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If I naively translate

Дай, Никита, мне одеться:
В митрополии звонят.
(Александр Сергеевич Пушкин, март 1821—1822)

I cannot apreciate the literary value of these verses. Pushkin is said to have had a servant called precisely Nikita; then it makes sense he calls him to bring him clothes. Then I don't know what sort of place митрополия is, can it be precisely located? And could I translate the last line as in (the) Metropolija sounds/they call.? Or does it mean the metropoly, a specific big city?

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  • Митрополия means a diocese headed by a митрополит, i. e., metropolitan archbishop. Also, in this particular case it means an office of a митрополит. Btw, this verse has a continuation.
    – ach
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 15:18
  • @AndreyChernyakhovskiy Might I ask which is the name of that complementary verses? (edit: I see, maybe the link in the answer).
    – c.p.
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:25
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    Great job picking the right meaning for Дай, Никита, мне одеться! In modern Russian it would mean "let me dress up" (that is "stand aside and don't disturb me while I'm doing it").
    – Quassnoi ♦
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 19:37
  • @Quassnoi Thanks for that valuable adding (as you can interpret from my question I thought, wrongly, it was the other way around).
    – c.p.
    Commented Nov 28, 2015 at 7:57
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    @c.p.: "he calls him to bring him clothes" is what Pushkin meant (and I thought you interpreted it correctly this way). In modern (XXI century) Russian it's not used this way anymore except for дай мне поесть or дай мне попить.
    – Quassnoi ♦
    Commented Nov 28, 2015 at 11:50

1 Answer 1

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According to this source Митрополия is a palace of митрополит (a head of church province) which also has a church:

Митрополия - резиденция митрополита с церковью при ней.

In the document linked there are also other verses and comments to them.

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  • So, that's not a poem by itself. It needs the whole text below, right?
    – c.p.
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:27
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    In many sources these two verses exist by themselves. According to a document linked, these lines were added to all other lines based on memoires by В.П. Горчаков (Pushkin's friend), so I guess, without his evidence both parts of a poem in written form existed separately.
    – Artemix
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:45
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    According to "А. С. Пушкин. Собрание сочинений в 10 томах.", "Дай, Никита, мне одеться" part is dated 1822 and "Раззевавшись от обедни" is dated 1821. But this source claims that first two verses are indeed a part of a large poem.
    – Artemix
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:54

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