Samuil Marshak
The two lazybones and the cat

Two lazybones set off for school,
And what, friends, do you think?
Instead of school those lazybones
Came to a skating-rink.

They had their bags with pens and books,
Never read, perhaps.
And brought along their shiny skates
With brand-new leather straps.

Suddenly the lazybones
Saw a pussy-cat,
The sorriest and gloomiest
That ever chased a rat.

They asked the cat, those lazybones,
“Please tell us, Pussy, why
You look so gloomy and so sad?”
And Pussy made reply.

Sorrowfully miaowing,
The gloomy pussy said,
“Til soon be one year old,” said he
And sadly shook his head.

“I’m nice and handsome, lazybones,
I’m wise and sly,” he said,
“But I don’t know the alphabet,
I can’t tell A from Z!

“There are no schools for pussy-cats
To learn the ABC.
How shall I learn to read and write,
Dearie, dearie me!

“Those who don’t know grammar
Are helpless nowadays.
Those who don’t know grammar
Suffer all their days.

“You cannot earn a living
Without the ABC,
You won’t have bread and butter
Nor milk and jam for tea.”

Then said the worthless lazybones,
“Darling Pussy-Cat,
We’ll soon be twelve years old ourselves,
But really, what of that?

“You can’t imagine. Pussy,
How hard our teacher tries
To teach us Russian grammar,
Yet we are just as wise.

“To go to school day after day
Is really too much fuss.
So mostly on the skating-rink
Is where you will find us.

“We never write with crayons
Upon our classroom slates.
But draw long lines upon the ice
With our shiny skates.”

Then this is what the pussy-cat
Told them in reply:
“I’m almost one year old, you know,
Me-o-me-o-my!

“I’ve known a lot of girls and boys
Very much like you,
But such a pair of lazybones
I never, never knew!”

Translated by Dorian Rottenberg