More trivia

Laissez les bons temps rouler does not translate well into Russian, but compare this to Derzhavin’s Kak vremya katitsya v Kazani zolotoe, ‘How the golden times roll in Kazan’ (‘The Harp,’ 1798). That poem also includes one of the lines best-known to Russians, ‘Even Fatherland’s smoke to us is sweet and pleasant,’ although most ascribe it to Griboedov, who simply quoted it, slightly modified, in Woe from Wit, perhaps the most enigmatic Russian play.

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