Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev; Фёдор Иванович Тютчев December 5 (November 23 O.S.) 1803 - July 27 (July 15 O.S.) 1873 Russian poet

From short poems

• Silentium!

How can a heart expression find?

How should another know your mind?

Will he discern what quickens you?

A thought once uttered is untrue.

• Problème

After tumbling down the mountain, a stone lies in a valley.

How did it fall away? Right now, no-one knows.

Did it tear from the heights on its own?

Or was it cast down by the will of another?

Aeons have flowed by, yet no-one knows the reason why.

• A Spring Storm

I love May's first storms:

chuckling, sporting spring

grumbles in mock anger;

young thunder claps.

• Russia cannot be understood with the mind alone...

Russia cannot be understood with the mind alone,

No ordinary yardstick can span her greatness:

She stands alone, unique –

In Russia, one can only believe.

• Separation has this lofty meaning...

Separation has this lofty meaning:

if love lasts years, if but a day it takes,

love's just a dream and we're a moment dreaming,

and whether early, whether late the waking,

the time must finally arrive when we awake.