The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest / The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

by Unknown

The Revolutionist

By Ivan Turgénev

(Russian writer, 1818-1883, one of the masters of the novel form. He was imprisoned and later exiled. In the original the present extract is a prose poem. The versification is by Arthur Guiterman)

I saw a spacious house. O’erhung with pall,

A narrow doorway pierced the sombre wall.

Within was chill, impenetrable shade;

Without there stood a maid—a Russian maid,

To whom the icy dark sent forth a slow

And hollow-sounding Voice: