Tyranny itself seduced you.
Its sword has mown you like reeds.
The Law is incorruptibly impartial.
The LawТs infallible in word and deed.
Disloyalty is shunned by our people.
TheyТll scorn your names. Abuse will heap.
Your sons will never know your exploit,
hidden in time, a rotten carcass buried deep!
Victims of foolish notions!
Perhaps you had a youthful vision!
Perhaps you thought you saw
your thin blood trickling,
covering the ice-caps
as if alone it could thaw
that age-old polar face.
Why, it would scarce have time to sparkle
when up thereТd gust a breath of iron winter
to murder every tiny trace!
Декабристам
Вас развратило Самовластье,
И меч его вас поразил, —
И в неподкупном беспристрастье
Сей приговор Закон скрепил.
Народ, чуждаясь вероломства,
Поносит ваши имена —
И ваша память от потомства,
Как труп в земле, схоронена.
О жертвы мысли безрассудной,
Вы уповали, может быть,
Что станет вашей крови скудной,
Чтоб вечный полюс растопить!
Едва, дымясь, она сверкнула,
На вековой громаде льдов,
Зима железная дохнула —
И не осталось и следов.
«In truth everyone is guilty before everyone, for everyone, and for everything. / Dostoevsky The white-hot day flamed on; / The cicada scraped sultrily without ceasing; / The sumptuous cloud of cypresses / Floated over the marble tombs. I fell, smitten by an illness of the soul... / But t...»
«A grinning ape, an ass of stubborn air, / A long-horned goat, a bow-legged, grizzly bear, / Met one fine day, and soon their minds were set / To end the party with a fine quartet. / They have a viola, two violins, / A 'cello too, and music up to date, / For hall, the shady turf where cro...»
«My sweet black midget gave me many pleasures / And was so good in worshipping my feet, / I trusted him my gold and other treasures / To keep them in my gilded chest so neat. But day has come, and he began to grow / And grew so big that broke my lady nest. / I kissed his feet, but all I he...»
«When partners can't agree / Their dealings come to naught / And trouble is their labor's only fruit. Once Crawfish, Swan and Pike / Set out to pull a loaded cart, / And all together settled in the traces; / They pulled with all their might, but still the cart refused to budge! / The loa...»