The rejected word 'peace' <br />At the beginning of an outraged era; <br />A church lamp in a grotto <br />And the air of mountain lands <br />An ether we did not want to, <br />Or would not breathe. <br />Again, with a goat-voice, <br />The shaggy reed-pipes sing. <br /> <br />While sheep and oxen grazed <br />On fertile pastures, <br />And friendly eagles perched <br />On the shoulders of sleepy crags -- <br />A German reared an eagle, <br />A lion submitted to a Briton, <br />And a Gallic comb appeared <br />From a rooster's crest. <br /> <br />But now the savage has captured <br />The sacred mace of Heracles, <br />The black earth has dried up, <br />Ungrateful, as before. <br />I will get the withered wand <br />And draw the fire from it; <br />Let the startled beasts go away <br />With me into the deaf night. <br /> <br />The cock, the lion, the dark brown <br />Eagle, the affectionate bear -- <br />We shall build a chamber for war, <br />And warm the wild beasts' hides. <br />But I sing the wine [*] of the times -- <br />The font of Italic speech -- <br />And in a Great-Aryan cradle, <br />Slavonic and Germanic flax! <br /> <br />Italy, is it really worth <br />Disturbing the chariots of Rome <br />For the clucking of a domestic bird <br />Flying across your fence? <br />And you, neighbor, don't seek damages; <br />The eagle bristles in anger. <br />What if for your sling <br />A heavy stone is of no use? <br /> <br />While the beasts are in the menagerie, <br />We will settle down a while, <br />The Volga stays at high tide, <br />The Rhine's current grows brighte -- <br />The wise man will unwillingly honor <br />A foreigner as a demigod <br />With the revelry of a dance <br />On the shores of great rivers.<br /><br />Osip Emilevich Mandelstam<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-menagerie/
