White Nights

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

White Nights: A Sentimental Story from the Diary of a Dreamer was first published in 1848. The translator from the Russian was Constance Garnett. Image on right by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Trinity Bridge, 1903

And was it his destined part
Only one moment in his life
To be close to your heart?
Or was he fated from the start
to live for just one fleeting instant,
within the purlieus of your heart.
               -- from "The Flower" by Ivan Turgenev

First Night

Return to the Fyodor Dostoevsky library.