Page:The Kobzar of the Ukraine.pdf/88

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Did you but study as you should, You would possess your own wisdom; And you might creep up to heaven.

But it is we— Oh, no, not we;
 * It is I—no, no, not I.

I've seen it all, I know it. There's neither heaven nor hell, Not even God—
 * Just I and the short, fat German,
 * Nothing more.

Grand, my brother. You ask me something,
 * "I don't know,
 * Ask the German,
 * He'll tell you."

That's the way you learn
 * in foreign lands.

The German says—
 * "You are Mongols.
 * Mongols, Mongols;

Naked children
 * of the golden Tamerlane."

The German says—
 * "You are Slavs,
 * Slavs, Slavs;