Читать книгу Mind Over Matter. 72 assorted poems in English by a Russian - Leonid Sboyko - Страница 4

When Russia was said to have been sold

I wasn’t sold on that:

The heart of this country is inert to gold,

The song is infinitely sad.

One hundred yards they sleep underneath

The stormy chest of the Barents Sea

In an iron, iron black submarine

Day after day into eternity…

Penned captain-lieutenant, ‘We’re twenty-three’…

…‘we’ll be twenty-three and here we’ll be’…

I will see a whole world

But everywhere I go

I will see the sky above

Now high and now low

I will breathe the air

Everywhere I go

I will be myself

Whatever I may know.

That’s Russia

You will never translate it into your own language

So let me talk to you in your own tongue.

I’ve been living here for many a year

Couldn’t help looking here at many a thing

Seen many a foreigner in and to this country

Foreigners by passport and foreigners convinced

Strangers changing attitudes by seconds

Strangers largely to themselves

Many a madman have I seen too

Many who died to know what to do

Many a bright head locked in a madhouse

Many a sage man, many obtuse

Many a small man saying Russia is great

Many in love with it, many in hate

Many who added they can’t understand it

Many explaining: ‘Russia’s just vast’

Some say that Russia has always been still

Others remark it has always been ill;

Many believe it’s a land of confusion

Many assert it is all an illusion

Historians say that Russia is old

Weather men say that Russia is cold

East and West say that Russians are hot