Monologue of Tomorrow’s Men, By YEVGENY YEVTUSHENKO

Adam and Eve were not Party members,

and all humanity this remembers.

A non-Party Noah invented the ark,

and a non-Party globe was born in the dark.

The devil with his repulsive leer

and his bad taste put the parties here.

Politics settled inside the apple

a worm and serpent--the Devil’s couple,

devouring fruit to its very core

leaving people wormier than before

Politics engendered police

and weapons wrapped in speeches of peace.

Class-war from a butt in the street was lit

And people into parties were stupidly split.

But where is the party of our tears,

of widows’ pain and childish fears?

But where is the party of black ashes’ red eye,

of Gulag, Auschwitz and My Lai?

Someday our great grandchildren will see

a borderless, bastardless world will be,

where all the parties forever are gone

collapsing like ancient Babylon,

where all of us are the same party, same clan

the simple name of which will just be man.

“Monologue of Tomorrow’s Men,” translated by Albert C. Todd of Queens College, N.Y., and the author, was written 22 years ago. It was unpublishable in Russia until last year; this is its first publication in English.