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# Boris Slutsky’s poem “Horses in the Ocean” about horses drowning on the ship Gloria
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/loshadi-umeiut-plavat-no-ne-khorosho/
- Published: 2024-03-25T08:03:29.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:46:37.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Nature

Horses can swim,  
But not well. Not far.  
"Gloria" in Russian means "Slava",  
That you will remember easily.  
A ship was sailing, proud of its name,  
Trying to overcome the ocean.  
In the hold, tossing their kindly muzzles,  
A thousand horses trampled day and night.  
A thousand horses! Four thousand horseshoes!  
Yet they brought no luck after all.  
A mine tore through the ship's bottom  
Far, far away from land.  
The people sat in the boats, climbed into the lifeboats.  
The horses swam off just like that.  
What were they to do, poor things,  
When there was no room on boats or rafts?  
A chestnut island floated across the ocean.  
In the blue sea a bay island floated.  
And at first it seemed that swimming was easy,  
The ocean seemed to them a river.  
But that river has no far bank in sight,  
With the last of their horse strength failing  
The horses suddenly neighed, objecting  
To those who were drowning them in the ocean.  
The horses went down and neighed, and neighed,  
Until all of them had gone to the bottom.  
That is all. And still I am sorry for them,  
The chestnut ones who never saw land.

*Literal translation*

*Boris Slutsky. Horses in the Ocean.* 
*To I. Ehrenburg* 
*1950*