It’s not for us to calmly rot in graves.
We’ll lie stretched out in our half-open coffins
And hear before the dawn the cannon coughing,
The regimental bugle calling gruffly
From highways which we trod, our land to save.
We know by heart all rules and regulations.
What’s death to us? A thing that we despise.
Lined up in graves, our dead detachment lies
Awaiting orders. And let generations
To come, when talking of the dead, be wise;
Dead men have ears and eyes for truth and lies.
Nicolai Mayorov
Translated by Dorian Rottenberg
In February 1942 Nikolai Mayorov, political instructor of a machine-gun company, died in action in Smolensk Region.
ODESSA, CITY MINE!
We rose at dawn,
When night crept close to day.
The wind that blew was fresh and light
and fitful,
A little briny and a little bitter.
As on an open palm the sea before us lay,
With fishing boats its surface strewn,
the advent
Of morning marking….
Under foam-washed boulders
(Quite large they were and black and sleek
and shiny),
Beneath dark sea-weed, butter-soft and slimy,
The bullheads moved their bulky tops, and twisted
Their narrow tails.
The ship to the horizon
Was firmly glued.
The sparkle of the rising
Sun hurt the eyes.
The contours of the misty
Shores were a trifle vague and undefined.
We`ll not surrender you, Odessa, city mine!
Let death walk every street;
With hoarse and choking sound,
Let homes in flame go up and topple to the ground.
Let acrid smoke eat at our eyes, let bread
Give off the smell of powder and of lead -
Odessa, city mine,
My friend and comrade true,
Odessa, city mine,
We`ll not surrender you!
Vsevolod Bagritsky
1941 Translated by Irina Zheleznova
Vsevolod Bagritsky was fallen by an enemy bullet while jotting down some facts passed on to him by one of the men. This was on February 26, 1942, in the village of Dubovik, the Leningrad Region.
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ah Comrade- spasibo. gospodenye- I remind you of the mighty Tarkovsky’s- Andrei and Arsenyi- the mighty Trotsky- he whom we follow- above all the mighty Rachmaninov- he who sinks into non-violence
Dave Eberhardt (poured blood on draft files with him in 1967- the “Baltimore 4″ action)
“Hi from the Unknown Soldier. I threw away my rifle and went swimming.
You may have seen me slipping away from the column. Shsssssh.
If in a desert “theatre” I leave to go look at the night sky with all its stars- Aldeberan (sp?), Rigel, Spica, Eta Carinae.
I am a statue to the Noble Deserter in the park.”
Want to join us? Then practice non-violence, resist war, and don’t forget to move to the left.
Forgive them mother for they know not what they do.
Heroes to follow? Tom Lewis, war resisters, Dan and Phil Berrigan,”Plowshares” activists, M. Gandhi, ML King, AJ Muste, Dorothy Day, Quakers, Norman Morrison, Rachel Corrie,
Authors to read H Thoreau, Dalai Lama, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Wilfred Owen, Gary Snyder etc.
feel free to read at any funeral/memorial- my best to all his friends and loved ones
dave in baltimore mozela9@comcast.net