«To V. Zlobin I roar — a dying lion... / D’ you see all this, my God! / Between machine’s teeth iron, / My flesh is being deformed. I’ll bear pains my own… / But would I — all, I feel? / All that in systems goes on, / Between the clogs of wheels?»
«In her despiteous and shameless wickedness / She is, as ashes, grey or grey as dust. / And I am perishing from just her nearness, / From bonds that solidly connected us. She is a coarse one, she is a prickly one, / She is a cold one — she is a snake. / With her repulsive scales she h...»
«If light is felled — I am able to see nothing, / If a man is a beast — I hate him and scorn, / If he’s worse than beasts — I kill him, laughing, / If my Russia is over — I die and I mourn.»
«My world is like a chamber, narrow, — / It’s very low, very small. / In four its corners sit four fellows — / Four spiders, diligent in all. They are all fat, adroit, and dirty, / And always spin and spin the web... / And it is awful — their portly, / Monotonous and even step...»