Russian Poetry
POEMS IN PROSE
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Russian Literature – Russian Poetry – Children’s books – Ivan Turgenev – Poems – Obsolete Russian Words and their meaning
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The Toiler And The Lazy Man
A CONVERSATION
THE TOILER
Why dost thou bother us? What dost thou want? Thou art not one of us….
Go away!
THE LAZY MAN[71]
I am one of you, brethren!
THE TOILER
Nothing of the sort; thou art not one of us! What an invention! Just look at my hands. Dost thou see how dirty they are? And they stink of dung, and tar,—while thy hands are white. And of what do they smell?
THE LAZY MAN—offering his hands
Smell.
THE TOILER—smelling the hands
What’s this? They seem to give off an odour of iron.
THE LAZY MAN
Iron it is. For the last six years I have worn fetters on them.
THE TOILER
And what was that for?
THE LAZY MAN
Because I was striving for your welfare, I wanted to liberate you, the coarse, uneducated people; I rebelled against your oppressors, I mutinied…. Well, and so they put me in prison.
THE TOILER
They put you in prison? It served you right for rebelling!
Two Years Later
THE SAME TOILER TO ANOTHER TOILER
Hearken, Piótra!… Dost remember one of those white-handed lazy men was talking to thee the summer before last?
THE OTHER TOILER
I remember…. What of it?
FIRST TOILER
They’re going to hang him to-day, I hear; that’s the order which has been issued.
SECOND TOILER
Has he kept on rebelling?
FIRST TOILER
He has.
SECOND TOILER
Yes…. Well, see here, brother Mitry: can’t we get hold of a bit of that rope with which they are going to hang him? Folks say that that brings the greatest good luck to a house.
FIRST TOILER
Thou’rt right about that. We must try, brother Piótra.
April, 1878.
[71] “The white-handed man” would be the literal translation.—TRANSLATOR.
Translated from the Russian by Isabel F. Hapgood
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Russian Literature – Russian Poetry – Children’s books – Ivan Turgenev – Poems – Obsolete Russian Words and their meaning
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