('Mechanically', as people say), S
he bowed her head and moved away. . . .
They passed the garden's dark recesses,
Arriving home together thus
Where no one raised the slightest fuss:
For country freedom too possesses
Its happy rights ... as grand as those
That high and mighty Moscow knows.
18
I know that you'll agree, my reader,
That our good friend was only kind
And showed poor Tanya when he freed her
A noble heart and upright mind.
Again he'd done his moral duty,
But spiteful people saw no beauty
And quickly blamed him, heaven knows!
Good friends no less than ardent foes
(But aren't they one, if they offend us?)
Abused him roundly, used the knife.
Now every man has foes in life,
But from our friends, dear God, defend us!
Ah, friends, those friends! I greatly fear,
I find their friendship much too dear.
19
What's that? Just that. Mere conversation
To lull black empty thoughts awhile;
In passing, though, one observation:
There's not a calumny too vile
That any garret babbler hatches,
And all the social rabble snatches;
There's no absurdity or worse,
Nor any vulgar gutter verse,
That your good friend won't find delightful,
Repeating it a hundred ways
To decent folk for days and days,
While never meaning to be spiteful;
He's yours, he'll say, through thick and thin:
He loves you so! . . . Why, you're like kin!
20
Hm, hm, dear reader, feeling mellow?
And are your kinfolk well today?
Perhaps you'd like, you gentle fellow,
To hear what I'm prepared to say
On 'kinfolk' and their implications?
Well, here's my view of close relations:
They're people whom we're bound to prize,
To honour, love, and idolize,
And, following the old tradition,
To visit come the Christmas feast,
Or send a wish by mail at least;
