“LIFE with SMARTY- Troublesome, with Fool-Full of Fear”…”Poem about Fools” by Bulat Оkudzhava translated by Yuliy Rashkovsky

My classmate Valentina Ivashutina gave me an advice to read this poem by a very renown bard singer Bulat Okudzhava , so I did. Before I have never heard about this poem, they say, it was banned to perform in old days,  considering this fact will be interesting to many readers, that’s why I put it here.

“Russian writer Chekhov once wrote down,

That smart ones love to study, when fools like to instruct.

So many fools in my life I have found,
That I should receive the award for my troubles.
 
Fools adore the gathering in flocks and in gaggles
Following the leader, glorious and brave.
As a child, I dreamed and hoped that once of a sudden
There will be no fools – they all will fly away.
 
Oh, my childish dreams were so naive and mistaken!
What a fairy tale I used to think I’m living in!
An insidious smile is on the face of the nature:
Something so important I have missed in my dreams!
 
A smart one is lonely when he’s walking around,
He values his loneliness above all the fun.
it’s not hard to track him and to take him down…
Shortly they all will be caught, one by one.
 
When they all will disappear – It will be a new era,
That you can’t imagine and you even can’t describe…
Life with smarty – troublesome, with fool – full of fear
We need something average, but where it can be found?
 
Dumbness is rewarding, but not as desirable,
Smartness is desirable, but always reduced…
An insidious prophecy comes straight from the sky above:
Maybe something average will be finally produced.”
 
At the end I am asking you to listen to the beautiful music:

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