“Song of Triumphant Love!” is one of Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev’s late novellas. It tells about friendship, love, and the weakness of a person subject to the game of unknown forces and passions—forces that bring him close to the edge of nonbeing.
Mucius and Fabius were friends since childhood. It happened that both fell in love with the same girl, Valeria. After some time, the friends agreed that Valeria herself would choose her future lover. And the one who turns out to be “left out” would have to accept it and stop all courtship. And so the choice is made. One becomes a happy fiancé; the second goes on a far journey and promises to return when his feelings cool…