vbelonghere-archive: "His words are absolute, like grocers' weights."

Saturday, April 25, 2009

I got this through languagehat

This poem caused trouble to Mandelstam who was arrested and ultimately killed for daring to mock at Stalin-

Stalin Epigram

We live, but we do not feel the land beneath us,
Ten steps away and our words cannot be heard,

And when there are just enough people for half a dialogue,
Then they remember the Kremlin Highlander.

His fat fingers are slimy like slugs,
And his words are absolute, like grocers' weights.

His cockroach whiskers are laughing,
And his boot tops shine.

And around him the rabble of narrow-necked chiefs –
He plays with the services of half-men.

Who warble, or miaow, or moan.
He alone pushes and prods.

Decree after decree he hammers them out like horseshoes,
In the groin, in the forehead, in the brows, or in the eye.

When he has an execution it's a special treat,
And the Ossetian chest swells.

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