Vladimir Mayakovsky
Left march

About turn! March!
Away with a talk-show.
Silence, you speakers!
Comrade Mauser,
you
have the floor.
Down with the law which for us
Adam and Eve have left.
We'll ruin the jade of the past.
Left!
Left!
Left!
Hey, bluejackets!
Be gone!
Sail away! Overseas!
Or is there anything wrong
with the keels
of your battleships?
May
the vigorous British Lion
Keep howling, frenzied and chafed.
The commune shall not resign.
Left!
Left!
Left!
There
o'er the hills of sorrow
There's a land of the rising sun...
For hunger,
for the sea of horror,
millions, march one by one!
May them gang up against us,
To all their threats we'll be deaf,
The Entente shall never suppress us.
Left!
Left!
Left!
Can the eagle ever get blind?
Can they make us swing off the road?
Hold
your proletarian hand
tight on the world's throat!
Deck out the sky with drape!
March boldly ahead , don't be late!
Who's marching out of step?
Left!
Left!
Left!

Translated by Alec Vagapov