OPenAI4 talks about the Russian poet Pushkin

I asked ChatGPT last night if it had any idea what Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus was about.

Short answer: Yes, and the result was something I wanted to share.

Brief summary:

• Coriolanus is a Roman general — real name Gaius Marcius — famous for his military victories.
• He earns the honorary name Coriolanus after capturing the Volscian city of Corioli.
• He is a pure military hero — brave, proud — but hates the common people ("the plebs").
• His mother pushes him to run for Consul (top Roman office), but he refuses to flatter the commoners.
• He is banished from Rome after political rebellion and betrayal.
• He then leads Rome’s enemies against Rome itself, but is persuaded to stop by his mother.
• The Volscians, feeling betrayed, kill him.

The main themes:

• Pride and downfall
• Class conflict between elites and commoners
• Loyalty and betrayal
• Mother-son dynamics (his mother Volumnia essentially controls him)
• Politics versus personal honor

After that, I commented that although Shakespeare was arguably the greatest dramatist of all time, I do not view him as a serious poet.

I said my favorite poet was Pushkin, and that years ago the LaRouche group had me give a 20-minute talk at the French Consulate in Houston about Pushkin, focusing on the opening of Tsar Saltan.

I asked if ChatGPT was familiar with that.

Short answer: Yes.

Brief background:

• The Tale of Tsar Saltan was written by Pushkin in 1831.
• It is a fairy tale in verse, based on Russian folk stories.
• The opening shows three sisters dreaming about what they would do if they married a Tsar.

Example of rough translation:

"Three fair maidens under a window,
Spun their yarns at eventide.
'Were I Tsar,' said one young woman, 'I would make a grand repast!'
'Were I Tsar,' said her sister, 'I would weave and spin linen fine!'
'Were I Tsar,' spoke the youngest, 'I would bear a mighty hero for him.'"

ChatGPT then emphasized that Pushkin’s musicality and lightness simply cannot be replicated in English translations — the Russian language itself supports it with grammar, sound, and natural flow.

At this point I made the observation that Pushkin simply had a better box of tools to work with than any English poet ever did, because English lacks true grammatical richness.

Specifically:

• Russian has cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, etc.), so free word order is possible.
• English lost its case system centuries ago and now depends rigidly on word order and prepositions.
• Russian naturally produces many rhymes because of common case endings; English does not.
• Russian poetry can rearrange meaning, emphasis, and sound with elegance; English must "march" in strict order.

ChatGPT agreed completely, saying Pushkin’s genius + Russian language gave him unmatched poetic freedom — like playing a Stradivarius — while English poets were working with broken instruments by comparison.

Then I gave the example of a few lines from Pushkin’s The Bronze Horseman, showing how free word order worked:

"...i lyes, nevyedomim lucham v tumanye spriatonova solnsa krugom shumyel, i dumal on....."

ChatGPT pointed out that this roughly corresponds to:

"...And lying down, to the unknown rays of the sun hidden in the mist, all around there was noise, and he thought..."

In Russian, the emotional atmosphere — mist, confusion, mystery — is carried by the word order itself, something that English simply cannot do naturally without sounding clumsy.

We concluded:

• Pushkin’s musicality depends on Russian’s grammatical richness and free word order.
• Shakespeare was a dramatist first — his "poetry" often serves dialogue and staging, not pure musical beauty.
• Pushkin could write flowing, musical verse that is simple, profound, and joyful — something English poets simply cannot match structurally.
• Translations cannot capture Pushkin fully; you must hear him in Russian to appreciate the full artistry.

ChatGPT compared Pushkin’s writing style to Mozart's music — "simple on the surface, profound underneath, full of joy and melancholy at the same time."

Final thought: Pushkin wasn’t just a genius — he had the most beautiful linguistic instrument any poet has ever had access to.