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# Mayakovsky’s poem “Good Attitude to Horses” about a horse that fell in the street
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/bili-kopyta/
- Published: 2025-03-23T09:25:36.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:37:05.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Books, Moscow

Hooves were beating. As though they sang:  
"Mush-  
room.  
Plun-  
der.  
Tomb.  
Rude."  
Drunk with the wind,  
shod with ice,  
the street was sliding.  
A horse on her croup  
crashed down,  
and at once  
one idler after another idler,  
who had come to flap their trousers about Kuznetsky,  
crowded together,  
laughter rang out and jangled:  
"A horse has fallen!"  
"The horse has fallen!"  
Kuznetsky laughed.  
Only I  
did not mix my voice into its howl.  
I went up  
and I see  
the horse's eyes…  
The street had turned over,  
flows in its own way…  
I went up and I see:  
drop after huge drop  
rolls down the muzzle,  
hides in the coat…  
And some common  
animal anguish  
splashed out of me  
and spread in a rustle.  
"Horse, don't.  
Horse, listen:  
why do you think you are worse than they?  
Little one,  
we are all a bit horses,  
each of us is a horse in his own way."  
Perhaps  
she was old  
and had no need of a nursemaid,  
perhaps my thought seemed vulgar to her,  
but  
the horse  
lunged,  
stood up on her feet,  
neighed  
and walked off.  
Swishing her tail.  
A ginger child.  
She came back cheerful,  
stood in her stall.  
And it all seemed to her  
that she was a foal,  
and life was worth living,  
and work was worth doing.

*Literal translation*

**Kind Treatment of Horses. Vladimir Mayakovsky.**

*Illustration: Yuly Petrovich Sheynis*