Frases de Mikhail Lermontov

„Un héroe de nuestro tiempo", muy señores míos, es, efectivamente, un retrato, pero no el de un hombre solo: es un registro constituido por los vicios, en pleno desarrollo, de toda nuestra generación. Volveréis a objetarme que un hombre no puede ser tan malvado; a lo cual replicaré que, si habéis creído en la posible existencia de tanto malhechor trágico y romántico, ¿por qué no admitís la realidad de un Pechorin? Si admirasteis invenciones mucho más terribles y monstruosas, ¿por qué ese carácter, incluso como invención, no gana de vuestra indulgencia? ¿No será, acaso, porque hay en él más verdad de lo que quisierais?

Me diréis que la moralidad no gana con ello. Disculpadme: se han venido sirviendo a las gentes demasiadas golosinas; por eso tienen estropeados los estómagos: se precisan medicamentos amargos, verdades acerbas.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time

„Las pasiones no son sino ideas en su desarrollo inicial: son atributo de la juventud del corazón, y tonto sería quien pensara que han de inquietarle toda la vida: mochos ríos tranquilos nacen como cascadas tumultuosas, pero ninguno llega hasta el mar turbulento y coronado de espuma.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

„¿Qué es la felicidad? Orgullo satisfecho.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

„Women love only those whom they do not know!“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„And everything that he saw before him
He despised or hated.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"The Demon" (1830)
Poems

„Women! Women! Who can understand them? Their smiles contradict their glances, their words promise and allure, but the tone of their voice repels.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„My whole past life I live again in memory, and, involuntarily, I ask myself: 'why have I lived - for what purpose was I born?'… A purpose there must have been, and, surely, mine was an exalted destiny, because I feel that within my soul are powers immeasurable… But I was not able to discover that destiny, I allowed myself to be carried away by the allurements of passions, inane and ignoble. From their crucible I issued hard and cold as iron, but gone for ever was the glow of noble aspirations - the fairest flower of life. And, from that time forth, how often have I not played the part of an axe in the hands of fate! Like an implement of punishment, I have fallen upon the head of doomed victims, often without malice, always without pity… To none has my love brought happiness, because I have never sacrificed anything for the sake of those I have loved: for myself alone I have loved - for my own pleasure. I have only satisfied the strange craving of my heart, greedily draining their feelings, their tenderness, their joys, their sufferings - and I have never been able to sate myself. I am like one who, spent with hunger, falls asleep in exhaustion and sees before him sumptuous viands and sparkling wines; he devours with rapture the aerial gifts of the imagination, and his pains seem somewhat assuaged. Let him but awake: the vision vanishes - twofold hunger and despair remain!
And tomorrow, it may be, I shall die!… And there will not be left on earth one being who has understood me completely. Some will consider me worse, others, better, than I have been in reality… Some will say: 'he was a good fellow'; others: 'a villain.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

And both epithets will be false. After all this, is life worth the trouble? And yet we live - out of curiosity! We expect something new... How absurd, and yet how vexatious!
A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„I am like a mariner born and bred on board a buccaneer brig whose soul has become so inured to storm and strife that if cast ashore he would weary and languish no matter how alluring the shady groves and how bright the gentle sun.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„One should never spurn a penitent criminal: in his despair he may become twice as much a criminal as before.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„Happy people are ignoramuses and glory is nothing else but success, and to achieve it one only has to be cunning.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„A childish feeling, I admit, but, when we retire from the conventions of society and draw close to nature, we involuntarily become children: each attribute acquired by experience falls away from the soul, which becomes anew such as it was once and will surely be again.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„The history of a man's soul, even the pettiest soul, is hardly less interesting and useful than the history of a whole people; especially when the former is the result of the observations of a mature mind upon itself, and has been written without any egotistical desire of arousing sympathy or astonishment. Rousseau's Confessions has precisely this defect – he read it to his friends.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

„To the earth I gave the earthly tribute
Of love, hopes, good and evil;
I am ready to begin another life,
I am silent and wait: the time has come;
I shall leave no brother in this world,
And dark and cold embrace
My tired soul;
Like a premature fruit, deprived of sap,
It withered in the storms of fate
Under the burning sun of existence.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"I look upon the future with fear..." (1838)
Poems

„…man, this ruler over general evil,
With a perfidious heart, with a lying tongue…“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"The Cemetery" (1830)
Poems

„The surrounding forest, as though in a mist,
Was blue in the powder of smoke.
But there, far off, in a disordered ridge,
Which was yet eternally proud and calm,
Stretched the mountains — and Kazbek
Gleamed with its sharp peak.
And with secret, heartfelt sorrow
I thought: 'Pitiable man.
What does he want! The sky is clear,
Beneath it there is much room for all,
But constantly and vainly
He alone wages war — why?“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"I am writing to you..." (1840)
Poems

„The chain of young life is broken,
The journey is ended, the hour has struck, it is time to leave,
Time to go where there is no future,
No past, no eternity, no years;
Where there are no expectations, no passions,
No bitter tears, no fame, no honour;
Where memory sleeps deeply
And the heart in its narrow coffin home
Does not feel the worm gnawing it.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"Death" (1830 or 1831)
Poems

„For what did the creator prepare me,
Why did he so terribly contradict
The hopes of my youth?…“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"My future is in darkness..." (1837)
Poems

„Alone, as before, in the universe
Without hope and without love!..“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"The Demon" (1830)
Poems