THE KOBZAR OF THE UKRAINE
89
than your fathers went.
Don't brag so much,
they just skin you,
They rendered out your fathers' bones
Perhaps you are proud
that your brotherhood
has defended the faith.
You cooked your dough-nuts
o'er the fires
of burning Turkish towns,
of Sinope and Trebizond.
True for you
And you ate them
And now they pain you.
And on your own fields
the wily German
plants potatoes.
You buy them from him,
eat them for the good of your health
and praise Cossackery.
But with whose blood
was the land sprinkled
that grew the potatoes?
Oh, that's a trifle;
so long as it's good for the garden.
Very proud you are
that we once destroyed Poland.
Very true indeed:
Poland fell,
but fell on top of us.
