poem about donkeys

True art knows no boundaries of time, and Igor Franceschi's poetry remains relevant even in our modern-day world. Some of his verses, written in 1947, possess a haunting relevance to current events, providing poetic perspectives on how people can be manipulated against their own self-interest into committing atrocities and even wars for the sake of ideology.

Translated from Russian into English by Elena Prozorova in 2022 (excerpt):

Poem About Donkeys

We belong to the company of those who

pay too highly for the very weapons that destroy

them and include the price of their graves as well.

Bertolt Brecht, Threepenny Novel (1934)

Over and over, millions of donkeys run to the slaughter.

<…> The villain comes, says a wise word, and the flock

Happily race to the slaughter with their tails in the air.

The villain laughs as he hears that the trick worked:

The donkeys speak of the silliest donkey as of the hero!

<…> Crutches clatter In the corridors of hospital wards.

As all those tailless and legless “heroes”

Rush to the canteen weeping “We are short on food”!

But they accept it as normal and return to their donkey work.

And over and over, millions of donkeys run to the slaughter!

Let their bodies get crippled, and their foals get beaten dead,

They’re carried away by the magic of words of the plotter,

And their hoofs rumble as they race to where they are led.

1947