TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.


Alexander Pushkin, the most distinguished poet of Russia, was born
at Saint Petersburg, 1799. When only twenty-one years of age he
entered the civil service in the department of foreign affairs.
Lord Byron's writings and efforts for Greek independence exercised
great influence over Pushkin, whose "Ode to Liberty" cost him his
freedom. He was exiled to Bessarabia [A region of Moldova and
western Ukraine] from 1820 to 1825, whence he returned at the
accession of the new emperor, Nicholas, who made him historiographer
of Peter the Great. Pushkin's friends now looked upon him as a
traitor to the cause of liberty. It is not improbable that an
enforced residence at the mouth of the Danube somewhat cooled his
patriotic enthusiasm. Every Autumn, his favorite season for literary
production, he usually passed at his country seat in the province
Pekoff. Here from 1825 to 1829 he published "Pultowa," "Boris
Godunoff," "Eugene Onegin," and "Ruslaw and Ludmila," a tale in
verse, after the Manner of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso." This is
considered as the first great poetical work in the Russian language,
though the critics of the day attacked it, because it was beyond
their grasp; but the public devoured it.

In 1831 Pushkin married, and soon after appeared his charming novel,
"Marie," a picture of garrison life on the Russian plains. Peter
and Marie of this Northern story are as pure as their native snows,
and whilst listening to the recital, we inhale the odor of the
steppe, and catch glimpses of the semi-barbarous Kalmouk and the
Cossack of the Don.