Уистен Хью Оден - Эпитафия тирану

Правителя порядочней всем надо ли?
Он в слове никогда не оступался,
Народ изведал, как свои пять пальцев,
Большой любитель армий и линкоров.
Он хохотал – и лопались сенаторы.
Он горевал – и дети гибли с горя.
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Wystan Hugh Auden
EPITAPH ON A TYRANT

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.