Ballet

Diana's chest, cheeks Flora
Lovely, dear friends,
But, I confess, the foot of Terpsichore
Lovely thing for me;
She, prophesying a look
An unrated reward,
Attracts conditional beauties
Desires a willful swarm ...
Pushkin

No, it's difficult to breathe in the street.
Muse! now performance is a benefit,
It's time for us to visit the theater.

We entered among the screams and splashing.
We'll sit here. I'm afraid of the first places,
What a joy to blind from brilliance
General, senatorial stars.
The effulgent ruddy Phoebe
These stars: noticeably immediately,
That they are not picked up from the sky -
Stars of the sky are not bright in our country.

If it were a bold, intrepid look
We decided to look at that series,
What is called the "diamond series"
Maybe our sophisticated look
And would open the subject for satire
(In the sun itself there are specks). But -
The nemes of the string of the punishing lyre,
The whirlwind of life has torn them long ago!

Know, people of good tone,
That I myself adore ballet.
"Struck by Cupid's arrow"
Do not be ridiculous - hearty greetings!
Do not sound alarming!
I will not touch any military ranks,
Neither in the service of the winged god
Sowed on the feet of civilian aces.
Starched dandy and dandy
(That is, the merchant was kidding and wasting)
And the mouse stallion (so Gogol
Young people call the elders),
A written supplier of feuilletons,
Officers of the Guards Regiments
And impersonal bastard salons -
I'm ready to quit all silence!
Before the ballet, they are especially passionate
The Armenian, the Persian and the Greek,
See how their faces are red
(Is not the whole person in the ballet?).
But I will leave them alone,
Nobody wants to be angry.
I'm planning something else -
I want to propose a riddle.

In the Masquerade and in the opera hall,
Behind the game at the green tables,
In the club, in the Duma, in the arena, at the ball,
In a word: in a society of all kinds,
In pleasure, in work and in peace,
In the prodigal son, in the venerable father, -
There is one thing - guess what? -
Expression in a Russian face? ..
However, maybe you are undeserved.
Muse! Give - if you can - the answer!
No doubt: we are different outwardly,
That official, and this cornet,
He is obsessed with a subtle decency,
He plays, he loves to eat,
But look: with external differences
In us, the deep is:
We all had the same lack of money -
And great and small people -
And on each brow traced
The inscription: "Where to take quick?"
What, is not it? ..
The story is the same,
The same thought on every face,
I read it the other day even
On the venerable one dead.
If the elder is playful extremely,
If a young man hangs his nose -
Both believe me, think secretly:
Where can I borrow money? that's the question!

That's the question! Tense, anxious
Everyone yearns to solve it,
But it is impossible to occupy, they say,
It is impossible to receive the debt.
They say no contracts
The debtors do not want to perform;
Governor-General Suvorov
Keeps the side of them, they say ...
Condemn the lawyers of the hero,
But you are right, guardian of peace
And the order of the capital native!
Maybe in debt separation
The whole population would hang out,
If there was another governor!

Disclaimer: I just found these in my library. I do not have the rights to them,
I just them and decided to share them with you.