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About Nikolay Gumilev

Nikolay Gumilev lived as though poetry and adventure were the same discipline. The founder of Acmeism, the movement that rejected the haze of Symbolism in favor of clarity and the solid world, he was also a traveler to Africa, a decorated soldier, and the first husband of Anna Akhmatova.

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  1. Conquistador
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  3. Gates Of Paradise
  4. Word
  5. Prophets
  6. Don Juan
  7. Eternal
  8. Agamemnons Warrior

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You are here: Home » Russian-Language Poets » Nikolay Gumilev » The Clever Demon


Nikolay Gumilev

Nikolay Gumilev

The Clever Demon

My old good friend, my faithful Demon,
Had sung the little song to me:
All night of hell the sailor sailed on,
But drowned by the morn in sea.
Around him waves stood like domes,
They fell and loomed again above,
And before him, whiter than foam,
Was flying his unrivaled love.
He heard the call, while he was flitting,
"I'll not deceive you, trust in me."
Remember, -- said this Demon, witty, --
He drowned at the morn in sea.
Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, January, 2000
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, August, 2000

More by Nikolay Gumilev

  1. Conquistador
  2. Sixth Sense
  3. Gates Of Paradise
  4. Word
  5. Prophets

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