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)

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

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"The Cemetery" (1830)
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

„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)

„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)

„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)

„A strange thing, the human heart in general, and woman's heart in particular.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

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

„I would make any sacrifice but this; twenty times I can stake my life, even my honour, but my freedom I shall never sell. Why do I prize it so much? … What am I aiming at? Nothing, absolutely nothing.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

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

„You men do not understand the delights of a glance, of a pressure of the hand… but as for me, I swear to you that, when I listen to your voice, I feel such a deep, strange bliss that the most passionate kisses could not take its place.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

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

„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

„What is this eternity to me without you?
What is the infinity of my domains?
Empty ringing words,
A spacious temple — without a divinity!“

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"The Demon" (1830)
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

„The public of this country is so youthful, not to say simple-minded, that it cannot understand the meaning of a fable unless the moral is set forth at the end. Unable to see a joke, insensible to irony, it has, in a word, been badly brought up. It has not yet learned that in a decent book, as in decent society, open invective can have no place; that our present-day civilisation has invented a keener weapon, none the less deadly for being almost invisible, which, under the cloak of flattery, strikes with sure and irresistible effect.“

—  Mikhail Lermontov, libro Un héroe de nuestro tiempo

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

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

—  Mikhail Lermontov

"The Demon" (1830)
Poems

„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)