Mikhail Lermontov — The dull melancholy

The dull melancholy, and no one to offer a hand

In times of a destitute feeling…

The wishing!.. What good is to wish with no merit or end?

And years keep on passing – the years most appealing!

To love... but then whom?... For a time, isn’t worth the travail;

Forever, no love has the vigor.

To search in your heart? – There the past has dissolved with no trail:

The torments, the joys – all is empty and meager...

The passions?.. – But sooner or later the judgment comes by 

To scatter their pains, sweet though flimsy;

And life, as you see it around with a passionless eye,

Is such a deflated and meaningless whimsy…