Maximilian Voloshin
Was it not you...

Was it not you
Who in the time of sorrow
Cast down
The scales and the sword
And licensed the berserk
To weigh the good and evil?
Was it not you
Who kneaded peoples
Solidly and densely,
Leavening the dough
With blood and tears,
Who now tramples down, fierce,
Human clusters,
By fury overtaken?
Was it not you
Who flung the poet
Onto the agorae
of the universe
For him
To be the orb and ear?
Was it not you
Who dispossessed
Our arms of vigor
And forbade us
To stack offences up
On the deep dish
Of earthly scales,
But decreed
That we become
A pointer marking
The difference in weight?
Was it not you
Who forced the heart to bless
The murderer and murdered,
The enemy and kinfolk?
Was it not you
Who compelled the mind
To reconcile itself
To the fulfillment
Of your unfathomable ways –
Ablaze with contradictions
Incongruous with humanly
Restricted thought?
Give us the strength
To swear by the wisdom
Of bloodsheds past;
Allow to see,
Through death and time,
The brawl of nations
As a spasm of passion
Ejecting seeds
Of otherworldly flora!

Translated by Constantine Rusanov