TO THE YOUTH OF RUSSIA
G. GALIN
A forest is cut down with ruthless axe,
A forest young and green doth prostrate lie;
While ancient pines, with thoughts inscrutable,
Gaze, stern and sad, into the silent sky.
A forest is cut down; is it because
Its early rustle glad bade Nature wake,
Or that in youth it boldly sang aloud
Of joy, the sun, spring’s dawn about to break?
A forest is cut down; earth hides the seeds,
And when the new green wall of struggling trees
Springs up, awakened by life’s force, their boughs
O’er brothers’ graves will murmur in the breeze.