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Rational Suicide, Irrational Laws
American Psychology-​Law Society Series
Series Editor The Psychology of Judicial
Patricia A. Zapf Decision-​Making
Editorial Board Edited by David Klein and
Gail S. Goodman Gregory Mitchell
Thomas Grisso The Miranda Ruling: Its Past, Present,
Craig Haney and Future
Kirk Heilbrun Lawrence S. Wrightsman and
John Monahan Mary L. Pitman
Marlene Moretti Juveniles at Risk: A Plea for
Edward P. Mulvey Preventive Justice
J. Don Read Christopher Slobogin and
N. Dickon Reppucci Mark R. Fondacaro
Ronald Roesch
Gary L. Wells The Ethics of Total Confinement
Lawrence S. Wrightsman Bruce A. Arrigo, Heather Y. Bersot,
and Brian G. Sellers
Books in the Series International Human Rights and
Trial Consulting Mental Disability Law
Amy J. Posey and Michael L. Perlin
Lawrence S. Wrightsman
Applying Social Science to Reduce
Death by Design Violent Offending
Craig Haney Edited by Joel Dvoskin, Jennifer
Psychological Injuries L. Skeem, Raymond W. Novaco,
William J. Koch, Kevin S. Douglas, and Kevin S. Douglas
Tonia L. Nicholls, and Children Who Resist Postseparation
Melanie L. O’Neill Parental Contact
Emergency Department Treatment Barbara Jo Fidler, Nicholas Bala,
of the Psychiatric Patient and Michael A. Saini
Susan Stefan Trauma, Stress, and Wellbeing in
The Psychology of the Supreme Court the Legal System
Lawrence S. Wrightsman Edited by Monica K. Miller and
Proving the Unprovable Brian H. Bornstein
Christopher Slobogin Psychology, Law, and the Wellbeing
Adolescents, Media, and the Law of Children
Roger J.R. Levesque Edited by Monica K. Miller, Jared
Oral Arguments Before C. Chamberlain, and Twila Wingrove
the Supreme Court Murder in the Courtroom: The
Lawrence S. Wrightsman Cognitive Neuroscience
God in the Courtroom of Violence
Brian H. Bornstein and Brigitte Vallabhajosula
Monica K. Miller Rational Suicide, Irrational
Expert Testimony on the Psychology Laws: Examining Current Approaches
of Eyewitness Identification to Suicide in Policy and Law
Edited by Brian L. Cutler Susan Stefan
Rational Suicide, Irrational Laws

Examining Current Approaches to Suicide

in Policy and Law

Susan Stefan

1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.

© Oxford University Press 2016

First Edition published in 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file at the Library of Congress

ISBN 978–​0 –​19–​998119–​9

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed by Webcom, Canada

 Estragon: I can’t go on like this.
Vladimir: That’s what you think.
—Samuel Becket (Waiting for Godot, 1954)

Excerpts from WAITING FOR GODOT, copyright ©1954 by Grove Press Inc.,
Copyright © renewed 1982 by Samuel Beckett. Used by permission of Grove/​Atlantic
Inc. Any third-​party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.
Concurrent permission provided by Faber and Faber Limited.
To my mother, Gabrielle Stefan (June 13, 1917–​August 20, 2006):
I told you that I could not live without you, and I was right.
For more than three thousand days now, I have been unable to live
without you.

To my husband Wes, my best friend Jamie, and my sister Didi:

In the darkness, you have always been the lights along the shore.

And to all the people reading this who cannot go on living, and do,
Especially to the people kind enough to share their stories with me:
I hope that this book does you the justice you deserve. I am glad you are
still here.
Contents

Series Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv

1. “Sane” and “Insane” Suicide: The Law of Competence 1

2. The Right to Die, Involuntary Commitment, and the Constitution 52

3. Assisted Suicide in the States 124

4. International Perspectives in Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia 179

5. Assisted Suicide and the Medical Profession 221

6. Mental Health Professionals and Suicide 270

7. Types of Suicide 319

8. Discrimination on the Basis of Suicidality 372

9. Prevention and Treatment: Policy and Legal Barriers 412

ix
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x Contents

10. Conclusion: People with Psychiatric Diagnoses

and Assisted Suicide 470

Appendix A: Model Statutes 499

Appendix B: Survey of People Who Have Attempted Suicide 505
1. Survey: Experiences with Suicide 505
2. Final Results of Survey 507
Table of Cases 509
Bibliography 521
Index 541
Series Foreword

This book series is sponsored by the American Psychology-​Law Society

(APLS). APLS is an interdisciplinary organization devoted to scholarship,
practice, and public service in psychology and law. Its goals include advanc-
ing the contributions of psychology to the understanding of law and legal
institutions through basic and applied research; promoting the education of
psychologists in matters of law and the education of legal personnel in mat-
ters of psychology; and informing the psychological and legal communities
and the general public of current research, educational, and service activities
in the field of psychology and law. APLS membership includes psychologists
from the academic, research, and clinical practice communities as well as
members of the legal community. Research and practice is represented in
both the civil and criminal legal arenas. APLS has chosen Oxford University
Press as a strategic partner because of its commitment to scholarship, quality,
and the international dissemination of ideas. These strengths will help APLS
reach its goal of educating the psychology and legal professions and the gen-
eral public about important developments in psychology and law. The focus
of the book series reflects the diversity of the field of psychology and law, as
we publish books on a broad range of topics.
In the latest book in the series, Rational Suicide, Irrational Laws, Susan
Stefan, a legal scholar, takes the approach of an investigative journalist and
interviews individuals who had attempted suicide in order to reflect on and
represent various views with respect to the issues of suicide and attempted
suicide. Stefan’s approach was not one of research per se; that is, she did not

xi
xii Series Foreword

survey and interview individuals with the objective of representing these

data as contributing to generalizable knowledge but, rather, with the intent
of bringing to life the voices of those who had been affected by the very issues
that Stefan addresses in this book. The purpose of this book, as Stefan writes
in her introduction, is to examine and evaluate many of the legal doctrines
and policy decisions across the varied areas where law and policy must
respond to suicide and attempted suicide and to attempt to suggest a more
consistent and helpful approach to these issues. Indeed, Stefan has done just
that. Over the course of ten chapters, Stefan brings to life the legal and policy
implications of various topics related to suicide and assisted suicide, includ-
ing: the law of competence; the right to die, involuntary commitment, and the
Constitution; assisted suicide in the United States; international perspectives
on assisted suicide and euthanasia; assisted suicide and the medical profes-
sion; mental health professionals and suicide; types of suicide; discrimina-
tion on the basis of suicidality; policy and legal barriers to suicide prevention
and treatment; and assisted suicide among those with psychiatric diagnoses.
Stefan also includes model statutes with respect to civil commitment and
provider immunity as well as for assisted suicide.
Rational Suicide, Irrational Laws presents a comprehensive and detailed
analysis of these issues in a readable and relatable way, highlighted by and
punctuated throughout with interviews of those who have been affected
by these issues. Scholars, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners will
undoubtedly find that this book has the potential to help shape the future of
interactions with policy and the legal system.

Patricia A. Zapf
Series Editor
Acknowledgments

There are so many people who made this book possible. Lisa Daniels, Wes
Daniels, Adrienne Stefan, and Collette Hanna put in hours of mind-​numbing
drudgery so that I could literally continue writing this book to the last min-
ute. Research assistance beyond my wildest dreams was provided by that
peerless researcher and poet, Jonathan Ezekiel (this is the closest my pub-
lisher can get to printing your name in neon). Thank you also for research
assistance by another superb poet, Laura Ziegler, and by Pam Lucken and
Rayni Rabinowitz at the University of Miami. The University of Miami fac-
ulty and staff were immensely supportive.
I greatly benefited from the comments and insight of Chelsea Andrus,
Cara Anna, Dr. Paul Appelbaum, Dr. Michael Allen, Michael Allen, Esq. (yes,
there are two of them); Clyde Bergstresser, Esq., Dr. Jon Berlin, Karen Bower,
Martha Brock, Ira Burnim, Lisa Cappocia, Beckie Child, Prof. Mary Coombs,
“Colleen,” Dr. Glenn Currier, Katie Daniels, Laura Delano, Anne DiNoto, the
Disability Rights Bar Association list serve, Sean Donovan, Dr. John Draper,
Dr. Joel Dvoskin, Nick Dukehart, Dr. Robert Factor, Wyatt Ferrera, Bob
Fleischner, Jenn Haussler Garing, Beth Harris, Leah Harris, Jenn Hurtado,
Lynn Legere, Dr. Chuck Lidz, Cathy Levin, Gail M., Jennifer Mathis, Stephen
McCrea, “Mark McPherson,” Richard McKeon, Steve Miccio, Justin Mikel,
Mark Nelson, Dr. Tony Ng, Carolyn Noble, Pam Nolan, Christine O’Hagan,
Dr. Mark Pearlmutter, Jane Pearson, Steve Periard, Dr. Seth Powsner, Anne
Rider, Josh Sebastian, Michelle Sese-​K halid, Cheryl Sharp, Skip Simpson,
Esq., Cate Solomon, Dese’Rae Stage, Carrie Stoker, Mary Elizabeth Van Pelt,

xiii
xiv Acknowledgments

Carli Whitchurch, Lex Wortley, Laura Ziegler, the many people who wanted
to remain anonymous, even in the acknowledgments, and the few who were
lost to follow-​up.
Thank you to the 244 people who responded to the survey. I tried to lis-
ten very carefully to what each of you had to say.
My editors at Oxford University Press, Sarah Harrington and Andrea
Zekus, held my hand, responded promptly to my emails, and were every-
thing editors should be. I am deeply grateful to them.
Introduction: The Message from
the Front Lines

I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with
dignity. My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve
this choice?
—​Brittany Maynard
It’s not a psychiatric illness to take a look at your life and think this
is never going to get better.
—​“Kara”
What is scary is the level of distress. I felt very trapped, not so
much that I wanted to die, as that I didn’t want to live the life that
I was living, and I just wanted a way out.
—​Leah Harris
What we did is not against the law, and all our rights are taken
away from us, we have fewer rights than prisoners.
—​Josh Sebastian

Suicide. Is it a public health scourge or a basic civil right? Should it always be

prevented, with state intervention if necessary, as Justice Antonin Scalia and
many mental health professionals believe? Is it a fundamental right that the
state cannot interfere with, as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and
Dr. Thomas Szasz believe? The rest of us struggle in the murky middle, gray areas
xv
xvi Introduction

and inconsistent and contradictory reactions. And our policies and laws reflect
this: they are inconsistent and contradictory. The purpose of this book is to
examine and evaluate many of the legal doctrines and policy decisions across the
varied areas where law and policy must respond to suicide and attempted suicide,
and try to suggest an approach that will be more consistent and helpful to us all.
Each year, the Gallup poll asks Americans whether suicide is morally
acceptable. An overwhelming number say no. They are asked in the same poll
whether physician-​assisted suicide is morally acceptable. It’s been divided
at a close 50-​50 for almost a decade.1 Over the years, physicians have also
been asked their opinions about suicide and physician-​assisted suicide.2
Every year, conferences and colloquia are held to discuss new treatments and
screening tools for suicidal people and trends in suicide prevention.
Until very recently, no one has asked people who have attempted sui-
cide for their opinions about much of anything. This is beginning to change.
In 2014, the American Association of Suicidology for the first time added a
new section specifically for suicide attempt survivors, and its annual con-
ference featured a panel of people who had attempted suicide.3 This was
spurred in large part by the efforts of talented and courageous people such as
Cara Anna,4 Dese’Rae Stage,5 Will Hall,6 and Leah Harris.7 In July 2014, the
National Alliance for Suicide Prevention published the first guide to suicide
prevention by people who had attempted suicide.8
Attending to the perspectives and opinions of people who have attempted
suicide is still so new that its very nomenclature is in dispute. For years, “sui-
cide survivors” was the term designating the family and loved ones of people
who had ended their lives,9 rather than people who had survived suicide

1
See Chapter 3.
2
See Chapters 3 and 5.
3
This presentation can be accessed on YouTube.
4
Cara Anna, What Happens Now? Attempt Survivors.com Blog, Jan. 5, 2015,
www.attemptsurvivors.com.
5
Associated Press, Collection of Photos and Survival Stories of Attempted Suicides
Curated by Brooklyn Photographer Offer Hope and Insight, Daily News, Apr. 14,
2013, http://​w ww.nydailynews.com/​life-​style/​health/​suicide-​survivors-​speak-
​prevention-​efforts-​article-​1.1316461.
6
Will Hall, Living with Suicidal Feelings, Beyond Meds: Alternatives to
Psychiatry,Apr.24,2013,www.beyondmeds.com/​2013/​4/​24/​living-​with-​suicidal-
​feelings.
7
Leah Harris, Twenty Years Since My Last Suicide Attempt: Reflections, Mad in
America, Oct. 7, 2013, www.madinamerica.com/​2013/​10/​t wenty-​years-​last-​
suicide-​attempt-​reflections/​.
8
National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention: Suicide Attempt
Survivors Task Force, The Way Forward: Pathways to Hope, Recovery,
and Wellness with Insights from Lived Experience (2014), http://​action-
allianceforsuicideprevention.org/​sites/​actionallianceforsuicideprevention.org/​
files/​The-​Way-​Forward-​Final-​2014-​07-​01.pdf.
9
George Howe Colt, The Enigma of Suicide (1991).
 Introduction xvii

attempts. Those latter survivors were pretty much erased by the stigma
and shame of having attempted suicide. Now sometimes people who have
attempted suicide are called “suicide attempt survivors,” and people whose
loved ones have committed suicide are called “loss survivors.” Battles over
language are a staple of suicide law and policy, from the insistence on “aid in
dying” to designate assisted suicide to controversy over the term “parasui-
cide” to designate nonsuicidal self-​injury.10
People who have attempted suicide have only recently begun to talk
about it. As Eileen MacNamara, columnist for the Boston Globe, wrote,
“Suicide remains the sorrow that still struggles to speak its name.”11 But they
have so much to offer us. When I write books, I have always thought that the
first order of business is to consult the people who are primarily affected by
the policies and laws I am discussing, especially when the policies and laws
are ostensibly intended to benefit them. So I read as many online stories from
suicidal people as I could find—​and there are many.12 I created an online sur-
vey for people who had attempted suicide and was surprised when hundreds
of people responded.13 And I had in-​depth interviews with almost a hundred
people who had made serious suicide attempts.
I also think it’s important to talk to people who have to implement poli-
cies and laws on the front lines, in order to chart the deep and painful chasm
between the intent underlying policies and laws and how they actually play
out in practice. So I interviewed not only people who had survived suicide
attempts but people whose loved ones had killed themselves, emergency
department physicians, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and para-
medics, civil rights and malpractice attorneys, psychiatrists, psychologists,

10
Proponents of physician-​assisted suicide bitterly oppose the inclusion of the
word “suicide” in describing the proposals they favor. People who self-​injure
strongly reject the term “parasuicide” to describe what they do, since they have
no desire to commit suicide, but rather to stay alive. Since I think the word sui-
cide refers to a person intentionally taking affirmative steps that will inevitably
end his or her own life, I support the term “assisted suicide” and oppose the term
“parasuicide.”
11
The quotation is from 2007, quoted in Massachusetts Coalition for
Suicide Prevention, Massachusetts Strategic Plan for Suicide
Prevention Plan (2009), http://​w ww.mass.gov/​eohhs/​docs/​dph/​com-​health/​
injury/​suicide-​strategic-​plan.pdf.
12
See notes 3–​6; see also Talking with Janice Sorenson, Talking About Suicide,
Nov. 5, 2012, http://​talkingaboutsuicide.com/​2012/​11/​05/​talking-​w ith-​janice-​
sorensen/​; More from Canada, Part 2: Listening to Wendy Matthews, Talking
About Suicide, Oct. 22, 2012, www.talkingaboutsuicide.com/​2012/​10/​22/​
more-​from-​Canada-​part-​2-​listening-​to-​Wendy-​Matthews/​; Laura Delano, On
the Urge to Take My Life, and My Decision to Take It Back from the “Mental
Health” System Instead, Mad in America, Sept. 9, 2013, www.madinamerica.
com/​2013/​09/​urge-​take-​life-​decision-​take-​back-​mental-​health-​system-​instead/​.
13
The survey and its results are available in Appendix B.
xviii Introduction

nurses, peer counselors, and social workers. My interviews with people

about their professional experiences almost invariably were diverted by sto-
ries about mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, school friends, roommates, and
work colleagues who had killed themselves.
I also read about and, in some cases, interviewed, a sample of the inter-
esting intersection: people who have attempted suicide and who are now
implementing programs, policies, and laws relating to suicide prevention
and treatment. Marsha Linehan, who developed dialectic behavior therapy,
the most successful treatment approach for suicidality to date, was herself
suicidal.14 So was Kay Redfield Jamison, the best-​selling author and expert
on bipolar disorder.15 So—​by definition—​are the people who run peer groups
and crisis centers for people who are suicidal.
I make no claim that my surveys or interviews are scientific or random;
as is always the case with surveys and interviews, only the people who want to
respond do so. The survey was anonymous and did not ask for age, gender, or
ethnicity. I did make a concerted effort to interview men who had attempted
suicide; perhaps tellingly, two-​t hirds of the people who were lost to follow-​
up when I sought permission to use quotations from their interviews were
men. The voices of the people I interviewed will be heard throughout this
book, but I wanted to begin with the news they bring from their own experi-
ences. Suicide survivors have all sorts of different perspectives, of course, and
the very differences in their stories serves as a caution to those who would
generalize about suicide. Marsha Linehan and Kay Redfield Jamison drew
extremely different conclusions from their experiences. But they shared one
thing in common: fear and shame at disclosing their histories,16 requiring
decades of professional success and acceptance to even contemplate the
possibility.
I learned from my survey and interviews that people want to talk—​
desperately want to be heard—​but are still afraid to do so publicly. More than
half of my interviewees requested that I use pseudonyms when quoting them,
especially among the younger people. And they have so much to tell us. We
will hear their different stories throughout this book, but I will begin with
the aggregate: the results of the survey.
Two hundred and forty people who had attempted suicide responded
to the survey. Just under 40% had attempted suicide only once. Forty-​five
percent had attempted suicide between two and five times and 18% had
attempted suicide more than five times. For the purposes of the survey,

14
Benedict Carey, Expert on Mental Illness Reveals Her Own Fight, N.
Y. Times, June 23, 2011, http://​w ww.nytimes.com/​2011/​06/​23/​health/​23lives.
html?pagewanted=all&_​r=0.
15
Kay Redfield Jamison, Night Falls Fast (paperback, 2000).
16
“I cannot die a coward,” said Linehan, see note 13. Jamison writes, “I have had
many concerns about writing a book that so explicitly describes my own attacks
of mania, depression, and psychosis,” An Unquiet Mind (1997).
 Introduction xix

I asked them to answer questions about their first suicide attempt. Sixteen
percent of them wished they had succeeded that first time, and about 37%
were glad they failed. The highest response—​just under 50%—​were ambiva-
lent, unsure about whether they were glad to have survived.
When asked to choose among three popular explanations for suicide: “pow-
erless or hopelessness of changing circumstances,” “despair or feeling of mean-
inglessness,” and “sadness or grief at loss or anticipated loss,” more than half
picked “powerlessness or hopelessness” as their first choice.17 This would suggest
that policies to prevent suicide and help people who are suicidal should focus on
supporting and increasing feelings of power, agency, control, and hope. By the
same token, policies and laws that add to feelings of powerlessness and hopeless-
ness may deepen and exacerbate suicidality over the long term.
After their first suicide attempt, 50% of my respondents were hospitalized
on a psychiatric unit (27.5% involuntarily and the rest voluntarily) and 50%
were not. I asked the people who were hospitalized to list which treatments
were helpful, providing the choices of therapy, medication, the hospitaliza-
tion itself, or “other.” People choosing “other” were given the opportunity to
explain their answer. Almost 50% of the respondents, who had been specifi-
cally guided by the question to focus on helpful aspects of their hospitaliza-
tion, checked “other” to tell me in no uncertain terms that nothing about the
hospitalization helped at all, and to detail all the damage that hospitalization
created in their lives. For some people, it was the conditions of the hospital.
One person said she wanted policymakers to know:
Don’t underestimate the importance of clean, well-​maintained,
well-​lit facilities in the healing process. Leave me in a dark, moldy,
filthy shithole with crumbling walls for two weeks and I’m not
going to stop feeling like shit.18
For others, it was the treatment they received, especially seclusion: “People
need human contact after an attempt; isolation on suicide watch makes things
worse;”19 “after my suicide attempt I was locked in a quiet room … not allowed
to bathe or brush my teeth. I was also not allowed to have my eyeglasses.”20 For
some people, the entire idea that they should be hospitalized with people who
were mentally ill just because they had attempted suicide did not make sense:
It is not helpful to be in a mental ward with seriously mentally
ill patients or drug addicts after a suicide attempt. I know we get

17
Grief at loss or anticipated loss was the first choice of barely 10% of respondents.
This is interesting when compared to a survey of people who used May House,
a voluntary homelike residence in England for people who were suicidal, where
“grief” was highest on the list of reasons for being suicidal.
18
Survey No. 223.
19
Survey No. 236.
20
Survey No. 193.
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xx Introduction

locked up for our own safety, but being in such a sterile and noisy
environment does not make any of us feel better about our place in
life and basically we all do our best to get out as fast as possible. The
others I have met in mental wards that are suicide attempters have
been professionals, nurses and of course, drug addicts—​but most
of us tried to end our lives because of the overwhelming despair
and hurts and wounding of living in this world, not because we are
crazy, but because of our awareness of life traumas.
But the rejection of hospitalization included people who believed that the
cause of their suicidality was a biological illness. Even people who believe
that they have a mental illness, and who credit medications for keeping their
suicidality at bay, felt fundamentally alienated in a hospital filled with people
whose problems, they felt, bore no resemblance to their own.
Some people did think the hospitalization itself had helped, and in a few
of my interviews, some people said it helped a lot. But they were in the minor-
ity, and they were all people who had hospitalized themselves voluntarily.
Ironically, when people sought hospitalization, many reported a difficult time
being admitted:
I know of at least one psych hospital that will not admit anyone
not willing or able to express a very firm and detailed plan to act.
In my own case, being turned away when I approached this facility
BEFORE I went so far as to settle on a plan furthered my frustration
with carrying on and led me to attempt again in private. Only after
again failing in my desire to die was I admitted.21
Other people who thought hospitalization might be helpful were frustrated
with the short-​term nature of hospitalization and lack of in-​depth treatment.
Paradoxically, people also couldn’t get help in the community. One per-
son reported that “I was kicked out of an outpatient program for being sui-
cidal,”22 another that the $40 copayment for each therapy session put therapy
out of reach,23 and many people reported that they couldn’t get help at all
until and unless they were deep in suicidal crisis:
Access to continued treatment is so important. I’m barely keeping
my rent paid and don’t have the money for extravagant psychiatrist
copays (which are considered specialist treatment) upfront every
2–​4 weeks. . . It can be attractive to do something drastic because
you know you’ll either get help or you won’t have to worry about it
anymore.24

21
Survey No. 227.
22
Survey No. 179.
23
Survey No. 193.
24
Survey No. 102.
 Introduction xxi

Thus, our policies and practices regarding suicide create an irrational

incentive structure where people understand they have to attempt suicide
to get help, help which is of questionable utility, while community-​based
approaches that are less expensive and work are underfunded. We have a
system that doesn’t work for anyone—​neither the people who are supposed
to be providing help, nor the people who are supposed to be receiving it.
Mental health professionals in my interviews also sounded powerless
and hopeless: asked to do the impossible with ever-​dwindling resources, pro-
foundly anxious about liability, genuinely baffled about how to help some of
their patients, plagued by insurance demands and paperwork. I was told by
a hospital social worker that staff members focused on stabilization rather
than suicidality because insurance-​authorized hospital stays were so short
that hospital staff figured patients would do the long-​term work on suicidal-
ity in the community. A few weeks later a community mental health pro-
fessional told me that the authorized fifty-​minute appointments every two
weeks were nowhere near enough to provide the intensive help that suicidal
people needed; that was what hospitalization was for.
Thus, in our current system, some people who are actually suicidal
lie to avoid hospitalization; some people who are not suicidal lie to access
hospital beds, but almost no one gets help specifically targeted at suicid-
ality. Some clinicians who determine a person does not need hospital-
ization admit the person anyway to avoid potential liability, and some
clinicians who determine hospitalization would be appropriate don’t
admit the person because there are insufficient inpatient beds available.
And there is no solid basis in research or in the reports of people who
have attempted suicide to think that hospitalization helps most people
very much or at all. 25
We have some idea what helps, and so do the people who answered
my survey: community public health support programs, such as those
used by the Air Force, 26 dialectical behavior therapy, 27 and peer sup-
ports. 28 Many survey respondents and interviewees mentioned spiritual
faith, meditation, and other forms of mindfulness. I suspect personal care
assistants (PCAs) would help too. 29 So we do have some idea what works,
but little concerted effort is made to ensure that suicidal people can actu-
ally have access to these less expensive and less traumatic community
resources.
And even those programs don’t begin to tackle the upstream prob-
lem: what caused the person to become so miserable in the first place? It is

25
See Chapters 2, 6, and 9.
26
See Chapter 8.
27
See Chapter 9.
28
See Chapter 9.
29
See Chapter 10.
xxii Introduction

this upstream landscape that is missing from the downstream emergency

department or crisis evaluation, as one of my survey respondents noted:
Urbanization and the accompanying break-​down of community
that causes social isolation is a major contributor to mental health
problems. Mental health professionals encounter people in a
moment of crisis; the person may have no way to explain what’s
going on with them and the professionals have no way to judge
accurately what’s going on. Many people lack problem solving
skills and survival skills and have been under great stress in a
near crisis state for a long time, perhaps since childhood. Building
healthy communities would be a pro-​active way to prevent these
problems from developing into grave crises.30
This comment resonated with me as I conducted my in-​depth interviews.
Although every person I interviewed had a unique story to tell, the most
striking impression that emerged from my interviews was a sense of two very
different groups of suicidal people. One group had histories of extremely
traumatic childhoods, filled with violence, abuse, chaos, and often unfath-
omable cruelty. Many of those people began wishing they were dead when
they were very, very young. They had multiple suicide attempts and lives
filled with loss:
My mother certainly must have known I was using drugs because
I was using her drugs. She had speed. She had five kids and I took
her drugs. The school people had to know because I passed out on
the way to school. In true addict style, I took two while I was sitting
in the guidance counselor’s office. . . . I was born of incest . . .
I was the reminder every time my mother looked at me of what
had happened . . . She couldn’t stand me. I knew I was the problem
and if I wasn’t there, her life would be better. When Roe v. Wade
got passed, she said, “I am so glad that got passed, I went to
get an abortion with you, I am so glad it’s legal, because I was
so scared I couldn’t go through with it, what do you want for
dinner tonight?” My grandmother said, “I remember the day
you were born, it was the worst day of my life.” My grandfather
sexually abused me. The first time I tried to kill myself, I was eight
years old.31
Another woman told me:
I was violently sexually abused by a neighbor who was also a
law enforcement officer. When I say violent, I mean just that,

30
Survey No. 216.
31
Interview with Lynn Legere (Dec. 16, 2013).
 Introduction xxiii

not fondling, not just sex, gun held to my head, ages 4–​8,
burned, whipped, handcuffed, real sadistic stuff that kind of
murders innocence very early on. Because the neighbor was law
enforcement, I didn’t report.32
Nevertheless, these people hung on stubbornly through miserable lives,
grasping at the tiniest straws of kindness and hope, and showed an empa-
thy and depth that humbled me. Many became human service workers: peer
counselors, therapists, and social workers, or advocates for others who were
vulnerable and needed protection. For some of the people who came from
the greatest abyss of misery, faith and spirituality almost literally raised them
from the dead.
The other group had relatively intact and supportive families, who pro-
vided at least some financial, emotional, and practical support. These were
the kinds of families that kept people alive, even when they were hesitating
on the brink of suicide:
[One] morning I couldn’t sleep and at 5:30 I wandered out on
the unit and [an older male patient] was reading the Bible. He
was there because he was suicidal. He had no prior mental health
problems but his adult daughter had killed herself five years ago
and since then he’s been struggling with depression. I have this
crazy soft spot for my dad, I love my dad, and that made it real
to me, what it would do to my parents. I was so stuck in my head
and the cognitive disorder that in reality people would be better
off without me and it would affect them but not that much and in
any event I wouldn’t be here to deal with it. But after that I couldn’t
consider suicide to be a valid option, because I love my dad too
much.33
These families were not unproblematic. Many of my interviewees felt
driven to be perfect—​straight A, hyperaccomplished people who never felt
good enough on the inside. Their suicidality often emerged around the time
they started applying to college, in college, or in the context of jobs or mar-
riages where they felt they were failures. While the people with trauma his-
tories often had concurrent substance abuse, the people in this group were
more likely to struggle with eating disorders.
For many people who didn’t have histories of childhood trauma, and
whose suicidality emerged later in life, suicidal feelings were alien and fright-
ening, and were more often identified as part of an illness, to which they readily
looked to mental health professionals for help. For people with trauma his-
tories, whose families frequently included suicides, the thought of death and

32
Interview with Jenn Hurtado (Dec. 16, 2013).
33
Interview with Carli Whitchurch (Apr. 18, 2014).
xxiv Introduction

suicide was pretty much a constant from childhood on, and sometimes felt
comforting: a potential escape route from an unbearable life. Rather than feel-
ing threatened by suicidal feelings, many regarded suicide as an option that
gave them the strength to make it through another day. Of course, even people
with supportive parents can have trauma histories. One woman told me that
I was diagnosed with PTSD. . . when I was 14, years ago, my 19
year old neighbor shot himself in the head after I threatened to tell
his parents and my parents that he had been sexually abusing me
since I was six. I am not sure they knew he was abusing me. I was
walking back to my house I heard the gun go off. I didn’t realize
that had an effect on me until after therapy.34
The people with extensive childhood histories of trauma generally were
damaged rather than helped by the current mental health framework, with
its omnipresent shadow of involuntary detention, restraint, and seclusion,
and diagnoses that don’t begin to helpfully describe what these people have
been through. As one respondent said, “The suicide attempt is not the cri-
sis in one’s life. There are precipitating events that lead up to it that are the
crisis.”35 This is a core and crucial insight, which should inform policy;36 it
already informs some of the most successful treatment approaches, including
those that centrally focus on narrative.37
And certainly, the mental health framework itself is only one way of
conceptualizing responses to suicide, and a relatively modern one at that.
It is considered a reform from the times when suicide was a sin or a crime.
For some, including a number of my survey respondents, the decision to end
one’s life, like decisions to refuse treatment or decisions about reproduction,
is a civil right, a fundamental liberty interest, a personal, intimate, and pri-
vate decision that belongs to the person alone, which should not be the sub-
ject of state intervention.38
The increasing number of states and countries around the world enact-
ing physician-​assisted suicide laws also operate on the assumption that at
least some people who want to control the timing of their deaths are behav-
ing understandably and should be supported in their wishes. Some of the
people I interviewed and who responded to the survey had been in enor-
mous emotional pain and suicidal for a long, long time, and nothing had
ever helped them. Just what are our rights over our bodies, over treatment
refusal, over how long we live with relentless pain? Is suicide, like abortion

34
Interview with Christine O’Hagan (Nov. 21, 2013).
35
Survey No. 66.
36
See Chapter 9 for an explanation of why this is so difficult.
37
See Konrad A. Michel & David A. Jobes, eds. Building a Therapeutic
Alliance with the Suicidal Patient (2011).
38
Survey Nos. 203 & 120.
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 “Foolish are ye, my children!” cried the Nightingale. “Fetch from
the vaults a cartload of fair gold, another of pure silver, and a third of
fine seed pearls, and give to the Old Cossack, Ilyá of Múrom, that he
may set me free.”
Quoth Ilyá: “If I should plant my sharp spear in the earth, and thou
shouldst heap treasures about it until it was covered, yet would I not
release thee, Nightingale, lest thou shouldst resume thy thieving. But
follow me now to glorious Kíev town, that thou mayest receive
forgiveness there.”
Then his good steed Cloudfall began to prance, and the Magic
Bird at his stirrup to dance, and in this wise came the good youth,
the Old Cossack to Kíev, to glorious Prince Vladímir.
Now, fair Prince Vladímir of royal Kíev was not at home; he had
gone to God’s temple. Therefore Ilyá entered the court without leave
or announcement, bound his horse to the golden ring in the carven
pillars, and laid his commands upon that good heroic steed: “Guard
thou the Nightingale, my charger, that he depart not from stirrup of
steel!”
And to Nightingale he said: “Look to it, Nightingale, that thou
depart not from my good steed, for there is no place in all the white
world where thou mayest securely hide thyself from me!”
Then he betook himself to Easter mass. There he crossed himself
and did reverence, as prescribed, on all four sides, and to the Fair
Sun, Prince Vladímir, in particular. And after the mass was over,
Prince Vladímir sent to bid the strange hero to the feast, and there
inquired of him from what horde and land he came, and what was his
parentage. So Ilyá told him that he was the only son of honourable
parents. “I stood at my home in Múrom, at matins,” quoth he, “and
mass was but just ended when I came hither by the straight way.”
When the heroes that sat at the Prince’s table heard that, they
looked askance at him.
“Nay, good youth, liest thou not? boastest thou not?” said Fair Sun
Vladímir. “That way hath been lost these thirty years, for there stand
great barriers therein; accursed Tartars in the fields, black morasses;
and beside the famed Smoródina, amid the bending birches, is the
nest of the Nightingale on seven oaks; and that Magic Bird hath nine
sons and eight daughters, and one is a witch. He hath permitted
neither horse nor man to pass him these many years.”
“Nay, thou Fair Sun Prince Vladímir,” Ilyá answered: “I did come
the straight way, and the Nightingale Robber now sitteth bound
within thy court.”
Then all left the tables of white oak, and each outran the other to
view the Nightingale, as he sat bound to the steel stirrup, with one
eye fixed on Kíev town and the other on Chernígov from force of
habit. And Princess Apráksiya came forth upon the railed balcony to
look.
Prince Vladímir spoke: “Whistle, thou Nightingale, roar like an
aurochs, hiss like a dragon.”
But the Nightingale replied: “Not thy captive am I, Vladímir. ’Tis not
thy bread I eat. But give me wine.”
“Give him a cup of green wine,” spake Ilyá, “a cup of a bucket and
a half, in weight a pud and a half, and a cake of fine wheat flour, for
his mouth is now filled with blood from my dart.”
Vladímir fetched a cup of green wine, and one of the liquor of
drunkenness, and yet a third of sweet mead; and the Nightingale
drained each at a draught. Then the Old Cossack commanded the
Magic Bird to whistle, roar and hiss, but under his breath, lest harm
might come to any.
But the Nightingale, out of malice, did all with his full strength. And
at that cry, all the ancient palaces in Kíev fell in ruins, the new
castles rocked, the roofs through all the city fell to the ground, damp
mother earth quivered, the heroic steed fled from the court, the
young damsels hid themselves, the good youths dispersed through
the streets, and as many as remained to listen died. Ilyá caught up
Prince Vladímir under one arm, and his Princess under the other, to
shield them; yet was Vladímir as though dead for the space of three
hours.
 “For this deed of thine thou shalt die,” spake Ilyá in his wrath, and
Vladímir prayed that at least a remnant of his people might be
spared.
The Nightingale began to entreat forgiveness, and that he might
be allowed to build a great monastery with his ill-gotten gold. “Nay,”
said Ilyá, “this kind buildeth never, but destroyeth alway.”
With that he took Nightingale the Robber by his white hands, led
him far out upon the open plain, fitted a burning arrow to his stout
bow and shot it into the black breast of that Magic Bird. Then he
struck off his turbulent head, and scattered his bones to the winds,
and, mounting his good Cloudfall, came again to good Vladímir.
Again they sat at the oaken board, eating savoury viands and
white swans, and quaffing sweet mead. Great gifts and much
worship did Ilyá receive, and Vladímir gave command that he should
be called evermore Ilyá of Múrom, the Old Cossack, after his native
town.—From I. F. Hapgood’s The Epic Songs of Russia.
 Historical Songs.
The historical songs are composed in the same manner as
the epic songs, of which they are an organic continuation. The
oldest historical songs treat of the Tartar invasion. A large
number are centred about Iván the Terrible, and those that
describe Yermák’s exploits and conquests in Siberia are
probably the most interesting of that period. Some of those
referring to the time of the Borís Godunóv have been given on
pp. 130-4, having been collected by Richard James, the
English divine. There are also songs dealing with Sténka
Rázin, the robber, who was executed in 1671, and Peter the
Great, of which that on the taking of Ázov in 1696 is given
below.
There are few collections of these songs in English: W. R.
Morfill’s Slavonic Literature and Talvi’s Historical View are the
only ones that give extracts of any consequence. Accounts of
these songs may be found in most of the Histories of Russian
Literature mentioned in the Preface.

YERMÁK

On the glorious steppes of Sarátov,

Below the city of Sarátov,
And above the city of Kamýshin,
The Cossacks, the free people, assembled;
They collected, the brothers, in a ring;
The Cossacks of the Don, the Grebén, and the Yaík,
Their Hetman was Yermák, the son of Timoféy;
Their captain was Asbáshka, the son of Lavrénti.
They planned a little plan.
“The summer, the warm summer is going,
And the cold winter approaches, my brothers.
Where, brothers, shall we spend the winter?
If we go to the Yaík, it is a terrible passage;
If we go to the Vólga, we shall be considered robbers;
If we go to the city of Kazán, there is the Tsar—
The Tsar Iván Vasílevich, the Terrible.
There he has great forces.”
“There, Yermák, thou wilt be hanged,
And we Cossacks shall be captured
And shut up in strong prisons.”
Yermák, the son of Timoféy, takes up his speech:—
“Pay attention, brothers, pay attention,
And listen to me—Yermák!
Let us spend the winter in Astrakhán;
And when the fair Spring reveals herself,
Then, brothers, let us go on a foray;
Let us earn our wine before the terrible Tsar!”
“Ha, brothers, my brave Hetmans!
Make for yourselves boats,
Make the rowlocks of fir,
Make the oars of pine!
By the help of God we will go, brothers;
Let us pass the steep mountains,
Let us reach the infidel kingdom,
Let us conquer the Siberian kingdom,—
That will please our Tsar, our master.
I will myself go to the White Tsar,
I shall put on a sable cloak,
I shall make my submission to the White Tsar.”
“Oh! thou art our hope, orthodox Tsar;
Do not order me to be executed, but bid me say my say,
Since I am Yermák, the son of Timoféy!
I am the robber Hetman of the Don;
’Twas I went over the blue sea,
Over the blue sea, the Caspian;
And I it was who destroyed the ships;
And now, our hope, our orthodox Tsar,
I bring you my traitorous head,
And with it I bring the empire of Siberia.”
And the orthodox Tsar spoke;
He spoke—the terrible Iván Vasílevich:
“Ha! thou art Yermák, the son of Timoféy,
Thou art the Hetman of the warriors of the Don.
I pardon you and your band,
I pardon you for your trusty service,
And I give you the glorious gentle Don as an inheritance.”

—From W. R. Morfill’s Slavonic Literature.

THE BOYÁR’S EXECUTION

“Thou, my head, alas! my head,

Long hast served me, and well, my head;
Full three-and-thirty summers long;
Ever astride of my gallant steed,
Never my foot from its stirrup drawn.
But alas! thou hast gained, my head,
Nothing of joy or other good;
Nothing of honours or even thanks.”

Yonder along the Butcher’s street,

Out to the field through the Butcher’s gate,
They are leading a prince and peer.
Priests and deacons are walking before,
In their hands a great book open;
Then there follows a soldier troop,
With their drawn sabres flashing bright.
At his right the headsman goes,
Holds in his hand the keen-edged sword;
At his left goes his sister dear,
And she weeps as the torrent pours,
And she sobs as the fountains gush.
Comforting speaks her brother to her:
“Weep not, weep not, my sister dear!
Weep not away thy eyes so clear,
Dim not, O dim not thy face so fair,
Make not heavy thy joyous heart!
Say, for what is it thou weepest so?
Is ’t for my goods, my inheritance?
Is ’t for my lands, so rich and wide?
Is ’t for my silver, or is ’t for my gold,
Or dost thou weep for my life alone?”

“Ah, thou, my light, my brother dear!

Not for thy goods or inheritance,
Not for thy lands, so rich and wide,
Is ’t that my eyes are weeping so;
Not for thy silver and not for thy gold,
’Tis for thy life I am weeping so.”
“Ah, thou, my light, my sister sweet!
Thou mayest weep, but it won’t avail;
Thou mayest beg, but ’tis all in vain;
Pray to the Tsar, but he will not yield.
Merciful truly was God to me,
Truly gracious to me the Tsar,
So he commanded my traitor head
Off should be hewn from my shoulders strong.”

Now the scaffold the prince ascends,

Calmly mounts to the place of death;
Prays to his Great Redeemer there,
Humbly salutes the crowd around:
“Farewell, world, and thou people of God!
Pray for my sins that burden me sore!”
Scarce had the people ventured then
On him to look, when his traitor head
Off was hewn from his shoulders strong.

—From Talvi’s Historical View.

THE STORMING OF ÁZOV

The poor soldiers have no rest,

Neither night nor day!
Late at evening the word was given
To the soldiers gay;
All night long their weapons cleaning,
Were the soldiers good;
Ready in the morning dawn,
All in ranks they stood.
Not a golden trumpet is it,
That now sounds so clear;
Nor the silver flute’s tone is it,
That thou now dost hear.
’Tis the great White Tsar who speaketh,
’Tis our father dear.
“Come, my princes, my boyárs,
Nobles, great and small!
Now consider and invent
Good advice, ye all,
How the soonest, how the quickest,
Fort Ázov may fall!”

The boyárs, they stood in silence,—

And our father dear,
He again began to speak,
In his eye a tear:
“Come, my children, good dragoons,
And my soldiers all,
Now consider and invent
Brave advice, ye all,
How the soonest, how the quickest,
Fort Ázov may fall!”

Like a humming swarm of bees,

So the soldiers spake,
With one voice at once they spake:
“Father dear, great Tsar!
Fall it must! and all our lives
Thereon we gladly stake.”
Set already was the moon,
Nearly past the night;
To the storming on they marched,
With the morning light;
To the fort with bulwarked towers
And walls so strong and white.
Not great rocks they were, which rolled
From the mountains steep;
From the high, high walls there rolled
Foes into the deep.
No white snow shines on the fields,
All so white and bright;
But the corpses of our foes
Shine so bright and white.
Not upswollen by heavy rains
Left the sea its bed;
No! In rills and rivers streams
Turkish blood so red!

—From Talvi’s Historical View.

 Folksongs.
Pagan Russia was rich in ceremonies in honour of the
various divinities representing the powers of nature.
Christianity has not entirely obliterated the memory of these
ancient rites: they are preserved in the ceremonial songs that
are recited, now of course without a knowledge of their
meaning, upon all church holidays, to which the old festivities
have been adapted. Thus, the feast of the winter solstice now
coincides with Christmas, while the old holiday of the summer
solstice has been transferred to St. John’s Day, on June 24th.
The kolyádas are sung at Christmas, and seem to have
been originally in honour of the sun. The name appears to be
related to the Latin “calenda,” but it is generally supposed that
this is only accidental, and that Kolyáda was one of the
appellations of the sun. Young boys and girls march through
the village or town and exact contributions of eatables by
reciting the kolyádas. In other places they sing, instead,
songs to a mythical being, Ovsén, on the eve of the New
Year. This Ovsén is some other representation of the sun.
During the Christmas festivity fortunes are told over a bowl
of water which is placed on the table, while in it are put rings,
earrings, salt, bread, pieces of coal. During the fortune-telling
they sing the bowl-songs, after each of which a ring, or the
like, is removed. After the fortune-telling follow the games and
the songs connected with these.
Spring songs are recited in the week after Easter. Soon
after, and lasting until the end of June, the round dance, the
khorovód, is danced upon some eminence, and the khorovód
songs, referring to love and marriage, are sung. There are still
other reminiscences of heathen festivals, of which the most
important is that to Kupála, on the night from the 23rd to the
24th of June, when the peasants jump over fires and bathe in
the river.
 The wedding-songs, of which there is a large number in the
long ceremony of the wedding (cf. Kotoshíkhin’s account of
the seventeenth century wedding, p. 143 et seq.) contain
reminiscences of the ancient custom of the stealing of the
bride, and, later, of the purchase of the bride. Most of the love
songs that are not part of the khorovód are detached songs of
the wedding ceremonial.
The beggar-songs are more properly apocryphal songs of
book origin, handed down from great antiquity, but not
preceding the introduction of Christianity. There are also
lamentations, charms, and other similar incantations, in which
both pagan and Christian ideas are mingled.
An account of the folksong will be found in Talvi’s Historical
View of the Languages and Literatures of the Slavic Nations,
New York, 1850; W. R. S. Ralston’s The Songs of the Russian
People, London, 1872; Russian Folk-Songs as Sung by the
People, and Peasant Wedding Ceremonies, translated by E.
Lineff, with preface by H. E. Krehbiel, Chicago, 1893. Also in
the following periodical articles: The Popular Songs of Russia,
in Hogg’s Instructor, 1855, and the same article, in Eclectic
Magazine, vol. xxxvi; Russian Songs and Folktales, in
Quarterly Review, 1874 (vol. cxxxvi). A number of popular
songs have been translated by Sir John Bowring in his
Specimens of the Russian Poets, both parts.

KOLYÁDKA

Beyond the river, the swift river,

Oy Kolyádka!
There stand dense forests:
In those forests fires are burning,
Great fires are burning.
Around the fires stand benches,
Stand oaken benches,
On these benches the good youths,
 The good youths, the fair maidens,
Sing Kolyáda songs,
Kolyáda, Kolyáda!
In their midst sits an old man;
He sharpens his steel knife.
A cauldron boils hotly.
Near the cauldron stands a goat.
They are going to kill the goat.
“Brother Ivánushko,
Come forth, spring out!”
“Gladly would I have sprung out,
But the bright stone
Drags me down to the cauldron:
The yellow sands
Have sucked dry my heart.”
Oy Kolyádka! Oy Kolyádka!

—From W. R. S. Ralston’s The Songs of the Russian People.

BOWL-SONG

A grain adown the velvet strolled—Glory!

No purer pearl could be—Glory!
The pearl against a ruby rolled—Glory!
Most beautiful to see—Glory!
Big is the pearl by ruby’s side—Glory!
Well for the bridegroom with his bride—Glory!

—From John Pollen’s Rhymes from the Russian.

A PARTING SCENE

“Sit not up, my love, late at evening hour,

Burn the light no more, light of virgin wax,
Wake no more for me till the midnight hour;
Ah, gone by, gone by is the happy time!
Ah, the wind has blown all our joys away,
And has scattered them o’er the empty field.
For my father dear, he will have it so,
And my mother dear has commanded it,
That I now must wed with another wife,
With another wife, with an unloved one!
But on heaven high two suns never burn,
Two moons never shine in the stilly night,
And an honest lad never loveth twice!
But my father shall be obeyed by me,
And my mother dear I will now obey;
To another wife I’ll be wedded soon,
To another wife, to an early death,
To an early death, to a forcèd one.”

Wept the lovely maid many bitter tears,

Many bitter tears, and did speak these words:
“O belovèd one, never seen enough,
Longer will I not live in this white world,
Never without thee, thou my star of hope!
Never has the dove more than one fond mate,
And the female swan ne’er two husbands has,
Neither can I have two belovèd friends.”

No more sits she now late at evening hour,

But the light still burns, light of virgin wax;
On the table stands the coffin newly made;
In the coffin new lies the lovely maid.

—From Talvi’s Historical View.

THE DOVE

On an oak-tree sat,
Sat a pair of doves;
And they billed and cooed
And they, heart to heart,
Tenderly embraced
With their little wings;
On them, suddenly,
Darted down a hawk.

One he seized and tore,

Tore the little dove,
With his feathered feet,
Soft blue little dove;
And he poured his blood
Streaming down the tree.
Feathers, too, were strewed
Widely o’er the field;
High away the down
Floated in the air.

Ah! how wept and wept,—

Ah! how sobbed and sobbed
The poor doveling then
For her little dove.

“Weep not, weep not so,

Tender little bird!”
Spake the light young hawk
To the little dove.

“O’er the sea away,

O’er the far blue sea,
I will drive to thee
Flocks of other doves.
From them choose thee then,
Choose a soft and blue,
With his feathered feet,
Better little dove.”
 “Fly, thou villain, not
O’er the far blue sea!
Drive not here to me
Flocks of other doves.
Ah! of all thy doves
None can comfort me;
Only he, the father
Of my little ones.”

—From Talvi’s Historical View.

THE FAITHLESS LOVER

Nightingale, O nightingale,
Nightingale so full of song!
Tell me, tell me, where thou fliest,
Where to sing now in the night?
Will another maiden hear thee,
Like to me, poor me, all night
Sleepless, restless, comfortless,
Ever full of tears her eyes?
Fly, O fly, dear nightingale,
Over hundred countries fly,
Over the blue sea so far!
Spy the distant countries through,
Town and village, hill and dell,
Whether thou find’st anyone,
Who so sad is as I am?
 Oh, I bore a necklace once,
All of pearls like morning dew;
And I bore a finger-ring,
With a precious stone thereon;
And I bore deep in my heart
Love, a love so warm and true.
When the sad, sad autumn came,
Were the pearls no longer clear;
And in winter burst my ring,
On my finger, of itself!
Ah! and when the spring came on,
Had forgotten me my love.

—From Talvi’s Historical View.

ELEGY

O thou field! thou clean and level field!

O thou plain, so far and wide around!
Level field, dressed up with everything,
Everything; with sky-blue flowerets small,
Fresh green grass, and bushes thick with leaves;
But defaced by one thing, but by one!
For in thy very middle stands a broom,
On the broom a young grey eagle sits,
And he butchers wild a raven black,
Sucks the raven’s heart-blood glowing hot,
Drenches with it, too, the moistened earth.
Ah, black raven, youth so good and brave!
Thy destroyer is the eagle grey.
Not a swallow ’tis, that hovering clings,
Hovering clings to her warm little nest;
To the murdered son the mother clings.
And her tears fall like the rushing stream,
And his sister’s like the flowing rill;
Like the dew her tears fall of his love:
When the sun shines, it dries up the dew.

—From Talvi’s Historical View.

THE FAREWELL

Brightly shining sank the waning moon,

And the sun all beautiful arose;
Not a falcon floated through the air,
Strayed a youth along the river’s brim.
Slowly strayed he on and dreamingly,
Sighing looked unto the garden green,
Heart all filled with sorrow mused he so:
“All the little birds are now awake,
All, embracing with their little wings,
Greeting, all have sung their morning songs.
But, alas! that sweetest doveling mine,
She who was my youth’s first dawning love,
In her chamber slumbers fast and deep.
Ah, not even her friend is in her dreams,
Ah! no thought of me bedims her soul,
While my heart is torn with wildest grief,
That she comes to meet me here no more.”
 Stepped the maiden from her chamber then;
Wet, oh, wet with tears her lovely face!
All with sadness dimmed her eyes so clear,
Feebly drooping hung her snowy arms.
’Twas no arrow that had pierced her heart,
’Twas no adder that had stung her so;
Weeping, thus the lovely maid began:
“Fare thee well, belovèd, fare thee well,
Dearest soul, thy father’s dearest son!
I have been betrothed since yesterday;
Come, to-morrow, troops of wedding guests;
To the altar I, perforce, must go!
I shall be another’s then; and yet
Thine, thine only, thine alone till death.”

—From Talvi’s Historical View.

Sing, O sing again, lovely lark of mine,

Sitting there alone amidst the green of May!

In the prison-tower the lad sits mournfully;

To his father writes, to his mother writes:
Thus he wrote, and these, these were the very words:
“O good father mine, thou belovèd sir!
O good mother mine, thou belovèd dame!
Ransom me, I pray, ransom the good lad,—
He is your beloved, is your only son!”
Father, mother,—both,—both refused to hear,
Cursed their hapless race, cursed their hapless seed:
“Never did a thief our honest name disgrace,—
Highwayman or thief never stained the name!”

Sing, O sing again, lovely lark of mine,

Sitting there alone in the green of May!
 From the prison-tower thus the prisoner wrote,
Thus the prisoner wrote to his belovèd maid:
“O thou soul of mine! O thou lovely maid!
Truest love of mine, sweetest love of mine!
Save, O save, I pray, save the prisoned lad!”
Swiftly then exclaimed that belovèd maid:
“Come, attendant! Come! Come, my faithful nurse!
Servant faithful, you that long have faithful been,
Bring the golden key, bring the key with speed!
Ope the treasure chests, open them in haste;
Golden treasures bring, bring them straight to me:
Ransom him, I say, ransom the good lad,
He is my beloved, of my heart beloved.”

Sing, O sing again, lovely lark of mine,

Sitting there alone amidst the green of May!

—From Sir John Bowring’s Specimens of the Russian Poets, Part II.

WEDDING GEAR

The blacksmith from the forge comes he—Glory!

And carries with him hammers three—Glory!
O blacksmith, blacksmith, forge for me—Glory!
A wedding crown of gold, bran-new!—Glory!
A golden ring, oh, make me, do!—Glory!
With what is left a gold pin too!—Glory!
The crown on wedding day I’ll wear—Glory!
On golden ring my troth I’ll swear—Glory!
The pin will bind my veil to hair—Glory!

—From John Pollen’s Rhymes from the Russian.

THE SALE OF THE BRAID