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Home  »  Modern Russian Poetry  »  Mikhail Kuzmin (b. 1877)

Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921.

From Alexandrian Songs

Mikhail Kuzmin (b. 1877)

DYING is sweet

On the battle-field

In the hissing of arrows and spears,

When the trumpet sounds

And the sun of noon

Is shining,

Dying for country’s glory

And hearing around you:

“Hero, farewell!”

Dying is sweet

For an old, venerable man

In the house

On the bed

Where your forebears were born,—where they died,

Surrounded by children

Grown men,

And hearing around you:

“Father, farewell!”

But sweeter,

Wiser,

Having spent the last penny,

Having sold the last mill

For a woman

Who the next day is forgotten,

Having come

From a gay promenade

To the sold, dismantled mansion

To sup,

And to read the tale of Apuleius:

The hundred and first reading,—

In the warm, fragrant bath,

Hearing no farewell,

To open your veins;

And through the long skylight

Must come the scent of stock-gilliflower;

Dawn must be glowing,

And flutes be heard from afar.