}} Of Guts and Cowardice by Vitaly Pukhanov |

Poetry at Sangam

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Of Guts and Cowardice by Vitaly Pukhanov

Committing a low act takes guts.
One must show courage and decisiveness.
A coward is incapable of meanness.
“How will I live with it, if I do it?”
The coward asks himself.
“I won’t be able to live with it!”
And when sometimes a coward
Accidentally performs an act of heroism
In a movie, he honestly admits, “I am no hero,
I simply had no choice,
But I felt terrified.”

 
 
Translated from the Russian by Philip Nikolayev