Sergey Gorodetsky
Clio

She stands there with a sly expression, smiling.
Holding a huge scroll in her marble hands.
She notes life, death, and fame in her compiling,
Records all time, all people in all lands.

And she (who’s not to blame) gets bored and weary
With fates of slaves, chiefs, races, patriarchs.
But recently a curly-bearded, cheery
Wise man smiled up at her — a Karl Marx.

She stepped down swiftly from the pedestal:
"I beg you! Come up! I’m so tired of all
This writing, not knowing what links the chain!

In the museums and the libraries
I’ll find a home. But human destinies
And their untangling aren’t for a girl’s brain."

Translated by Vladimir Markov and Merrill Sparks