Pavel Antokolsky

Yes, East is East, and West is West,
And hard are border’s posts.
And not in vain, that’s fixed by Sax,
At a former age’s exhaust.

And not in vain, storms gnaw costs’ sides 
In Liverpool and Hong-Kong.
And the yellow saw a foe in the white
And run at jungle headlong.   

And saw the white the sinuous’ mass, 
The weight of bones and muscles, 
And put in to his enterprise   
His flame and ice at once.

But we live on the planet Earth,
And it is round, yet,
And there is not on Earth a place,
Were blood isn’t always red.

Therefore the yellow, and black,
And white can always reach
A talk in a common language that
Is understood by each.

Men meet men on their distant ways
As waves of light could meet, 
And if you go strait to West,
You’ll come at home from East. 


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, December, 2000