Spanish Ballad
Out sprints the bull running mad with the light:
He’s been held back in the dark for a fight.
There is a drum roll and whistles resound,
There loom the fighter and people around.There flies a snake, it reminds him of blood
Which throws him into a desperate mood,
Which twists and twirls like a furious flame,
Sneers at him for he’s embroiled in the game.That rushing bulk’s uncontrollable horn
Could leave the man lying trodden and torn,
But it’s the bull who is doomed to collapse,
Is it because he is stupid, perhaps?No, he is not, he’s just heedless and hot,
But here to die is his glorious lot,
So he now dies like a knight full of grace,
He’s the most honest of all at this place.Saving his skin is not what’s on his mind,
Killing a man would be strange to his kind,
Smashing his butcher – that isn’t his wish,
Vexed is he just by a red-glowing swish.Anything bloodlike is loathed by the beast,
Anything red makes him nervous at least,
For such a red-hostile life he was bred
That now he’s sure: ‘better dead than red’.Writhing in agony, pierced through the back,
That bloody nape now he tries to attack,
Bleeding all over in anguish and pain,
Finds himself dumped like a sackload of grain.
Then all this crowd which is drunk with the death
Cruel and crude yells olé in one breath,
Praising the murderer’s dangerous job
Wildly entranced is the hot-blooded mob.Over the sand trampling, callous and coarse,
Draught-horses drag the unfortunate corpse,
Bright glows the matador’s radiant eye,
Down to the sand all the seat-cushions fly.May here the Christians appealing to love
Of such a savage obsession approve,
But why were here once both EM Hemingway
and Victor Nekrassov so carried away?
Translated by Vladmir Vishniak
Page(s) 278-279
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