Арсений Несмелов. Потеряли мальчика родного...

Потеряли мальчика родного
В иностранце двадцати трех лет .

Кто осудит? Вологдам и Бийскам
Верность сердца стоит ли хранить?
Даже думать станешь по-английски,
По-чужому плакать и любить.

Мы – не то! Куда б ни выгружала
Буря волчью костромскую рать,
Все же нас и Дурову***,пожалуй,
В англичан не выдрессировать.

Пять рукопожатий за неделю –
Разлетится столько юных стай!
Мы – умрем, а молодняк поделят
Франция, Америка, Китай

He 's been lost, our yesterday's teenager,
To become a foreigner for good.

Our dear lad will now think in English,
And in foreign ways will sob and love.
All his loyalties will now end, will finish   
To Archa'ngelsk, Ti'khvin or Tambo'v**.

Who 's to judge? We 're different, however!
We have been through fire, and storms, and ice.
Would a pair of Roy-and- Siegfried*** level
Ever forge Americans from us?!

What have stars for our youngsters latched?
Five farewells in less than seven days...
We 'll die out.   They 'll be gladly snatched
By Australias, Brazils and Paraguays.

*   The original was written in Harbin, KVZhD (Chinese Eastern Railway), shortly after the railway had been sold to Japan.  The tr-n. text was, to some extent, "modernised".

**  Pardon the “Bessermen's” (visual)  rhyme.

***Successful and famous tiger tamers and circus performers, until one of them was killed on the arena (c. 1997?) by one of their animals.  Durov was an earlier  Russian animal tamer.  Np.