Dmitri Hvorostovsky. EVGHENI ONEGHIN. Paris 1992. Aria “You wrote to me“.

#DmitriHvorostovsky #NucciaFocile You wrote to me. Please don’t deny it. I have read the avowal of a trusting heart, the outpouring of innocent love; your candour touched me deeply. It has stirred feelings long since dormant. I won’t commend you for this, But I will repay you with an equally guileless avowal. Hear my confession, then judge me as you will! TATYANA (collapsing again onto the bench) O God! How humiliating and how painful! ONEGIN If I wished to pass my life within the confines of the family circle, and a kindly fate had decreed for me the role of husband and father, then, most like, I would not choose any other bride than you. But I was not made for wedded bliss, it is foreign to my soul, your perfections are vain, I am quite unworthy of them. Believe me, I give you my word, marriage would be a torment for us. No matter how much I loved you, habit would kill that love. Judge what a thorny bed of roses Hymen would prepare for us, and, perhaps, to be endured at length! One cannot return to dreams and youth, I cannot renew my soul! I love you with a brother’s love, a brother’s love or, perhaps, more than that! Perhaps, perhaps more than that! Listen to me without getting angry, more than once will a girl exchange one passing fancy for another. Learn to control your feelings; ... ... Not everyone will understand you as I do. Inexperience leads to disaster!