‘The Son Does Not Answer for the Father’ by <i> Aleksandr Tvardovsky</i>

He said to them: Come follow me, Come leave thy father and thy mother, Leave all these passing earthly things, And dwell with me in paradise. Proud that we did not believe in God, But in the name of our own sanctities, We sternly required this sacrifice: Renounce thy father and thy mother. Forget the family whence you came, Remember this, and do not question: Your love for the Father of the Peoples By any other love is lessened. The task is clear, sacred the cause. For the shortest way to the highest goal, Betray your brother as you go And stab your best friend in the back. And do not burden your soul with human Sentiment self-indulgently. Be bestial in the leader’s name And bear false witness for his sake. Thankful for any fate, you must Profess but one thing: He is great. Whether you be Crimean Tatar, Steppe-dwelling Kalmyk, or Ingush. Applaud for every sentence issued, Those that defy all comprehension. Denounce the people along with whom You’re driven to exile far away. And in the choking Exodus, Not of the Bible, of our times, Extol the Father of the Peoples, Highest of all. He knows what’s best. He makes known and self-evident Every beginning and every end. The son does not answer for the father. This is a law which also means The father must answer--with his head. But blessed night has now extinguished All laws for him forever more. And now he’s not the one to answer Not for the son, not for the daughter. There at the mute wall of the Kremlin He luckily has no idea What a terrible fate for a father Accompanies his sepulchral sleep. The sons have long since grown to father-hood. But still we all must answer for this father. As it turns out, we’re all being held to account. And the trial has gone on for decades And there’s still no end of it in sight.

This is an excerpt from “The Son Does Not Answer for the Father,” a portion of the late Aleksandr Tvardovsky’s epic poem, “By Right of Memory.” Much of the poem was long denied publication in the Soviet Union, although circulating in literary circles by the late 1960s. “The Son Does Not Answer for the Father,” translated by George Saunders, can be found in the book “An End to Silence,” edited by Stephen F. Cohen (Norton, 1982).