VIRGIN SOIL
question, Did he know a wonderful poem of Dobrolyubov's beginning, 'Let me die—small cause for grief'?[1] and thereupon read it to him—also not very well—in a rather childish manner.
Nezhdanov observed that it was bitter and painful to the last degree, and then added that he, Nezhdanov, could never have written such a poem, because he had no reason to be afraid of tears over his grave . . . there would be none.
'There will be, if I outlive you,' Marianna articulated slowly; and raising her eyes to the
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- ↑ And let me die—small cause for grief;
One thought alone frets my sick mind;
That death may chance to play
An unkind jest with me.I dread lest over my cold corpse
The scalding tears should flow;
And lest some one with stupid zeal
Lay flowers upon my bier;Lest flocking round in unfeigned grief.
My friends walk after it to the grave;
Lest as I lie under the earth,
I may become one loved and prized;Lest all so eagerly desired,
And so in vain by me—in life,
May smile on me consolingly
Above the stone that marks my grave.
Dobr., Works, vol. iv, p. 615,
