'You have courage, ' they tell me. <br />It's not true. I was never courageous. <br />I simply felt it unbecoming <br />to stoop to the cowardice of my colleagues. <br /> <br />I've shaken no foundations. <br />I simply mocked at pretense and inflation. <br />Wrote articles. Scribbled no denunciations. <br />And tried to speak all on my mind. <br />Yes, I defended men of talent, <br />branding the hacks, the would-be writers. <br />But this, in general, we should always do; <br />and yet they keep stressing my courage. <br />Oh, our descendants will burn with bitter shame <br />to remember, when punishing vile acts, <br />that most peculiar time, when <br />plain honesty was labeled 'courage'...<br /><br />Yevgeny Yevtushenko<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/conversation-with-an-american-writer/
