоморье Пикчерз)

(Pushkin)