And look, the young bride
Is now taken to nuptial bed;
The lights have gone out...
The icon lamp is lit by Lel.
The hopes came to truth,
And gifts of love are now prepared;
The jealous cloths are going to
Fall on the carpets of Tzar's palace...
And do you hear the lover's whisper
With sounds of sweet kisses, and
The choking last grumbles of the diffidence?...
The spouse feels delight beforehand;
And here it has come... But suddenly
The thunder bursted out, and the light
Flashed in the haze, the lamp's burned down,
The smoke ran away, the dark
Has covered all, the quake around,
The soul of Ruslan is paralysed...
Everything stopped. In awful silence
Twice the strange voice was marked,
And someone in the smoke raised up
More black than a black darkness...
And once again the room is empty
And quiet, frightened, the bridegroom
Stands up, dripping with sweat all,
With trembling hand he points to
The darkness, mute and cold...
Oh, grief! The nice friend is absent!
He vainly seizes an air empty;
Lyudmila is unseen in dark, she's stolen
By the unknown force to nowhere.