C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
A Monument
By Alexander Pushkin (17991837)
I
The people’s path to it no weeds will hide.
Rising with no submissive head, it stands
Above the pillar of Napoleon’s pride.
No! I shall never die: in sacred strains
My soul survives my dust and flees decay;
And famous shall I be, while there remains
A single poet ’neath the light of day.
Through all great Russia will go forth my fame,
And every tongue in it will name my name;
And by the nation long shall I be loved,
Because my lyre their nobler feelings moved:
Because I strove to serve them with my song,
And called forth mercy for the fallen throng.
Hear God’s command, O Muse, obediently,
Nor dread reproach, nor claim the poet’s bay;
To praise and blame alike indifferent be,
And let fools say their say!