Not Highly I Esteem Poem by Emil Sharafutdinov

From Pushkin

Not highly I esteem
The loud rights that make many a head spin.
I do not murmur that the Fates
Denied me the sweet lot of contesting tax rates
Or of preventing kings from fighting one another;
And honestly, little I bother,
Whether the press humbugs simpletons without limitations
Or watchful censorship restrains buffoons in publishing intentions.
All this is words, words, words, as you may see.
Some other better rights are precious to me;
Some other better freedom I still want:
Depending on the mob, depending on a lord -
Is it not all the same? God be with them.
To be obliged
To answer to no one, to serve and to indulge
Yourself alone; for power, for rank
To bend neither your conscience, nor thoughts, nor trunk;
At will to ramble far and wide,
Being carried away by nature's divine sight,
And to regard creations of art and inspiration,
Quivering joyfully with a rapturous sensation.
- Here is happiness! here are the rights…