All morning long, the moon glows red,
Everyone is gone--I'm all alone.
And it's excellent! It's wonderful!
It's pretty obvious:
I am the bravest of men.
To look at the moon, me and my cat Nonsense
Climbed up on the bed:
The Moon, our brother; the Wind, our uncle--
Now that's an uncle!
The Stars, our sister; the Sky, our mother...
I sing loudly--loudly!
Loudly, loudly I sing,
So that in the darkness
A bear isn't drawn to us
By a ribbon of smoke from the stove
I'm not afraid of rats or the bogyman--
I'll stick a poker in his nose!
Nor of a crippled devil with his cane,
Not even of vipers--
Not of anybody or anything!
In the sky, a cloud has curls,
The curls of a lamb.
I'm not a boy, I'm an elephant
Or a tiger cub
Dozing in the reeds...
I wait adn wait, In vain I wait--
The handbell has grown dumb...
Moon, my brother, red moon...
Clear moon,
Why have you grown so pale?
1921
A draft translation of a children's poem by Sasha Chernyi
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