Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-06
A ROMANOFF AN AUTHOR.
The First Writer In the Cars Family
President of the Academy of Sciences.

d. fetersourg correspondent New York Sun.
his imperial Highness the Grand Duke Con
stantine Constantinovitch, cousin to the GA
OF all the Russias, has just issued book of hi
| own poems, entitled ''New Verses" This is al
| extraordinary fact, for never before has mem
Der OF the imperial family INDUCED in litera
| ture, and, indeed, hatred Of letters was rathe,
traditional in the Romanoff family. And nov
| the Cars own cousin goes to print; he think
aloud, like any common mortal, and what i
still more significant, he has not only not beer
punished for such base and dangerous venture
but, on the contrary, has been rewarded by thu
Gar. He has been appointed president of thu
Academy OF Sciences in this city, which DOS
became vacant on the death of Count Dmitr
Tolstoi, late min lister of the interior. Their.
are many grand dukes in the imperial family
but when the question came up of filling the
first post In the most learned institution ir
Russia, the Gar showed q preference for the
only literary grand duke of the family. Who
can then deny that one OF the most banefu
traditions Of the Romanoffs is done away with
And II the literary grand duke succeeds in max
ing the Car and the press friends, the results
may be most eventful both for the country al
large and for the imperial family.
THE LITERARY GRAND DUKES.
Constantine Constanovitch is the son of the
Grand Duke Constantine, uncle of the car and
acknowledgement of the navy. He was born
on August 10, 1858, and therefore he is now
about thlrty-one years old. Five years ago
Constantine married charming Elizabeth, Prin.
cess OF STRENGTHENING, and it may be sus-
pected that his bride was also his muse for since
that time in different Russian periodicals there
have appeared occasionally fine short poems
modesty signed by &c. r." the initials OF
Constantine Romanoff." The poems of the
imperial poet naturally met with very favorable
criticism, and soon everybody knew who &c.
X. was. Recently the Moro Vren,io of this
city. speaking Of the appointment of the Grand
Duke Constantine to the presidency OF the
academy, openly declared that the grand duke
was literary man not of a mean standard and
that he contributed also to that paper, always
modestly signing his productions &C. r."
A PROSE VERSION OF ONE POEM.
Constantine Romanoff sings of pure love, vari-
Gus virtues, and nature. 1t is a most unjust
thing to the poet to translate his poems into
prose, still venture to SO translate here one
poem which Is very characteristic of the i'm
perial poet. The poem is dedicated to Ivan
Gontcharoff, who Is justly rated as being second
only to Turgeneff The poet addresses him as
follows:
Creator of immortal types, crowned with
unvanishing glory! The unskilful singer takes
the liberty of approaching thee. Thou lookst
at him without anger, being not proud with
thy grandeur. And more than once thou listed
to the airs of the shy singer. Ard when the
songs were over, thou kindly taught him, dis
closing to him the eternal secrets and tradi-
tons of the art. And now he meekly requests
of thee one thing-kindly accept his heartfelt
gratitude"
This poem is dated "Gatchina, December 81,
1887" 1t appears, then, that the car and the
poet are living occasionally under the same
roof. And it would be indeed great thing il
Constantine Romanotf should become an eff
cient intermediary between the car and the
knights of the pen. There are great posi-
biiities for the first literary grand duke Of
Russia