Sasha Chorny
Diet

Every month you are entitled
To subscribe to a newspaper
Which is always a good helper
With the questions for the cattle.

Godless squabbler, politician,
Radical or parasite,
Genius or stupid fright,
Fool, or person of ambition,
In the paper they can find
Any rubbish of this kind.

As I daily get a paper
I just find it such a bore,
Like a kid, I smile and caper,
I just take the postal packet,
And don't read it, don't unpack it,
Throw it down on the floor.

For a whole month I have done it
I'm back to normal. I'm alive!
I'm not angry. I have had it,
I don't torment now my life;
I have got an appetite!
I have even got ideas,
I am chubby, it appears...
And my liver is all right.

In gratuitous possession
I am giving this to those
pining hopelessly jf course
over downcast reflection
Of this life so vile and rotten,
Stupid, boring, god forgotten..

As you daily get a paper
You will find it such a bore,
You just take the postal packet
And don't read it, don't unpack it,
Throw it down on the floor.

Translated by Alec Vagapov