I'm a Wall soldier, I don't know why.
The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,
My girl's in Tungria; I sleep alone.
Aulus goes hanging around her place,
I don't like his manners, I don't like his face.
Piso's a Christian, he worships a fish;
There'd be no kissing if he had his wish.
She gave me a ring but I diced it away;
I want my girl and I want my pay.
When I'm a veteran with only one eye
I shall do nothing but look at the sky.
October 1937
БЛЮЗ РИМСКОЙ СТЕНЫ
Над вереском ветер уносит росу,
Под туникой вши и простуда в носу.
Дождь мерно стучит в барабаны войны,
Не знаю зачем, но я - воин Стены.
Здесь серые камни туманы застелят,
Подружка в Тангрии; один я в постели.
Аулус повадился к ней на крыльцо,
В нем все ненавистно: манеры, лицо.
Пизо - христианин: рыбешка - их бог,
Запрет целоваться бы ввел, если б мог.
Продул я кольцо, что дала она, где-то,
Хочу я девчонку мою и монету.
Когда одноглазым уйду в ветераны,
Глядеть буду в небо, зализывать раны.
Октябрь 1937
EPITAPH ON A TYRANT
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
January 1939
ЭПИТАФИЯ ТИРАНУ
Своего рода совершенства достичь всю жизнь мечтал.
Он изобрел поэзию доступную народу,
Как пять своих же пальцев знал он глупости природу.
Считал он армию и флот важней всего на свете.
На смех его, от хохота дрожал Сенатский зал,
Под плач - в людском водовороте улиц гибли дети.
Январь 1939
REFUGEE BLUES
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
"If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;
