pushkin quote

November 21st, 2008
  • "I would not wish,by a false idea seduced, To disparage censors with offhand abuse What's opportune for London is for Moscow oversoon." Where did this quote come from.the quote was translated by Anya Kuraeva. Thanks


  • I am not fluent in Russian, but I believe the lines you've quoted are from Pushkin's 1822 poem "Epistle to the Censor" (sometimes translated as "Message to the Censor"). If your computer is capable of displaying Cyrillic fonts, you can read the poem here (select the proper font encoding at the bottom of the page): http://www.fplib.org/literature/19century/pushkin/themesst.html If this is the information that you're looking for, please let me know, and I'll be glad to repost this as your official answer.


  • Yes pinkfreud,that was the source,Iwas trying to find.Could you show me your search path? Thanks GJS


  • I'm glad to have been able to help you find the information that you needed! This is how I located the information. I began with this search: Google Web Search: pushkin censor OR censors moscow london ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pushkin+censor+OR+censors+moscow+london This led me to a paper about Russian journalists which gave a different translation of the quote, and provided the date and title of the poem: "What London needs that is early for Moscow Alexander Pushkin 1822 The Epistle to the Censor" PROFESSIONAL ROLES OF RUSSIAN JOURNALISTS AT THE END OF THE 1990s http://tutkielmat.uta.fi/pdf/lisuri00006.pdf Armed with this info, I used this search string: Google Web Search: pushkin "to the censor" ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pushkin+%22to+the+censor%22 ...which provided the link that I posted in my request-for-clarification above: Friends and Partners: Alexander Pushkin http://www.fplib.org/friends/literature/19century/pushkin/themesst.html Since I do not read Russian, I awaited your verification that this was the correct source before posting my answer. Best regards, pinkfreud


  • I have noticed that the Friends and Partners site is rather flaky; the link was working fine earlier today, but when I click on it now, I get a message that says the server is unavailable. If anyone is interested in reading the Pushkin poem in question, it may take a few attempts to get to the page which has the Russian text. If the link doesn't work, I suggest trying it later, since it seems to come and go. ~pinkfreud


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