si nuestros antagonistas me llevan::if I'm taken captive by our enemies

Si nuestros antagonistas me llevan

Y la gente deja de hablar conmigo;

Si confiscan el mundo entero --

El derecho de respirar y abrir puertas

Y afirman que la existencia existirá

Y que la gente, como un juez, juzgará;

Si se atreven a conservarme como a un animal

Y arrojan mi comida sobre el piso --

No caeré en el silencio ni mitigaré la agonía,

Sino que escribiré lo que soy libre de escribir,

Y unciendo diez bueyes a mi voz

Moveré mi mano en la oscuridad como un arado

Y caeré con todo el peso de la cosecha…

OSIP MANDELSTAM (1891-1937)

The Voronezh Notebooks (1937)

Edited by Pavel Nerler, Mandelstam Society, Moscow

If I’m taken captive by our enemies
And if I’m not spoken to by the people,
If I’m stripped of every last thing:
The right to breathe and to open doors,
And to insist that there will be being,
And that the people, like judges, judge;
If they have the guts to cage me like a beast
And throw my rations on the floor before me,
I won’t take it silently, won’t stifle the pain,
But instead I’ll draw what I’m free to draw,
And, having struck the naked bell of the cell wall
And woken the enemy darkness’ corner,
I’ll harness ten oxen to pull my voice,
And plow my hand through the darkness;
And in the depths of the vigilant night
Eyes will flash for earth, the low-wage worker,
And I’ll fall with the weight of an entire harvest,
With the terseness of a far-racing oath,
Into the eyes of the clenched legion of brothers;
And a flock of fiery years will descend,
Lenin will shimmer past as a heavy rainstorm,
And on this earth that will evade decaying,
Stalin will wake up both life and reason.

  

Osip Mandelstam (1891-1937) 

The Voronezh Notebooks (1937)

Translated by John High and Matvei Yankelevich