| Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921. | | | | My Temple | | By N. Minsky (Pseudonym of Nikolai Vilenkin) (b. 1855) |
| | | WHO rears a temple, rears two monuments: | |
| His own and the destroyer’s. They who build | |
| Accept Herostratos’ arbitraments: | |
| And to the torch the chisel’s work is willed. | |
| Both will stand firm before posterity, | 5 |
| And equal glory Fame to each will lend. | |
| But thou, my air-domed temple, shalt not be | |
| Mocked by the vengeance of the general end. | |
| |
| On an abyss of ruin is thy lease, | |
| Thou’rt in the furnace of negation fired; | 10 |
| In thee the hymns of solace shall not cease: | |
| With sorrow winged, by calm despair inspired. | |
| Thee, legioned sufferings guard, in iron mail, | |
| And in their vanguard Death, who shall prevail. | | | | |
|
|
