“…it’s the pain of the soul that takes the longest to go away”

In 1939, after enduring inhumane tortures in prison, Igor Franceschi penned a profound piece “Poem about Pain” that reminds us that physical wounds heal as time passes, but the invisible “pain of the soul takes the longest to go away”. This piece recounts the methods used throughout the country against the numerous victims of the Great Purge in an attempt to get false confessions from innocent people (translated from Russian.

Translated from Russian into English by Elena Prozorova:

Poem about Pain

Any solid object can cause you pain.

Any soft object can do the same.

Even a chair that has a back.

Even a table that has a top.

Everyone knows how nice it’s to sit

When your legs ache a bit.

When your legs ache more,

You can sit for eight hours in a row.

But torment of sitting for multiple days

Is what even hell will dispraise.

Almost everyone can stand for a while.

Five hours can be done sometimes.

By the tenth hour, what comes is the pain.

On your face and back, starts salt to drain.

As another twelve hours pass,

The last drop of cold sweat dries up.

On the second day, you get new pains,

Your boots burst, and so do your veins.

Shoes, glass, even cigarettes if one’s hand is firm—

Any object can cause you pain

If the devil took human form,

If an evil beast sits in one’s brain.

Using words, one can pray or caress.

Using words, one can torture.

One can stab a word into your ear like a blade

If you’re alone, and they’re outweighed!

All pain-causing objects are good in their own way,

But it’s the pain of the soul that takes the longest to go away.

1939