MODERN NATURE Poem by Andrei Voznesensky

Red cows
on the asphalt road have settled.
Lazing on the asphalt pan they lie.
We drive them round
for cows are sacred!
They are loyal to the highway,
we wonder why.

'Old herdsman, we want our question answered:
Why have the cows gone mad?' 'God forbid!
The point is that flies do not like asphalt.'
Those modern cows! The are wise indeed!


They got it, the sly ones! Cattle of genius!
Unlike the poor, unfortunate flies.
'The flies know that asphalt
is carcinogenic.'
Those modern flies! They are really wise!

Alec Vagapov's translation