Translation number 5 (week five):    Yes, you can look up the included lines of Lermontov’s poem Borodino (cf., e.g., my book Russian Through Poems and Songs, Alternative Copy Service, Tempe, AZ, 1995, pp. 134…ask someone to sing it to you)

   Egor Iakovlevich ate listlessly, sipped his tea and maintained a proud and remote silence… But when we mentioned Pushkin, he said:

   “Pushkin was a great Russian poet.”  

   And he said it as if he alone knew it, as if he had reached this conclusion by his own intellect and was the first man in the world to make this discovery.

   “A great poet!” he sighed, then, screwing up his eyes, he began to recite in an exaggeratedly expressive tone:

     “Tell me, Uncle, ‘twas not in vain

       That Moscow perished in the flame

       And by the French was ta’en?”

     “But that’s Lermontov,” the Major laughed.   The old man merely glanced at him and continued:

     “Some fights were there

       ‘Tis said none fiercer!”

     “But that’s Lermontov’s Borodino,’ the Major interrupted him with cheerful indignation and nudged me with his elbow.

     “All Russians with good cause acclaim

       The day of Borodino’s fame!”

     Egor Iakovlevich pronounced the final words loudly and emphatically and even jerked his finger at the Major, as if to show him that he had known what it was all the time.