Aleksandr Pushkin

‘Well, what is new?’ – ‘I swear nothing else.’ –
‘Hey, don’t cheat me; for sure, something you know. 
It is a shame, that from your mate, the best,
You hide the things, as from a hardened foe.
Or are you cross: then why, my dear friend?
Just say a word; don’t play a stubborn role …’ –
‘Oh, go away, I only know that
You are a fool and it isn’t new, in whole.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, March 27, 2005