We know what trembles in the scales,
What has to be accomplished.
The hour for courage. If all else fails,
With courage we are not unfurnished.
What though the dead be crowded, each to each,
What though our houses be destroyed? —
We will preserve you, Russian speech,
Keep you alive, great Russian word.
We will pass you to our sons and heirs
Free and clean, and they in turn to theirs,
And so forever.
Мы знаем, что́ ныне лежит на весах
И что́ совершается ныне.
Час мужества про́бил на наших часах,
И мужество нас не покинет.
Не страшно под пулями мёртвыми лечь,
Не горько остаться без крова.
И мы сохраним тебя, русская речь,
Великое русское слово.
Свободным и чистым тебя пронесём,
И внукам дадим, и от плена спасём —
Навеки!
«All that was in the soul, all was lost again; / I lay down in the grass, sad and bored, / And a flower lifted its lovely form above me, / A grasshopper standing in front of it on guard. / / Then I opened the weighty volume I had before me, / And on the first page saw a drawing of a plan...»
«Yesterday reflecting upon death, / My soul suddenly grew bitter. / Sad day! Age-old nature / Gazed at me from the forest's depths. And the anguish of separation / Pierced my heart, and in that moment / I could hear all — the evening grass, / The water talking, and the stone's dead cry...»
«How the world changes! And how I change as well! / I am known by one name only, yet / That which is named by me / Is not I alone. We are many. I am a living being. / So that the blood should not freeze in my veins, / I died many times. Oh, how many dead bodies / Have I raised from my own...»
«Again the crystal dreamstruck vessel / Flashed in the darkness of the wood. Past battling trees and quarrelling wolves, / Where insects drink the sap of plants, / Where stems writhe and flowers moan, / Where predatory nature disposes, / I pressed on towards you, halting upon / Your thre...»