一部即将出版的译著的作者会发现，去批评一部刚出版的同一作品的译本是令人难堪的，但眼下我可能，也应该面对这种尴尬；因为有的事必须去做，某种孤独、嘶哑的声音必须发出，以捍卫无助的已故诗人和轻信的大学生，使他们免于那种无情、不负责任的注释家的伤害。我下面就来谈谈这个注释家的译本。(1)
要把差不多五千行俄国抑扬格四音步诗句，以一种阴阳韵律的僵硬模式，扭曲变形成长短相仿的英国抑扬格四音步诗，是一件可怕的工作。我有选择地将《叶甫盖尼·奥涅金》译成无韵的散文体，因而，我对阿恩特先生锲而不舍的努力深表敬意。一个有同情心的读者，尤其是没有查看原著的读者，可能在阿恩特先生的译本中发现多少有一点打油诗人的味道和似是而非的感觉，但任何一个不太仁慈但更有知识的读者，会明白这部译著真是不堪卒读。
首先让我将两节诗（第6章36节、37节）的直译与阿恩特先生的翻译并列在一起。这是他译本中没有犯明显错误的段落，被动的读者（激进教育家的宠儿）可以勉强接受这样一种翻译。
1．My friends, you're sorry for the poet
My friends, you will lament the poet
2．in the bloom of glad hopes,
Who, flowering <i>with a happy gift</i>,
3．not having yet fulfilled them for the world,
Must wilt before he could bestow it
4．scarce out of infant clothes,
Upon the world, <i>yet scarce adrift</i>
5．withered! Where is the ardent stir,
<i>From boyhood' s shore</i>. Now he will never
6．the noble aspiration,
Seethe with that generous endeavor,
7．of young emotions and young thoughts,
Those <i>storms</i> of mind and heart again,
8．exalted, tender, bold?
Audacious, tender or <i>humane!</i>
9．Where are love's turbulent desires,
Stilled now are love's unruly urges,
10．the thirst for knowledges and work,
The thirst for knowledge and for <i>deeds,</i>
11．the dread of vice and shame,
<i>Contempt</i> for vice and <i>what it breeds,</i>
12．and you, fond musings,
And stilled you too, ethereal surges
13．you, token of unearthly life,
Breath of a transcendental clime,
14．you, dreams of sacred poetry!
Dreams from the sacred realm of rhyme.
1．Perhaps, for the world's good
Perchance the world would have saluted
2．or, at least, for glory he was born;
In him a <i>savior or a sage;</i>
3．his silenced lyre might have aroused
His ly-eye, now forever muted,
4．a resonant, uninterrupted ringing
Might have resounded down the <i>age</i>
5．throughout the ages. There awaited
In ceaseless<i> thunder</i>, and have fated
6．the poet, on the stairway of the world