Men's Thoughts And Deeds Poem by Vic Postnikov

Men’s thoughts and deeds will pass like dreams,
The heroes soon effaced,
The mausoleums convert to dust,
For nothing stays at place.

The wisdom, justice, faith and love
By some unknown Hand
Like needless words on someone's slate
Will soon be swept away.

Afar from Earth, forlorn and dumb,
Yet other words would rise
Under the same old magic Hand
Which prophesizes Light.

And other life would see the world,
Resembling not our face,
But just like ours will pass away
Without a single trace.

And we are helpless to predict
New image that will live -
That Star will carry nothing of
the things that we believed.

And yet one thing will reappear
Which now we call “caprice” -
The anguish for some ethereal,
The longing for some peace.

Aversion to the status quo,
The premonition light,
And thirst for sanctities we lack
Will still entice the sight.

Whatever creatures come to live,
Whatever mind would spark,
They’d rush from ashes to their dreams
As we did in our dark.

Therefore immortals are not they
Who excel in their plot,
Who filled the chest with empty tales
That tricked the mass a lot.

But they who see amid the dust
Eternal, shinning goal,
Who built, through suffering and pain,
A mirage in their soul.

- Nikolai Minsky,1887
Trans. by V.Postnikov,2006