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VII
Tatyana listened with vexation
To all this gossip, but secretly,
With inexpressible elation,
She thought on it unguardedly;
In her heart the thought had taken root;
Time passed, and she became inflamed.
Just so a seed falling on the ground
By the fire of spring sends forth its shoot.
For a long time her imagination,
Burning with emptiness and longing,
Thirsted for fatal nourishment
For a long time all her heartfelt yearning
Had constricted her young breast with pain
Her soul was waiting - waiting in vain
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VIII
For the unknown he… He came, her eyes
Were opened. It is him! she said.
Alas! Now all her nights and days,
Her solitary, feverish dreams
Were all full of him; everything
Without ceasing, with entrancing magic
Speaks to the dear girl of him. Then
The sounds of caressing, anxious voices,
A servant's caring look, appear
Vexatious. Plunged in gloom,
The visiting guests she fails to hear,
And curses their leisure and free time,
Their unexpected tedious visit
And the prolonged unending time they sit.
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IX
And now with what enhanced attention
She reads a novel and finds it sweet,
With what enchanted living passion
She imbibes the seductive, wild deceit!
Imbued with the writer's power of vision
Each novel's inspired characters
The lover of Julia, Volmar,
Malek-Adel, and de Linar,
And Werther, tortured by self-derision,
And the incomparable Grandison,
(Who unfortunately sends us to sleep)
All of them behaved in unison,
And the silly dreamer saw them all
Merged in Onegin, body and soul.
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