Roman Soldier Goes To Kill Archimedes Poem by viacheslav kupriyanov

A Roman soldier goes to kill Archimedes
The nobody who dared to draw circles
On the ground that is rightfully ours
And will never be bounded by a circle
A Roman soldier with a sword goes to kill Archimedes
A Germanic warrior wielding Greek fire
Goes to kill Archimedes
As if it were he who swayed the earth with a lever
Whoever wielding whatever
Wielding Patriots and Tomahawks
Goes to kill Archimedes
As if it were he who displaced ocean water
Anyhow it had no effect whatsoever
On history following an Archimedean spiral
Yet the earth was properly subdivided
Into circles and spheres of influence
But this murder hasn't changed history
And in fact lots of other murders
Had no effect on history whatsoever
Though which history are we talking about
And whatever we ended up with now
What kind of history is that
Even if it does follow a spiral

Translated from Russian by Dmitri Manin