Old Archimedes Drank No Wine

Translated by C. H. Andrusyshen and Watson Kirkconnell

Old Archimedes drank no wine
And Galileo lean did dine;
While holy oil from monkish jaw
Went gurgling down the monkish maw.
You, holy harbingers, have gone
Throughout the world and handed on
To the benighted tsars instead
The soiled crust of the Gospel's bread.
The tsars' rye will be trampled down,
And men will come into their own.
New tsars will die still unconceived
And in our land, by faith retrieved,
No foemen shall be brought to birth,
Mothers and sons shall show their worth
And love shall reign throughout the earth.

                        1860, St. Petersburg