Translated by A. Z. Foreman - Masterwork lyrics

If God writes down a little poem And flatly christens it "John Smith" Many in all likelihood a**ess it As trite, its art-effects as unaesthetic. Especially if the creation, in every way, Shows everyday behavior; trowels bricks to earn His honest bread; does not trill like a bird In some archaically gorgeous grove, But by hand -and not by beak- expresses Himself in melody of slow-moved bricks Bringing joy or sorrow into being. Loving with sensational tenderness, Stubbornly, his children and his wife, And loving -with no trumpeting- his neighbors Next door, in China and America, While his blood courses placidly, Or rapid with a thunder not quite muffled. Does not have certain sure opinions About an obscure universe, But doublethinks, feels truly what great lies Are told in every slogan that stokes bloodthirst By means of bloodless bland abstractions Against the planet's living or His little world around the evening table. Has no easy fix for life's snafus, Whose life itself isn't always an easy thing But is a stickler for such little joys As can be seized from the hour that blossoms away Over the manure of dying days. Believes, and in no cynical ennui, In beauty and good will beneath this sun, And in the future mankind has no hope for And does not grieve, nor leaves it to the winds, But forges with his own two hands, or else Holds on with patience and a striving faith. John Smith. A work who won't Delight the epicureans, won't console The degradation-buffs with better days, Rightly a displeasure to the salesmen That peddle ideological panaceas, The yawn of all the critics, the reviewers And maybe even you. But God, a modern poet, Finds self-expression in this century's language. Simply will not be bothered with entreaties To create, from his blood or another's, Anything new through routine revolution (Which would be old-school!) but composes For the mere few who understand, With simple heart, a man whose title Is modernly and modestly John Smith-- With otherworldly tenderness expressed In this everyday dust of ours sincerely.