Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume X).djvu/290

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POEMS IN PROSE

I rushed towards her. . . . But already she had fluttered out of window, and darted away. . . .

In the garden, in a thicket of lilac bushes, a wood-dove greeted her with its first morning warble . . . and where she vanished, the milk-white sky flushed a soft pink.

I know thee. Goddess of Fantasy! Thou didst pay me a random visit by the way; thou hast flown on to the young poets.

О Poesy! Youth! Virginal beauty of woman! Thou couldst shine for me but for a moment, in the early dawn of early spring!

May 1878.


NECESSITAS—VIS—LIBERTAS!

A BAS-RELIEF

A tall, bony old woman, with iron face and dull, fixed look, moves with long strides, and, with an arm dry as a stick, pushes before her another woman.

This woman—of huge stature, powerful, thickset, with the muscles of a Hercules, with a tiny head set on a bull neck, and blind—in her turn pushes before her a small, thin girl.

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