Eduard Asadov’s poem “Dream of the Ages” on the struggle of freedom against violence
Ever since man first rose upright above the earth, And lived, and loved, as nature bids, According to science, among mountains and rivers, In that distant, almost primeval age,— There lived and flourished freedom in the world.
But the forefather who took the hide and the meat,
Leaving his comrade only the sinews,
And, spitting on conscience, resorted to force,
First trampled freedom underfoot.
Violence cannot live without dominion.
And tyranny is the surest form of it.
Freedom, however, affirms equality in rights.
Hence the conflict until the end of days.
A conflict between truth and falsehood,
A battle where fire and ice contend.
But however stable the conflict, all the same
Progress is inevitable. The process goes on.
For if freedom did not sing in the breast
And the eye did not see truth through stone,
Why then would Campanella, in his tortures,
Keep speaking of it so brightly and boldly,
Heeding not the fury of the black cassocks!
And however far off freedom may be,
Yet if the soul did not strive towards it for ever,
Where would the strength to fight have come from
In Spartacus, already struck down?!
And if its bright wind had not called him
To fearlessness through the black flame of wars,
Then could Lincoln have managed,
Even though he gave it his dying groan,
All the same to lead the Northerners to victory?!
Freedom! Oh, how ardent it is!
And how beautiful even its echo is!
Not for nothing did Stenka Razin, too, on the scaffold,
Look on the executioner with a smile!
Literal translation
Eduard Asadov, "The Dream of the Ages"
