Timofeev son Ermak. english version

Yermak

p.7
A folk is steadily uprising-
The Tree of Life its growth feeds-
The trunk its human flesh disguising,
Its buds, its branches and its seeds...
(The Tree, quite like a gorgeous oak,
Gives birth to vital seeds of folk,
And in the foliage they get ripe
To grow into a new-born tribe).
In case we die and disappear
The seeds of that eternal Tree,
God willing, Heaven will agree
Of our souls to take care
And let them meet and never fade,
In the immortal flesh arrayed

                p. 9
The seeds of the first marches there,
The first Siberian campaign,
And Russia's, year after year,
Expansion, now and again;
The earliest, blessed by God, explorers;
The savage tribes, barbaric horrors;
The warriors, restless in the fight,
Who longed for peace from outside;
The first Strogonovs, who aroused
Great interest in the royal minds
To wonderland, attracting eyes,
With no master to announce;
The role of Terrible Ivan,-
That is the plot of Chapter One.
Ch.I

                The Seeds

                -I-
Like purple curtains made of twilight
The sunset hid the daylight time,
And from the east edge of the skyline
The night was throwing its dark eye.
The Moon reflected in the water
Could not enlight the river's bottom
And mournful fires' faded soot
Where tired fishers made fish soup...
By smooth rotating about its axis
The Earth was making its space way,
And village windows' flickering flame
Approached the depths of far galaxies...
Like lampads in the window frame
The day was slowly dying away.

              p.10
-2-
The sunset of Joannes Grozny's years
Was dying, mirrored in the axe...
Good news from the Siberian rears
Illuminated Russia's tracks:
Great courage, overwhelming cunning,
Brought Russia's Emperor becoming
Siberian tsar who could control
Three Tatar tsardoms, all in all.
The Baltic Sea was out of bounds,
By Swedes and Poles won away.
Instead, the Russians found the way
That led to the north-eastern grounds
And made the other unions grudge
Their new fur riches, so large.

-3-
Like Nogai princes, cruel, cunning,
After the conquest of Kazan
Or Ciscaucasians, to Moscow coming,
Allegiance seeking, bringing dan(1),
Just to be safe, to find protection
Or reach the friendly troops' perfection,
Tsar Yediger, who'd also been
Siberian prince, guessed right quite how
The Tatar yourts' nomadic squint,
By weather beaten, torn by wind,
Siberian vasts were pressing now
That little tiny tsardom's part
Would lose in ancient forests' heart.

-4-
Some chronicles inform the reader
That on a January day
From the Siberian leader

P 10
Ambassadors to Moscow came.
On offering congratulation
On the successful occupation
Of Kazan to the monarch, they
Still bowing, began to pray
For Tzar's defence, for their allegiance,
Taxation of the vassal land;
They asked the Tsar for them to stand.
The monarch welcomed their obedience:
An envoy was by them received,
And the taxation was achieved.

-5-
Commemorate the good tax-farmer,
Named Dmitry Kurov, for his job!
He was accustomed to discover
Slant cunning Tatars' every fob.
Boyanda, a Siberan envoy,
The source of every slant-eyed-men ploy,
Brought seven hundred skins in all
In answer to the monarch's call.
Their Prince Shabansky through the year
Had been at war, by his report.
The fur take lowered a lot
With many captured hunters there.
Those words made Kurov's heart rebel,
And made him truth to Joannes tell:

p.12

-6-
"My Lord, the infidel's a liar:
The tribute shouldn't have been small'
And if the Tatars had desire
The tax would have been paid in all"
His speech produced a great impression:
Joannes took away the rogue's possession;
Boyanda's mission also failed:

P 12
At Tsar's command he was enjailed.
Some Tatars with a missive letter,
All in the service of the king,
Were sent to Yediger to bring
The tax, the Tsar would've welcomed better.
What could be done? The sable rent
Was to the king with envoys sent.

-7-
The tribute came up to a sable;
Besides, a squirrel skin apiece.
The Tatars, if we trust their fable,
Were thirty thousand, at least.
How strong was the subordination
Siberia had to th' Russian nation?
Could the connection stronger stay
When Russia's head was far away?
Prince Yediger, who was then fighting
The Kaisak Tsar, a treaty signed
And joined the Russians to provide
Tsar Joannes' backing, thus exciting
The faith that just began to fade
In hopes of far and ghostly aid.

-8-
With sparkles of hope, slowly fading
In Yediger's slant, piercing eyes,
He said, the Russians' looks evading,
(We'll try to make his speech precise):
I've sent my messengers to Joannes;
The tribute I'm collecting grows...
The Kaisak tsar is up at last
To rule Siberia's vast.
He is unlikely to pay tribute..."
Kutchum, a mere steppe prince, is said
To have impaled Yediger's head
                p. 13
And now's ready to contribute
To most evil things, perhaps:
He'd kill the envoy, steal the tax.

-9-
Siberia seemed not to be owned.
Could lonely yourts at large remain?
Perm, by the Strogonovs controlled,
Was near to the Ural Chain.
Since distant Century Eleven
That place've attracted people like Heaven,
Frequented, like a sacred source,
By various folks and outlaws.
The freedom-loving land admitted
The power of Joannes, theThird.
Theodor Permsky was voivod
To its heroic army seated.
The Strogonovs, as it was said,
To Solikamsk a ves (1) then led
               
  -10-
The Strogonovs, with great ambitions,
Came from Rostov's unsparing vast.
Grand Moscow Prince's famous mission
Was roughly broken, at last.
The fifteen century's politician
Vassily Tyomny's premonition
Came true: he was, as people said,
By Tatars captured, all in bad.
Strogonov paid a lavish ransom.
For that great service, in his turn,
The Prince then gave him, in return,
               
   P 15
All north-east lands. The gift was handsome.
(Tsar Shuisky didn't fail the fact
In loan pleas to recollect).

Ð15

-11-
The Strogonovs had not one Joannes.
Luca, by nickname Joannes the Third,
Had lots of land without stones.
Vassily, Joannes' son, preferred
To beckon every Luca's heir
To farm the lands and to adhere
To Orthodoxy that'd expand
In Russian hearts to no end;
Enlight Ustyug Uyezd with fair
And noble flame in faithful minds
And make great orthodox delights
Majestic Russia's main idea:
Accept the faith, assimilate,
With true believers populate.

-12-
Right in the year fifteen hundred
And fifty-eight the Royal Court,
For gains and bribes extremely hungry,
From Strogonov a message got.
Grigory, in his application,
Depicted the relief location:
Some ninety versts, as it may seem,
The Perm and Kama down stream,
The Tchussovaya river flows.
To both sides it endless goes.
Some rivers flow, the woods are mix.
One hundred versts and forty-six.
The land is virgin all around,
And everywhere we see new ground.
Around there is not a yard,
And for the Treasury it's hard
To make the needed taxes found."
Then, coming to the letter's end,
He went to Joannes, cap in hand:

p. 16

-13-
He was to settle in the covert,
Around the town plough soil,
Get several salt mines discovered
And bring steam heating to the boil
For making salt. On estimating,
In detail all appreciating,
Concerning land of no use,
The tax they didn't want to lose,
At Tsar's command to leave all fear
Grigory was then set to work
To turn the heath to a rich stock.
At that, he had to make things clear,
Bespeaking every little thing
For the approval of the King.

-14-
To welcome wasn't he allowed
Adscript and those to call subject;
Strange people, by taxation bound,
Were very carefully checked.
He kept an eye on slaves of boyars
And warn responsible employers
To shepherd outlaws as they
Arrived with things from far away.
The merchants coming to the town
With no tribute did their trade.
Grigory salt in saltpans made
Along the river, up and down,
Without taxes as they say,
In Wonderland, so far away.

                p. 17      

-15-
Grigory had an obligation
If copper, tin or silver ore
Were found, share the information
And have Tsar's treasurers sent for.
Without a notification
There could be no exploitation.
(To Tsar there Treasury appeals
To keep strict counts to the prills).
For Joannes wished he could the crown
To the anointed sovereign's son'
Together with the riches won
And faith in Trinity hand down.
To make him live in faith, in which
His tsardom he could still enrich.

-16-
A special favour was a pleasure
To Strogonov, who had the right
Without paying to the treasure
To work with people day and night.
For twenty years it was decided.
They should have been with work provided.
On quitrent peasants and adscript
Should have been set to work, equipped
With needed tools.Grigory's role
Was then on that his life to stake,
To hold court, decisions take,
Be to his business life and soul.
His law was easy to suggest:
Work hard and always do your best.

-17
Things happened, there is no point in
Pretending otherwise, in court.
Despite, Grigory's works were joined in:
Newcomers hoped for better lot.

p. 18
They still were coming to the village,
The town, trading quarter, tillage:
In yesterday's deserted weald
A clever man his life could build.
Was nobody but Grigory
The people's justice and the law.
The governors from Perm just saw
The local leader's jurist glory.
The strangers going to law
The following procedure bore:

                -18-
On taking all the papers needed
Both sides in Moscow arrive.
The application is considered
With Treasurer; he doesn't drive
The tipstuff. That's the main idea:
Can twenty years disappear
When Judge, at last makes up his mind
In someone's favour to decide.
That is enough for misarranging,
Employing people and, at length,
For better work conditions changing.
Grigory could the tribute pay.
Delivering fish on Lady Day.

-19-
Grigory, very law-abiding
And loyal to the nth degree,
The land with salt and fish providing,
Was greatly helped by Tsar's decree.
Then there was a commercial zone
Which was quite toll-free, alone.
Beyond the zone you were made

                p.19
On common bases drive your trade.
The laws for tradesmen were quite equal:
Should be the customers supplied;
Should the demands be satisfied....
Of your experience was sequel
The earnings growth. Never lose
Your gift to helpful people use!


-20-
Grigory's strength enabled the latter
To shake his country, so to say.
It wasn't just a money matter,
But money burn to light his way.
If he had been a stupid farmer,
The desert land along the Kama
Would have remained a desert land,
Still full of savages and sand.
The privilege, the pioneers
Had been then granted by the Tsar,
Could not defend them: very far
They were from Joannes. Their fears
Were fought by Strogonov's defence:
He took it in his own hands.

-21-
Here lies the meaning of well-known
And business-minded Russians, and
Famed not for wealthy life alone,
But good they did for their land.
Grigory lived without reluctance.
Of course, he was a man of substance.
Still, more important was his heart:
A vein of gold was its part.
A plan he cherished, rather sound:
He wished he could his vills extend
Up to the Urals; he planned
To spread them further, all around,
To Kamen, deep into the heart,
To serve the Tsar. The plan was smart.

                -22-               
Built up by Strogonov, the town
Was well defended and enlarged.
As for the canons, to shoot down
With powder they must be charged.
For that Grigory needed nitre;
To make his heavy load lighter
The Tsar permitted him to make
The needed nitre, and to break
Tsar's orders wasn't he allowed:
He could but thirty poods produce,
And nobody was to use
Or have it, but himself. About
Ussolsk Uyezd the works were placed,
Just where Vychegodsk it faced.

-23-
Grigory would on no account,
As Grozny knew for sure, dirt
From under peasants' huts, the ground
Or rubbish have dug up and hurt
The settlers' feelings...Still, the town
Of Koncor, as its name did sound,
Within five years got too small.
Some twenty versts off, within call,
A solonchak explorers found.
He went to Joannes, cap in hand,
Another town on that land
To build he wished, on that account.
A fortress that the east controls,
Some thirty sazhens in the walls.

p. 21

-24-
A lot of drawings... Estimation...
The days, with preparations filled...
After the royal presentation
The town of Kerdegan was built.
Then Jacob, one Grigory's brother,
For Anikey, who was their father,
And Granddad Theodor, whose trade
His living rather decent made,
For the oprichnina's protection
To Russia's mighty monarch went
And prayed to make them, cap in hand,
Life-guards, to Joannes' satisfaction.
Besides, he ventured to pretend
To twenty versts of wasted land.

                -25-
Is not the merchant too edacious
And lust for riches? That is what
Of Strogonov the monarch thought.
The merchant, leaving his ambitions,
Under the previous conditions
Was grateful for the given land:
Much closer to heart, than fremd,
Your own holding is,- that's clear...
'The monarch, being circumspect,
Still has a relish for respect
And confidence in you, my dear!"-
So he was said; just one decade
Was given him for tax unpaid.

: -26-
Within five years all the lower
Course of the Kama stayed in peace.
All of a sudden it was over:

                p.22
Lots of Ostyak and Cheremiss
And Bashkir, Buin population,
All overfilled with indignation.
Went into battle, all resolved
Against their wildness to revolt.
Eight dozen people of Perm were beaten...
On hearing that the monarch sent
A missive letter to the land
For study. Everything was written
Quite clear. Was distinct the line
Between the war and peace.'T was fine:

-27-
"You should now live your lives with care.
You must a decent head elect
With weaponed Cossacks; volunteer
They will for Moscow. Collect
Ostyak, Vogulich population
(They like us) for assimilation.
Take with the children their wives,
Guard in the fortress their lives.
Streltsy and chainless Cossacks' leaders
Against Nogais, Votyaks will fight
And Cheremisses. Put your might
In what your duty is considered$
To traitors death must be applied,
An oath to the pacified."

-28-
Up to the Urals, on the Kama,
Joannes gave great power to men,
Quite loyal, businesslike... Much calmer
Their work made th' Emperor. And then

                p. 23
Trans-Urals' holdings promised wonders
To the economy commanders.
'T was a reward to compensate
Their work and fortitude displayed.
It was, indeed, a worthy tribute.
At the Siberian vast
Their dreamy looks the masters cast.
New lands would Strogonov contribute
To his performance. Mametkule (3)
Struck merchants, scaring them in full.

-29-
Short of the Chussovaya's waters,
On passing by the hills, he stopped.
In search of Perm and merchants' quarters
Some Moscow's tributaries dropped.
They were Ostyaks; for their religion
He gave an order to his "legion"
The captivated men to beat'
Enslave the wives and every kid.
But after the interrogation
(The captives made him feel upset)
It dawned on him: he couldn't set
Against the cannons inspiration
And arrows. The march was shut,
The Kirgiz-Kaisak envoy cut.

-30-
Informing Tsar of the invasions,
On the Siberian Cham's intrigues
And of the countless occasions
Of his relations' foul tricks'
Crestfallen, Jacob and Grigory
Were, frankly speaking, very sorry

                P. 24:
Streltsy and Cossacks couldn't be sent,
As a requital, to the land
Unless the Tsar gave his permission.
Meanwhile, in the Trans-Urals' land
To put the discord to its end
The Tsar was begged to do his mission
And take the tribute. So done,
Monocracy would have been won..

-31-
The sense, political affairs
Around the world have always had,
Is in one's doing all that clears
The way to power. They said,
In search of Joannes' high permission
The brothers (4) claimed the former mission
On the Tobol to undertake:
To build a town and to make
There iron, to construct defences,
To farm the land. The ancient wood >
Had never had a dream, so good.
The Tsar considered the expenses.
(The estimation was precise!)
He proved to be clear-eyed and wise.

-32-
The Tsar could see the roots of essence:
The task of Russian statesmanship
He saw in taking land possessions
As question number one. The grip
Of Cham Kuchum, malicious,
Embittered, greedy and ambitious,

                p.25
Who thought Siberia his land...
It was impossible to stand
Against Kuchum in the defensive:
To conquer him, intimidate
And from the land evacuate
One had to act on the offensive,
To Moscow Siberians draw...
And form the troops with th’ Russian core

                p.27
Of wild, robustious Cossacks' whirler,
The life of Cossacks and the way
Povolsky Vassya, a barge hauler,
Became Yermak, the chapter'11 say.
Let's bustle about old letters (5),
So helpful ones, as they will let us
Learn of the origin by birth,
And so on, and so forth...
They'll tell us of the volunteers
(Yermak himself at their head)
From far away Yermak had led
For backing peaceful marketeers.
His plan enraged the Tsar a lot...
That is the second chapter's plot.

                Chapter II

                The Sowing         
-1-
Great Russia's south-west direction
With outskirts of spacious steppe
Had been for many years attraction
For every ranging Cossack chap.
(As "Cossack" means, in the translation,
"A nomad, for gratification
For fighting ready, who is fond
Of robbery, a vagabond")
The ones, in villages residing,
Became policemen, so far,
And in the service of the Tsar
Patrolled borders. They were hiding
From fires and the robbers' gangs
Their beloved homes' flanks.
p.28

-2-
The others couldn't stand control:
Like steppe birds, flying in the sky,
Preferred to go for a stroll,
Or fish, or in the sun ti lie
On rivers' banks; were fond of hunting,
From time to time a blow planting
On someone's face;
With freedom drunk,
Those Cossacks weren't ever funk:
Robbed caravans or marketeers...
Decided Terrible Ivan:
To name the Cossacks from Ryazan,
To all misdoings volunteers,
After the place that brought them fame:
The Don gave Cossacks their name.

-3-
The Nogai people, greatly scared,
Crimeans, the fearful Azov...
The north-Ukrainians, not afeard,
Went to the Don for getting off
The bough. Cossacks and policemen
Ran down to the Don. All these men
Had managed to commit a crime
And, being guilty, had to try
To hide. Accepted the newcomers
The Don - the shelter for the ganged,
Just organized not to be hanged,
With atamans, not decent farmers,
From Grozny's power released.
Their number every day increased.

-4-
Some were by honest service bound,
Some were unfaithful, mean and false,
Some with unfading clory crowned,
Some shameless. Joannes' recalls
Were frequent answers to Cham's wailing
Or to Taurida merchants' railing
In tsarist messages - (a dash)
A thorn in politicians' flesh.
The Nogai messengers and others
Were greatly scared by the fame
That fanned the proud Cossacks' name
And made them pray to their fathers.
The southern borders were a threat
To peace, to Joannes' regret.

-5-
To Nogai people Joannes wrote
That very often were enj ailed
His fighters (so ran the note).
Whose mission frequently was failed.
He told to have the Cossacks captured
And sent to him. He further lectured,
Instructing merchants, dear guests,
To be more careful in quests
When their way is full of danger:
"You'll never learn the robber's name;
Who's being robbed is all the same
To him. Beware of the stranger!"
That's all the Tsar could do at times
In order to prevent the crimes.

-6-
Was not the tsarist consolation
To Cham politically correct?
Meanwhile, the highest presentation
Occasionally to direct
To Cossacks was the Tsar's ambition;
And to the rebels' disposition
The tsarist stolnik( 3) often came      ,
Ivan Murashkin was his name.
He with his troop subdued the riot.
Some of the Cossacks, bunching fists,
Along the Volga, quite like beasts,
Spread out. Others still admired
Misdoings. Horrors, like a flood,
Sank the Nogais in smoke and blood.

-7-
Cham's (8) capital was then subverted,
A choultry - to ruins doomed....
Dead bones, in the graves deserted,
Lay, in the robbery exhumes...
After the bandits' cruel action,
With a luxuriant extraction
(Quite an intolerable prize
In the humane and civil eyes),
They sank in orgies, dissipation
And feasts, evoking disgust
To murders, flooded with blood-lust,
In each descending generation
Of the nomads. Included they
Yermak, the son of Timophey

                -8-
A hero is often grown
By chance, and often he is worth
The people's worship, though unknown
Were all his relatives by birth.
Yermak's grandfather, still renowned,
A townsman, to Suzdal bound,
Not rich. Alyonin was his name.
p.32
Grigory's son. He had to claim
To be a cabman. Afanassy
Left for Vladimir with his set
To earn his living. Soon he had
To change his way of life, trespassing
The way of thieves and outlaws:
A Murom thief - that's what he was.

                -9-
"Tovar ischee! "{ 6} (The robbers' reason
Still, on committing much offence,
"Tovarischee" ( 7) were sent to prison.
With them was Afanassy. Hence
He soon escaped with his relation
To Yuryevets. The situation
Made Afanassy change his name:
Pvolsky - that's what it became.
For better life, like many others,
Sons Rodion and Timophey
Approached the Chussovaya. (They
Now called themselves "Povolsky brothers").
They came to Strogonov's estate -
That was the place where they stayed.

-10-
The family's perpetuation
Was Dmitry who was Luca's son.
As for the younger generation
Of Timophey, a lot was done:
Gavrila, Frol, besides Vassily.
Was none of them knock-kneed or silly.
The one who bore Vassily's name
For ever gained immortal fame.
Since childhood being on the road'
So smart among the village guys,
With cheer in his sparkling eyes-

                p. 33
The Chussovaya with its load
Resembled the temper of the boy
When threw the load like a toy.

-11-
Since childhood he had been a bargeman:
The Volga and the Kama teams
Knew him; although not a large man'
He worked as cook; against the streams
To pull the barks was, too, his duty,
And his utensil, big and sooty,
The trivet gave the boy his name.
Another version: quite the same
It is in the pronunciation
Of th' Volga's peoples' common word,
Which means "sand stone" - that is what
Hints at the hobbler's destination:
To grind great Russia's foes till
They turn into the flower pill.

-12-
We meet him in the ancient letters
Under the nickname of Yermak;
The name of German we can get as
His name .(It's Remezov's remark).
Whether he was Vassily, German
Or Yermolai, it's rather common
To recognize him as Yermak:
In readers' minds this name is stuck. ,
A bogatyr, well-built, crisp-haired,
Broad-shouldered.. .Really, his chest
Was broad enough to fill his breast
With power. With his black beard,
He was a man of middle height,
Straight-nosed, handsome and light-eyed.

p. 34

-13-
With no feeling of reproach
He left his work, began his drive.
The Don, not easy to approach,
Was in his dreams. A chainless life
Still beckoned him. Patrolling borders,
He made a foreman, giving orders
(Kachalinsk village made its choice).
Soon, with a gang of dashing boys,
He lefthis service for varmint,
Full of adventures robber's life.
The Volga -river let him strive
With poverty. This time the garment
Of robbers' ataman he tried
To demonstrate his other side.

-14-
Sunk in the robbery and slaughter,
Yermak still had four close friends.
They went with him through fire and water:
Mescheryakov Matvey, they said,
Nikita Pan, Mikhailov Jacob,
Ivan Koltso (we have to make up
The latter's portrait; Tsar Ivan
Considered him as umber one
Among them all. The tsarist sentence
Was death. The Strogonovs then sent
A missive letter to withstand
Their crimesn(as they had made acquaintance
Of their deeds). To serve their land
They were invited, at the end.
-15-
The missive letter remonstrated
Against the Cossacks doing wrong
And soothingly expostulated
With them for having so long

                p. 35
Evoked Christians' detestation'
Suggesting that the occupation
Like theirs, linked to constant risk,
Should bring the people, so brisk,
To save the Tsar, patrol the borders:
The merchants had a lot of land
And fortresses, but kept in hand
Few soldiers to fulfil their orders...
"Your service would reclaim your fault;
By God and Tsar you'll be absolved".
                16-
Unfortunately, their letter
Contained the parting words. Alas!
Had gone Grigory to a better
World with his brother Jacob. Thus,
Semyon (son of Aniky-father's),
The children of the elder brothers
Maxim, Nikita, were the last
Of Strogonovs; the rest had passed
Away. To live with Uncle in concord
Nikita couldn't. He didn't like
His younger cousin... 'T was a strike
For good Yermak, whose mind was conquered
By all the news he learnt that night
And pondered over in his mind.

-17-
On hearing it Yermak shed tears,
Before the comrades bared his head.
(In speech warm-heartedness appears
In great excitement). So he said:
"Dear atamans! My Cossack-brothers 1
we cannot live' like many others,
In Astrakhan - we'll pass for thieves.
Kazan would bring us lots of grieves,
As there Grozny's on the throne.
We, too, might for the Yaik make...
This way is long, and it would take
Us long. In Moscow we'll be thrown
To different prisons, one by one...
The question is: What should be done?

                -18-
"Let's go, comrades, to the merchants,
The Stroganovs, to their salt mines.
We aren't promised stakes or tortures.
For decent service clear your minds!
We might get rid of this disfavour
In honest battles, fighting braver
Than hostile soldiers. Let us take
The banner, for conscience' sake,
Over the Volga hold it higher,
Call for the battles a brigade..."
His speech a great impression made:
Five hundred men had a desire
To join Yermak, and forty more,
Touched by the leader to the core.

-19-
The army reached the Chussovaya;
'T was ready for the battle work.
The atamans, full of desire
To stand for Christians like a rock,
The ones who promised decent service
And those trusting their promise,
Who took the leader's words on trust,
Incorporated, at long last.
So, virulent Mirza Bekbely
Had gathered seven hundred men,
With his Voguliches began
To burn and rob.. .In the blind alley

p. 38
Benetted, thrilling, lay... His sight
Took from the infidels their might.

-20-
Their progress laid the foundation
Of topmost victories, and piece
Got to denote vertebration.
In the meantime Yermak, with his
Whole heart, was training all his army
For further tasks, like their mummy.
Two years at the merchants' made
Him favourite with his whole brigade.
His cleverness, .his vigour, daring,
His firmness and a leader's sight
Conjoined in him. And, glad to find
Such a voivod, each other cheering,
The Strogonovs exclaimed:"Thank God!
Be Russia's aim Siberia got!"

-21-
To undertake that noble mission
Their fathers many years before
Had quested for theTsar's permission.
The children didn't any more
Take care of what they should have taken.
During the reign of Joannes to waken
The Tsar's suspicions and his spite
Could an idea of the kind.
As to the border-line extentions...
The only thought in Joannes' mind
Got the suspicious king to find
(Well, hell is paved with good intentions!)
Faults with the foreright merchants, thus,
Unlikely to survive. (Alas!)...

p. 39

-22-
The merchants, burnt with inspiration,
(Semyon, Nikita and Maxim)
Were busy with the preparation
For the illegal and extreme
March. Many Tatars, Russians, Germans
And Lithuanians (some comments:
They would have lived their whole lives
With their children, their wives,
By Ulus Nogais captivated),
Three hundred people, all in all,
Were ransomed, further to enroll,
Half dead and pained, but animated, -
Eight hundred people, fed and clad,
And forty, by the merchants led.

-23-
Yermak, in charge of all his host,
Was strict, but loved by his brigade.
Ivan Koltso (he could make boast
Of being fearless) was made
The second after the commander-
in-chief, with Cossack captains, under
Them sotniks, men, and so on,
(All were elected on the Don).
The merchants all of them provided
With ammunition, clothes, foods,
With hand-held guns and victuals, boots,
With arquebuses. They were guided
By their conductors. They could use
Pack horses, metaphrasts, canoes.

-24-
Besides, a Christian priest was needed
In order to perform the rites.
The parting service... When he did it

                p. 40
He gave his blessing to the fights
To come. And later get his blessing
The vow of virtue. Then, embracing
The Strogonovs for the last time,
Yermak uncurled (we want a rhyme!)
His hair, heard the last instruction:
"March on, Yermak, Siberia waits!
Unlock Siberian gates!
See infidel Kuchum's destruction!"
The golden dawn on forests lay...
It was the first September day.

-25-
Then, on the day when with his host
Yermak left Perm, the guileful prince
Of Pelym gathered all his most
Ferocious Vogulich "kins"
For wreak. His peaceful mask was thrown
Off. The destruction seeds'd been sawn
By him from then onward. He burnt
A lot of settlements that weren't
Far from Cherdyn, Ussolye's saltpans
And mills with grain. The fierce hawk
Destroyed the shelter, slaughtered stock
And captivated wives and orphans.
In Barbar's rancor, cruel, hard,
The infidel drank Christian blood.

-26-
The Kama's banks had never known
A desolation of the kind,
And Russia's enemies had thrown
Away all doubts: no one might
Ensure protection. Full of fears,
Addressed themselves the marketers
To Joannes for help. They asked the Tsar

                p. 41

To send them soldiers. So far
The Strogonovs had kept the borders
In peace, as they'd been strong enough;
The things had not been so tough,
Vogulich men hadn't caused disorders.
The Tsar some information got:
Pelepelitsyn, the voivod,

                -27-
Informed the Tsar: the marketers
Could not defend the borders, since
They were attacked by wild and fierce
Pelym's barbarian cruel prince;
They hadn't taken a permission
From Joannes, but made a free decision
To send nine hundred Cossacks to
Siberia (hitherto
TheTsar'd controlled every action
Of all his partials. The King
Replied: "the robbers who had been
Worth death receive for the protection
Of borders arms. It was your will'
And here your treachery We feel."

                -28-
"Perhaps, you don't have control
Over the borders any more.
Why should you choose another goal
And tease Kuchum?
Well, therefore
The order: to surpress the riot,
Voguliches, Ostyaks to quiet
The Cossacks now must return.
(Make reparation for your wrong!)
They all must not live on the border:
You have to leave one hundred men.

p. 42
You say, the raids are frequent - then
Here is another stringent order:
Send all the others to Cherdyn.
The Cossacks aren't to be seen!"

-29-

If you do not fulfil the order
And leave them at your place, We shan't
Say it again, We'll have to murder
Them all as traitors and command
To have them hanged; and you'll be out
Of favour: you were not allowed
To let Vogulich and Pelym
Invade the land. You'll not redeem
Your decent names. In case of trouble,
If people suffer and the land
Is robbed again to no end,
The government will have to double
These measures, if you, as before,
Pick on Kuchum at useless war.

-30-

The tsarist rageful resolution
Concussed the merchants, so that
Semyon dreamt of an execution,
And on the block he saw his head.
Onichkov brought the tsarist order.
The future victims of a murder
Expected from his squinted eye
A choice: who is the first to die?
The soldier looked into the distance:
"It isn't easy to fulfil
The order, as Yermak is still
Too far.With Heavenly assistance
The Tsar might temper justice with
His mercy (hope for the myth!)

P, 43

-31
A hero's life is quite uneven...
Yermak was waiting in the wings.
I would describe his deeds, and even,
In a true manner, little things.
All his extraordinary features
Were dominant.(Distinguished creatures
Are all extraordinary0. as for
His common features, people saw
Them tall in their imagination.
It's very difficult to find
The simple truth, which is behind
The rumours' veil. Falsification
Is awful. Let us have faith in
The chronicles, like Karamzin.

p. 45
This chapter tells us all about
The heroes' trip and its extremes,
Between the ridges, up and out,
Across the chill of surgy streams;
How they put up the defenses;
Of victims of the first offences;
Of the solution of the signs;
Of Tatar prnces; of precise
And cruel captives' inquisitions
And of the war, in which Yermak
Attacked Kuchum and had good luck:
Despite unequal force divisions,
He gained Siberia, but
Aspersed the land with Russian blood.

Chapter III

The Aspersion

-1-
Up the tempestuous Chussovaya
The Cossacks floated four days.
The rocky mountains seemed higher,
When over straits they found their ways.
Upstream directing their boats,
Forworn, with their heavy loads,
The Cossacks pulled into the shore
Quite frequently, and once they saw
A hanging stone, large, of thirty
And five sagenes, both long and height.
'T was found at the place that might
Have been their camp. 'T was huge and dirty.
(Yermak had pointed to that site).
It had a breach of a man's height.

p.46

-2-
Descending the unlighted antre
With lots of isolated bays
They, scared, still went on to enter
Its loud silence, finding ways
Below; astonishing proportions
Surprised them. On and off their motion
Were stopped. And in the torches' light
They saw the walls. It was a sight
To see. 'T was a delineation
Of wondrous beasts. Right from the wall
A tiger's face representation
Grew up' astonishing them all
Its eyes, saphires in the centre'
Were keeping watch over the antre....
And farther, in the silver grot,
Someone's imagination caught
The moment of hunters' chevy
A javelin'd been just thrown right
At the chased deer's sunken side.
"The blow went home?' - The echo's wavy,
Reflected from the antre's wall.
A black wild beast, two-horned and tall,
Was in its upper part depicted.
Two hundred men had supper, and
They went to sleep, by doze bent,
And slept, upon the stone inflicted.
From then onward the stone was famed:
After Yermak the stone was named.

-3-
The Cossacks managed to approach
The Chussovaya's upper course.
The lower's depth with splashing roach
Changed into shallows, of course.
The shallow waters, springily gliding
Overboard, were not providing
The needed raise. To make full use
Sails were removed from the canoes.
(Yermak had given such an order)
To make a dam. The water raised
Because the shallow was replaced
By a barrage. Along the broader
And deeper stream the boats passed:
First large, then medium, small at last.

-4-
The Russians, known for astuteness,
The Chussovaya having passed,
Could make full use of their acuteness
To reach the Silver river fast.
On having strengthened their forces
They followed the river's courses.
Along the Serebryanka they
Reached the Siberian way.
On landing they threw up the ground
To make earth walls, and on the spot
Fortifications there were got.
The town of Kokuy around
Was built. Through Zharovlya, and on
Tagil, Tura were soon bygone.

-5-
From Kamen (it is in the Urals)
Yermak looked at the distant North.
All China, where Buddhism fuel
The ancient East, Siberia, forth,
The northern lands of mystic Asians,
Up to the ocean waves' migrations -
His sight seemed to absolb it all.
It was the place, in which could fall
From Russian hand the Third Empire

                p. 48
Of the Islam, the true support,
The banner of the Golden Horde,
The Russian scepter would retire
The source of yoke. It's in store....
To deeds Commander leads his corps.

                -6-
Siberian tsardom.. .A deserted
Frontier of all Siberia, vast,
Unpopulated (people asserted
That in its vastitude one just
Could see wild fowl). The rare rangers
Crapped out when they noticed strangei
To hide away from sassy eyes.
On the Tura, we might surmise,
More people, not nomadic, settled.
They farmed the land. The local tsar
(Well, prince) - his name was Yepancha -
Possessed Turinsk. His army rattled
Not beasts, but people: the prince's band
At welcomed Cossacks arrows sent.

                -7-
As for the Cossacks, they just fired
A volley from the guns; it was
Their present to the Tatars. Quiet
Recoil effused from pants, because
They hadn't ever seen a rifle.
(The sight was not at all delightful).
The only ones who hadn't fled
Were those who had fallen dead.
The fight was short. They soon demolished
Tbetpwn of Yepancha, and then
Not far from Tavda captured an
Informant,Tauzak, abolished

                p. 49
His secrecy. He, to survive,
Betrayed Kuchum and stayed alive.

                -8-
"Siberia is a town
Which stands on the Irtysh, where Tsar
Kuchum is living. His renown
Is great as, being blind, quite far
Kuchum can see with heart. In fear
He keeps his men who gather near
Their tsar: the soldiers, fond of fight,
And princes, on the other side,
For paying tribute, and well-known
Prince Mametkule: he is the best
Of warriors, as all suggest
In our tsardom." Here was shown
An arquebus to Tausak:
The prince was cheered by Yermak.

                -9-
"Kuchum has lots of ammunition;
His army's great, but he has not
Your bows of thunder. On condition
That he had got them, he'd have got
All lands". Yermak interrogated
The prince. (the metafrast translated).
The major questions were: with whom
What kind of commerce had Kuchum.
"He has commercial relations
With Bukhara. They bring him goods
And take his firs. His angry moods
Are frequent: he has no patience
For alien gods. The Islamite
Implants his faith: he finds it right.

p. 50

-10-
Yermak in his interrogation
Asked Tausak to tell the way
To find Kuchum. "Signification
Have rivers. To Siberia, say,
You'll rise along the Tavda. Farther
It will inpour the river-mother.
(It's the Tobol). You get along
To the Irtysh and further on.
Siberia is a little higher.
Yermak agreed. (Got to the core)
And didn't restrain him any more
Because Yermak was not a liar.
(Besides, what Tausak could say
Might hammer Cham Kuchum away).

                -11-
Magicians, shamans, prophets, bumming
In all the squares, used to cry,
Vaticinating:"Christians' re coming!
The whole stardom is to die!"
They claimed to give interpretation
Of every sign. Imagination
Drew in the ancient wizards' minds
The meaning of the given signs.
They fed the towns' population
With rumours of an air stad
With Christian churches; full of blood,
With the Irtysh's waves' vibration,
The sparks from the Tobolsky Cape
Were shed like caviar escape.
                -12-
All those signs came to appear
Before Kuchum, and, when he came
To power, were full of fear

                P. 52
His subjects 'cause the signs became
Too numerous, came in succession.
One sign produced a great impression:
From the Irtysh, foredone to death,
A wolf was dragging, short of breath.
The wolf was white; a dog was running
From the Tobol, about to dash.
The black greyhound in a flash
(Quite like the Russian host) was stunning
The wolf. The fight was rather short.
The wolf - Kuchum - to death was fought.

                -13-
That's why Kuchum was so scared,
And Tausak, to feed his awe,
With him all "Russian secrets" shared
Without adding any more:
"Their warriors are strong. Their bows
Spit fire at the Russians' foes
And thunder like a thunderstorm
Without arrows. That form
Through holes in the bards of fighters.
Such wounds are painful. They can sting
Through military harness, bring
With them blood flesh like hungry biters,
Afflicting bones on the way
From chest to back" - so he did say.

-14-
As usual, Yermak pinned hopes
On arquebuses. Their burr
The hive of Tatars on the slopes
Of the Tobol'd begun to stir..
And they could not return: a load
Of valiants - eight hundred.. .(Note:
The heroes withstood the force

                p. 54
Of scores of thousands). Of course,
The foes, though in a jumble,
Overpowered.(Remark:
The Russians' leader was Yermak-
He was an excellent example.)
The Tatars whom they didn't kill
Were put to flight by rifles' peal.

                -15-
The Tatars turned around - prevented
Yermak from going ahead:
An overlap was once invented -
Some chains across the riverbed
Of the Tobol. Sophisticated
In stratagems, Yermak created
Thick brushwood bundles.They were clad
Like scarecrows. Then he said:
"Before the Tatars have exposed
The little deception, land the men
Right on the bank". They did so. Then
The foe's rear was enclosed.
The Tatars, suddenly attacked,
With cries "Urus, Shaitan!" retract...

-16-
Yermak removed the chains and farther
Went on, approaching Kuchum.
Kuchum was brave. His eyes were rather
Unseeing. Still the lightless tomb
Replaced his sight by inner vision.
Despising prophets' premonition,
Despite predictions, as you see,
True to his faith and tsardom, he
Gave Mametkule ten thousand people
To beat the Russians. After that
In the felled trees his men beset
                p. 56
The way to the Isker. That triple
Position helped them all to reach
Near Chuvashy Hill a niche.

-17-
That time one couldn't see the whole
Of cavalry. They quickly moved
To Babassan (a Tatar hole).
Prince Mametkule planned that his hooved
Detachments should attack the foe.
The Cossacks managed to foreknow
The Tatars frontal fierce attack
The Russians trenched around to check
For greater density of fire.
'T was closer to the Tobol.
Three days the Tatars tried to roll...
The Cosacks forced the foes' retire.
The Tatars were defeated, still
They weren't scared by rifles' peal.

-18-
That narrow victory had cleared
The way t' the mouth of the Tobol.
The Cossacks, though, were quite feared
By Dolgy Krutoyar: the fall
Was dangerous up to the junction
With the Irtysh. Karachy's (7 ) function
Was to attack them sending hail
Of arrows. They didn't fail
To reach (at last!) Karachy's quarter
(Next to Karachinskoye Lake)
And in the second battle take
The town of Karachy, slaughter
Its slant defenders, gain the boot:
The tsarist treasure, honey loot.

p. 58

-19-
The Cossacks, floating in boats
Toward new battles, were soon caught
By Tatar horses' lissome loads
On the Irtysh. They reached them, fought.
The Tatars came from everywhere,
And so numerous that there
Was no room for passing by
Through walls of arrows. That's wl|y *
The Cossacks, having quickly landed
The bank and with a loud flight
Dispersed the Tatars, won the fight,
Were deeply wounded, cut and blundered,
As independence, even for such
Barbarians, cost extremely much.

-20-
The Tatars noticed in battles
That their foes were very few.
It is the strength that always settles
The battle's result, as Tatars knew.
The sly commanders ( 8) didn't slumber:
They planned to crush the foes in number.
In the felled trees (Chuvashy Hill)
The Horde were having their meal
And their talk. The fires lighted
The Tatars zooming like a swarm...
Yermak, a symbol of a storm,
Was floating toward them, guided
By tiredness, as people guessed,
He took Atik-Murzy (9) to rest.

-21-
He couldn't sleep, alarmed, excited...
Up the Irtysh shone the moon-glade,
All shivering; glum thoughts were biting
His mind. The autumn darkness made
Him sick at heart. Yermak was seated...
Not far from him the camp was heated
By fires. All Chuvashy Hill
Was up; a mullah's sad appeal
Was coming, praying for the winning
Before tomorrow's fierce fight,
And full of cold skyline light
Was fading, hiding in the evening.
The coming mortal battle might
The fate of all the march decide.

-22-
The Cossacks' camp was sleepless now,
(Like children in the face of Dad)
The ataman was to allow
Them to begin the council: that
Would pull the Cossacks all together.
Yermak began his speech to gather
Them. In the teeth of death they all
Were equal. Every Cossack's call
Should've been considered, estimated...
"And let God be your judge!" Meantime
Stood up the strengthless: "It's high time
We came back home: impregnated
Our boats are.. As such,
Their strength is twenty times as much!"

-23-
The Cossacks, quarrelling, were making
Much noise and cheer; some of them
Were eager to come home, taking
The loot; the bravest of the stem
Persuaded them: "Come on: the autumn
Is freezing in the rivers water.
Where should we fly? The coming frost
                p. 62

In snows. What about the oath
That we have given to the ones
Who trust us? Can we break what once
Bid fair? Even he, who's loath,
Is no Judas. We must stay
And fight the Tatars, anyway.

-24-
Ivan Koltso was so fierce,
He got his jaws quite tight and said:
"Yerema, say!" They were all ears.
Yermak set back his shoulders; "That
Is where the fight'11 be accepted.'
9His hand, trust out, was directed
T'the battlefield). "God be with us!
The hour's struck. Let old life pass
Away. Let the notorious living
Be gone. We cannot even say
In short what it was like. Let's pray
To God for heavenly forgiving
Us all. Let's die for better fame!
We're Cossacks with the hearts in flame!"

-25-
Moreover, none of us is craven -
We Cossacks brethren are in arm
And it does not become the graven
From granite men to wait in calm
And stuffy feather-beds for dying:
From time eternal we've been trying
In ceaseless fights to overcome
Scald infidels. It has become
The Cossacks' noble tradition;
And our weapon isn't strength,
But faith in Christ. Throughout the length
Of our lives it'll be the mission
Of all of us. God be with us!
Be our fame remembered, thus.

                -26-
The Cossacks' prayer was devout...
The sunrise beaming rays occurred
To light the day before't was out:
October, the twenty-third.
Clean clothes were put on for ever...
The Cossacks, ready to endeavour
To meet their fate, just tried to pass
To the felled trees: 'God be with us!"
The foes at once raised arrow clouds,
But all in vain: it was too far,
They caused light wounds, but not ajar.
In their turn, the Cossacks' rounds
From arquebuses, cannons, made
Huge breaches, and the harm was great.

                -27-
The Tatars shot a minor round
From their ambuscade. Alas!
In answer, Russian cannons' sound,
Flight after flight, brought damage. Thus,
It was a fortunate manoeuvre;
The Cossacks ploughed, like a groover,
The Tatars' field, who, caught, entrapped,
Were greatly damaged and clapped.
To find escape they had to scatter
Their splashing in three different spots
And, hand to hand, they crossed the swords.
(There rifles couldn't do any better),
Attacked the Cossacks, tried to smash,
Went into close combat. Splash!

-28-
The reeky field is full of splashes
Of Tartars' shrill and Russians"'Huck!'
With savoury blows bloody flesh is,
Like sparkles, thrown around. Yermak,
Together with Koltso, are leading
The men.The hero-giants 're feeding
The soldiers' valor. Their lead
Urge Lithuanians to beat
The fierce foes from arquebuses
By firing point-blank. From flanks
The Germans load guns. The ranks
Make no difference, like classes.
The Tatars, thinned by Russians' gun,
To the felled trees from foes run.

-29-
The Cossacks soon forced their entrance
To the felled trees. Then, by the will
Of God, a miracle - death sentence
T' the foes - was performed. Until
The end of that dread battle

Yermak was lucky: he could settle
In foes' souls fear of death -
His might was crushing. Russian breath
Raised up in foes consternation:
Their army, twenty times as much
As their Russian foes, as such,
Was crushed, and their petrification
Was aggravated by the blurt:
"Prince Mametkule is badly hurt!"

                -30-
His ears heard that quiet murmur
Like thunder in a thunderstorm.
The fates' invisible performer
Instilled flat spin in th' hostile form,
As if the wind stirred up the thicket.
Like the Ostyaks, their neighbours, wicked,
In great despair of the loss,
In search of rescue, they, of course,
Were running to and fro. The other
Way round, like a lightning flash,
The Russians' hope, strong and fresh,
Revived. The Tatars, moving farther,
Displayed the open rear to rule
Up the lrtysh with Mametkule.

                -31-
The old Cham who had been calling ,
Mohammad from the mount to kill
The Christians learnt about the falling
Of all his troops, could not conceal
His tears.. Still, one's life is precious:
He only took part of his treasures
From the Siberian vast..
(The throne and the scepter passed
Away). And further, the expansion,
The endless steppe of great Ishym,
Where he'd gone with all his team
(His suite), concealed the circumvention.
The Cossacks, guarded, slept three days,
Inhumed the dead to their graves.

-32-
One hundred seven (commiseration!) -
That was the victory's dread price.

p. 66
Their names in the commemoration
Book in Tobolsky church suffice
All Russian hearts. The Cossacks, trying
To hide the tears, couldn't stop crying
To farewell the heroes, still
And dead after Chuvashy Hill.
Their heroism bears resemblance
To greatest battles of the world:
The Ob and the Tobol were whirled
Under the Russian rule and semblance.
Yermak the Urals left behind
To win the right new lands to find.

p.69
This chapter is about the Judgement
Of God that wreathedthe Cossack with
The laurels of great fame, enlargement
Of Tartars’ capital (the chief
Headquarters of Yermak, or former
Sibir-Isker). (We need a comma!)
The threat of hunger and desease,
The gift from own sunjects (this
Is precious, as they had been strangers
And paid the tribute to the gorge;
The Far North marches, striking chanes
And grieves of losses; every dodge
Of foes; all about the sprouts,
Vague in the past like in the clouds.
               

 The Sprouts

                -1-
The Cossacks’d buried their fallen –
Paid their last respect to them.
They floated three days, crestfallen.
Sibir, the town of old Cham,
Which opened before them, neared
The river of Irtysh, adhered
A slop (well, from the riverside
‘T was steep), three walls, a trench… They might
Defend the town. Some deserted
And lonely houses (raw brick
Or wood0. They were quite homesick.
It was so quiet, unallotted
For life, as if the town had
Died out. They were very sad.

                -2-
The Tatars’d hidden, umbuscaded,
Yermak suspected. People thought
Them so sly, sophisticated…
So, not to make a poor shot,
Yermak, in military science
Shrewd, to resort to an appliance
Was forced: he quickly sent his spies
And told them to be precise
On their mission. They reported
To him, on their coming back,
After the suburbs’ thorough chech,
That all the town was deserted.
The people’d left the town. When 
And where – was unknown then.

                -3-
Yermak denuded on his bare
Neck his baptismal cross and kissed
The simple cross before his fair,
Thriumphant entrance (or, at least,
Great entrance0 to Siberia’s soul,
Like Russian history in whole.
The Cossacks’ brotherhood obtained
Great treasures in that town: gained
Gold, silver, brilliant precious stones,
Rich sable furs and eastern swords,
Bukhara’s gold- cloth. The rewards
(Yermak decreed;”No one owns
The whole!”), piled up, like a dike,
Were taken share and share alike.
                -4-
Why did the Cossacks look so beaten?
The Tatars’ stardom had been gained…
All the provision had been eaten
As in Siberia they’d stayed
Threedays. The winter which was near,
Severe frost, the coming fear
Of fierce starvation – those were
Nightmares that scared them to the core.
Day number four was lucky, though:
Bohar, the Prince of the Ostyaks
To gether with his host, rucks
Of food, presented with a low
Salute, were sure to be Yermak’s
If he defended the Ostyaks.

                -5-
Bohar Proclaimed: “Be our defender!
Aren’t we your friends and comrades, too?
Chuvashy Hill proved: to surrender
To you’s the only thing to do.
I’ve told my people: there is no
Defeating Cossack fighters. So
Take our freedom and the gifts!
Behold your sword1 Make all its lifts
Be our cernuous heads’ protection!”
Yermak was gracious to the prince.
He sais:”Do not be scared, since
We are your seniors. Every action
Of your persistant foes is
To meet the Cossacks’ swords’ release!”

                -6-
From the Tobol, Irtysh the Tatars
Were following the Ostyaks:
The heads of families with clutters
Led wives and children. By Yermak’s
Strict order all the heads were sworn in
(Without Tsar’s permission). Longing
For simpleness, without lots
Of fuss and trouble, to the yourts.
They were dismissed. When he elected
To list them. His new subjects were
Laid under tribute, from the sore
Vexations thouroughly protected.
And to the Cossacks it was banned
Those unchristened to offend.

                -7-
To please God by prayers, fasting,-
That’s      what Yermak longed for. He wished
He could preserve his everlasting
Inside in purity and leashed
His flesh. The bravest in his host,
IvanKkoltso was, though, the most
Deep-rooted sinner. Still, he was
Aware of the law, because
He wasn’t any longer graceless.
Yermak set the example, plain,
As though he’d been born again,
Was faithful to his vow of chasteness,
Convinced the Cossacks and the rest:
Pray, fight, keep firmness in your chest!

                -8-
The former ataman had patience,
Approved himself a hero, sticked
To all his iron regulations
(The latters were extremely strict!)
 The wise-head, born to be a leader,
      Prevented all (attention, reader!0
From evil thoughts and evil deeds
The seeders of the Christian seeds,
The ones who’d struggled for survival,
Gained the world’s end, who’d spilt in mud
Their defeated foes’ blood,
Did not oppress the humble rival:
They weren’t allowed to keep on
Teasing the weak by right of th’ strong.

                -9-
He didn’t see in Tatars’ faceless,
Wild savages, tried to implant
In their vandal souls, faithless
And rude, the law, in their slant
Barbaric eyes the faith. To brothers-
In-arm (he loved them more than fathers),
He always was extremely strict:
The old chronicles depict
Examples of ruthless decimation
Of friends, who’d broken the rule
For lust. It was the only tool
To make the Tatars’ violation
Impossible. It was, besides,
Instructive, and it stuck in minds.

                -10-
In the Siberian northern,
Vague land, without losing grasp

Of arms, he dreamt of doing more than
It had been done. With growing rasp
He lived in peace. Thesituation
Forced his standby. The aspiration
Of princes of Vogulih kins,
Prince Ashberday’s and prince Suclim’s
Their dream of naturalization
Came true, and they were charged to pay
Fur tribyte; as for ashberday,
He swore. The Cossack population
Admired him. Soon he was made
A guide in every Cossacks’ raid.

                -11-
However vital is the daily
Routine, the Cossacks, as they thought,
Disliked their living; not so gaily
They did their work:Yermak was bored
When picking details: gathering sables
(It was the tribute0, for the tables
Fish catching, hunting in the woods…
In breadless places those foods
Remained the only stuff for eating.
(severe Siberian frosts
Make food important :here it costs
A lot). The spring, fierce olds completing,
Was to begin in sixteen weeks,
In April, so to speak, to fix.

                -12-
Accustomed to the peaceful silence
Of wintering in Isker-Sibir,
The Cossacks often made a harmless
Far sally ( every bogatyr
Was quite a skillful catcher, trusty.
They didn’t escape a danger. … nasty
And cold was that December day
On Abalatsky lake, when they
About the fire, on the snow,
Pitched up a tent and, all in sweat,
(Their team of twenty people had
Been fishing all day long, although
They didn’t have any guards to keep
Watch over them, they went to sleep.

                -13-
Meanwhile, not far from theirunguarded
Night’s lodging Mametkule (no sore
Did trouble him) didn’t drift: he guarded
Their sleep; they didn’ t any more
Feel anything. The cruel foe
Fordid them all. No one could go
Away. To get revenge Yermak
Drew up with them at Abalak.
Till night he cut the Tatars’ wholes.
As for the Cossacks who haddied
In quiet sleep without fight
Cham’s graveyard rested their souls.
The forest where it was done
Ws on the Cape of Sauskan.

                -14-
In spring (Siberian rivers
Were all in flood) yermak received
A Tatar prince. To his believers
He told a lot. The table achieved
Its swing. The visitor was treated
To mell. In the meantime hhe bleated:
“Not far, a hundred versts away,
On the Vagai there is a stay
Of mametkule;
 He’s wondering there
In a wolf pack with alfaquis
And soldiers”. “The secret is
Much more important than the share
Of forces,- thought Yermak to pull
Six scores to capture Mametkule.

                -15-
The crept upon the camping-ground
Of Mametkule (they moved at night,
At unawares). There they found
The sleeping… Many Tatars died,
Though Mametkule was not then murdered –
He was just captured. It was ordered
To keep the infidel alive
And, moved by a triumphant drive,
They dragged the prince – the Tatar foe-
Before the ataman. The one
Who’d cut their friends (it had been done
By sly deception); who’d felt no
Grace for the Russians, was entrapped,
Revenged on, in prison clapped.

                -16-
Prince Mametkule’s abomination
To his arrest made him feel sad.
Yermak was mild in consolation,
Regarded him as brother, fed
Him better than the rest, as though
He were his guest and not his foe.
As for the Cossacks, they had got
Astringent order not to hurt
The prince, aspersed from top to toe
With Russian blood. It wasn’t wreak:
Yermak, with patience, really big,
Did honour to the captive, though
The prince was guarded sternly, for
It was his pledge of peace and war.

                -17-
A war without information
About the foe’s a barren scheme.
Yermak’s proficient infiltration
Bore fruit: his spies conveyed to him:
To Cham Kuchum it was a blow
Quite fell (he could endure it no):
The capture of Prince Mametkule
]Had shot him dead, quite like a bull.
He came across another evil:
Seidyak, the son of Bekbulat,
Killed by Kuchum, was out for blood,
Revengeful, eager for retrieval…
With his Uzbeks he went to war
From Bukhara to tie the score.

                -18-
Besides, Karachy with his forces
Betrayed Kuchum because he camped
Between the taiga river sources:
TheTara and the Kosma; stamped
The Lyma lands – his camping-ground
At the lakeshore. Kuchum, when found
That out, tore his hair. His eyes,
Though blind, streamed tears, and his cries
Were quite disconsolate. He groaned:
“The one who’d lost the grace of God
Is sure to lose in lifea lot;
He is to lose all he has owned:
His friends and princes will be gone,
His honour into shame will turn!”

                -19-
Who was the foe wasn’t unknown,
And with the oming of the spring
Yermak thought over his own
Plan of the war. He had to fling
Up part of all his troops. The reason
Was clear. Soon the battle season
Was marked: the thunder of the guns
Saluted. The Irtysh there runs
It northwards)brought with their “float”,
And every nearest ulus(  )
Admitted their rule/ “Urus”
Among the Tatars did denote
“Fright’. They were happy to arrange
A “peace for legacy’ exchange.

                -20-
The peaceful rest was over, though:
The Cossacks came across (beside
The Arymdyanka’s  outflow)
Their enemies, resolved to fight
In their fortresss, pervicacious,
For freedom. All the pertinacious
Ringleaders were shot up. The rest
Were made to kiss the sword – the best
Strafe for the Tatars insubmission:
“T was their pledge. Yermak’s regard
To the defeated foe, his mission
To make the enemy obey
Came into being, in its way.

                -23-
Ashamed, in the dark forest. Only
Some Rucha yourts (Demyansky Yahm)
Remained in some placenames… the lonely
Irtysh still billows to come
Between the cliffs… The Cossacks conquered
The town of Narym. In concord
They only shot a single flight.
The natives ran away. The fight
Was over. The Tsygalsky town
Was occupied. They found wives
And children who (as chaste as ice)
Were struck  by their leader down:
(His kindness).All themen with sons
Agreed to pay the tax at once.

                -24-
The atamans were floating farther
Down the Irtysh. The heat, so far,
Was changed by cold, fogs and rather
Chill rainy nights. There Prince Samahr
In union with eight princes leading
His troops, approached the Russians, meeting
Their host. The noble Ostyak
Was eager to prevent Yermak
From the invasion to the ancient
Land of Yugor. Samahr forgot
Of care. He boasted: “We’ve got
More power.” The Cossacks, patient.
 Cold-blooded, shot him when he slept,
With guards by Morpheus entrapped.

-25-
            
The princes’   fighters in a hurry
Withdrew. The local Ostyak
Inhabitants began to scurry
To  pay the tribute to Yermak…
The latter, floating still farther,Was
Approached the Ob, the riv er-mother.
Where it flows, he had got
To know well, wised up by God
From people of Novgorod. The river’s
Source and inflow, “in the dark
Of distance hidden” (the remark
Of Muscovites, of those achievers
Who’d known it twenty years)… Yermak
 Was to set there Russia’s mark.

-26-
The Cossacks bravely demonstrated
Their courage on the river bank:
The Ob could see the captivated
Prince of Ostyaks. To outflank
The foe, to occupy the town,
Nazym by name, Yermak put down
 A lot of atamans. Among
The rest there was Nikita Pahn.
Yermak, in grief, shed tears o’er
The men he’d loved.  He wouldn’t have gone
Still farther, didn’t go on
The march. Besides, a picture lower
Could not be seen: a sombre, dark
Landscape surrounded Yermak.

-27-
The cold of death was

He saw vast marshlands penetrating
Frost-bound tundra with chemise
Of rippled mosses; they were stretching
Northwards, could not get warmer, catching
Too little warmth. The summer sun
Could not warm up the earth among
The mammoth cemetories in snow:
Nine months’re a winter season. Life
Was there unlikely to survive
In total cold darknes…So
Alacha – Head of Yourt Obskoy.

-28-
Yermak turned back. He took the road
He came, Siberia to reach,
Preferred directing back his boat
To dying at the world’s end which
Would’ve meant oblivion without
Fame of his triumphs. Famed aloud
By all his tributaries with
Their wild subservience, like a myth,
A marvel, the war-hardships-brookinhg
And  valiant man$ the Cossacks in
Their festive jupes were going
Ashore the martial music, looking
Uncommon in their tiny squad.
Yermak, among them, - superodd.

p. 83

-29-
He gained a foothold on the ground
When conquered  the ginormous wide.
So, he could come back to the town,
Sibir by name (Isker). He might
Acknowledge that support was needed:
His army’s third (three hundred) pleaded
Some help. They didn’t have any more
Eight hundred forty, as before.
So, as narrates the story-writer,
The Strogonovs were well-informed
By brave Yermak: all was performed
To win (thank God!) Kuchum’s renowned,
Great capital, his prince, his land,
His people, the tribute… No end!

-30-
Besides, he notified great Joannes,
The Orthodox believers’ king:
“Your Majesty! The Cossacks’ bones
Were sacrificed to Russia’s win.
Disgraced, they met their death, invested
With cross, for God and Christ, and rested
For good with God’s name on the lips.
As long as the Almighty keeps
His favour of the world, the cold
Of the Siberian tsardom take
Together with our heads and make
Them fly off our shoulders! Hold
Their hand and honour them or kill, -
That’s the Almighty’s and your will”
.
-31-
   The ataman who volunteered
To Moscow was the second head,
Ivan Koltso. He wasn’t scared
To take that missive letter: that
                p. 84
The rack awaited him without
Delay, caused but a minute’s doubt,
Though Moscow gave no chance
To those sentenced. “Only once
I am to die, not twice”, - the joke
Was liked by him. “I’ll dissipate
My grief,”- Yermak’s associate
Remarked quite often when he spoke.
Of Joannes the Terrible,-“That’ll cease
The whole affair, as it is.”

-32-
Yermak did not object: no doubt,
He could rely on his Ivan
Who had to pack his things without
Delay: the way was far. ‘T was done…
Why did Yermak inform about
The tsardom that he’d found out
So late? Why did he notify
TheTsar, the strogonovs? Oh, why?
What was his genuine desire?
To rule the tsardom by himself?
Alone? (Isn’t it a stealth?)
Or, maybe, even to retire
With all the treasure (and why not?)
To warmer countries (some nice spot)?

-33-
Could he have done so? Dedicated
To Russia to the last extent,
The former robber tolerated
As long as he could bear and…
And like a common Russian fighter,
He only wanted to be right, or,
Man of his word, he wished to press
With all his might the gained success.
Escaping mockery. The only
Thing he could think of was to end
What he’d begun, that is, to bend
Siberia, to the lonely
And distant steppe Kuchum to drive
And for the tsarist boon to strive.

-34-
The Cossacks found inspiration,
When growing weaker, from Yermak:
He held the balance; legislation
Was exercised by him… Bad luck –
He could foresee: he was unable
To hold Siberia, unstable
 Without Russia’s strong support.
He realized that in a short,
Unlucky time his men’s starvation,
The climate, rigorous at times,
And hunger; ills and their signs,
The Tatars’ fierce retaliation
Would smash his army. So why
Were all his heroes to die?




p. 87
In the fifth chapter it’s preceptive
To tell you of the tsarist boon,
Got by the Kremlin envoys, captive
By Russia’s welcome; how soon
The pace of mutual speculations
Gave birth to state determinations
Of high precision for the force
Of the Siberian course;
Of great Yermak who, in accordance
With all his trusty host’s will
(Like brethren, that’s – without discordance)
Disdained their benefit to deal
With Russia’s vital interests; and
The growth of the Russian land.

Chapter V

The Growth

-1-
The Strogonovs had got the letter
(News from Yermak) by winter, and
The merchants, sure, had to get to
White-stone Moscow (the end
To all the doubts!) and to scurry
To share their gladness (in a hurry)
With their monarch whom they served.
The family that had observed
That rule (a praiseful observation!)
Was to be recognized because
That big-name kin of patrials was
The hero of the high occasion:
Yermak wouldn’t have without such
Concern performed his famous march.

p. 88

-2-
Their speech was quite expatiative
(Like Russia’s growing step by step).
They prayed their king to join the native
Land of Siberia to the steppe
Of Russia’s vast, and lay it down:
“Great Tsar! The mind under your crown
Conceives that privates cannot hold
Siberia. You can’t behold
It like a star association.
Got be with you1 You’re Tsar, and we
Are nothing.” Joannes who could see
His loyal servants’ application
To tsarist service, their talk
Didn’t leave unpaid their selfless work.

-3-
The Tsar invited to his table
The Strogonovs; Semyon received
From him his cup,- so he was able
To get Great Salt  (13). It was a gift
From Joannes, and Little Salt was granted
To him. Nikita was enchanted
(Together with Maxim) by wine
From tsarist cups – it was a sign
Of their right to free of duty
Commerce. A relevant decree
Was issued when an embassy
Sent by Yermak (that was  the beauty
Of it!) appeared in the gate
To seal Siberia’s fate.

-4-
The Muscovites began to scurry:
Conjectures, gossips…(Right or wrong?)
p. 89
The gloomy Kremlin saw a flurry
It hadn’t witnessed for a long,
An endless time… “Siberia’s given
By Got to Russia!” -  It was driven
To people’s minds, both old and young.
The news was marvellous, - the fun
To all the Russian people. To honour
The Cossacks all the bells were rung,
All cheered up, and every tongue,
With every gossip getting longer,
Was listened open-mouthed to
And rumours round the crowds flew…

-5-
The crowd overestimated
Yermak’s great deed. Their fancy knew
No borders. They exaggerated
The catch. By hearsay, it grew
T’ half of the world. The countless treasure
In wonderland without measure
Attracted to Siberia’s vast.
“T was very difficult, at last,
To recollect the land’s allegiance.
To make Yermak more famous they
Didn’t give themselves the trouble to say
Of great Siberia’s obedience;
Forgot that Yediger had paid
The tribute to the Russian great

-6-
Majestic monarch. In the Kremlin
Came the Siberian guests.
And, like a lightning scepter, trembling
In the night dark, with piercing quests
In eyes, was seated on the throne

p. 90
Of ivory (not of simple stone!)
With gold tissue on the lap,
In Monomakh’s renowned Cap
Ivan the Fourth (named Grozny) (14), staying
The lord of lands and countries’ king,
In the Gold Chamber. Not a thing
Was uttered by Prince Fyodor, praying,
His eyes cast down, on his right,
And Godunov on his left side.

-7-
Young ryndas in white satin caftans
With silvery embroidery were
Surrounding the throne. Like captains
They held their figured axes, or
Pole-axes. Those weapon-holders
In red top-boots, the chamber, full
Of boyar-princes, rustle of cool
Great crowd’s breathing, susurration…
Then came the sound of pipes, their sing;
The warning-bells began to ring
Forewarning of the presentation
Of hero-Cossacks to the Tsar:
Two stolniks brought them from afar.

-8-
Heaps of luxurious giftware
Behind the Cossacks were brought in:
Expensive furs sparkled in the flare
Of candles: silver foxes in
Big bushy bundles, martens, beavers,
Rich sables were carried by the givers
With precious stones. All the eyes
Were caught by presents, so nice.

p. 91
The chests were put between the mounts
Of costly stuff, right on the floor.
Right on the carpet. People saw
The contents – all the precious mounts.
(The chests were open). Not a word –
A sign was in the chamber heard.

-9-
Eight hands were bringing on the spears,
Tied with the rings of copper chain,
A trunk of gold (it appears
In all its beauty!), idly lain
On those spears. And the picture
Of ancient weapons that had been
By Russian people never seen –
Of all those gifts at once attracted
Admired eyes… A double-dyed
And grizzl;y Cossack (well, he might
‘Ve been fifty) then directed
The embassy – Ivan Koltso,
Hurt by the Tsar he never saw.

-10-
Ivan thought of Ivan: “You’re rather
Tough!” So thought the mighty Tsar
Of the brave ataman. The other
Thought so of the King, so far
Both keeping silent. To the throne
Koltso got closer alone,
Addressed his daring speech to Joannes:
“Great Tsar! Just to redress the wrongs
That led us both to the sentence
Of death the Cossacks’ head Yermak
(God willing, he will have good luck

p. 92
And please you) by this attendance
Is trying to deserve your grace
And humbly ask before your face

-11-
“We beg you, Tsar, to take possession
(Add to the tsardom of Kazan,
Part of the Golden Horde, aggression
Directed to the Astrakhan
Great tsardom) of a new empire –
Siberia will inspire
New glamour  in the Russian rule.
God willing, it will be your tool
In being always the enslaver…
And we’ll put down our mute
And guilty heads to execute
Your faithful Cossacks in disfavor”.
They waited, their eyes downcast,
Bent, for the tsarist word to trust.

-12-
Deep silence filled the tsarist chamber
Under the gleamy candle light.
The monarch started to remember
The past, and then revived a sight:
A general congratulation
From envoys on his occupation
Of great Kazan… A lot of gifts…
After  Bukhara’s envoy lifts
His voice the crier to announce
The messenger from Samarkand…
The clerk in th’ Boyars’ council can’t
But put on airs to pronounce
The Sultan’s missive letter’s point
And the translation, here joined:

p. 93

-13-
“The greatest of the greatest sovereigns,
Praised to the skies! Shine on the lands
That’re manifold as the sunrays
On snowy peaks! Your power stands
Still higher than the might of Darij
And Solomon! Moon on the starry
Vault! Like a fruitful tree in heat
You give each creature freshness! It
‘S impossible to match your peer!
Your mighty sword is like a key
To fortified strong towns! By thee
The way t’ the tsardoms is made clear!
Like Alexander bearing fame,
Above all tsars and thrones you reign!”

-14-
The Tsar shook up: “Stand up, my comrades!
Let bygones be bygones. You are
In favour now for your gone deeds;
You are forgiven, so far.
For what you’ve done We’ll give an order
To ring all bells to make still broader
Your fame, hold services in fanes,-
All Moscow will praise your names!
We are so very pleased to hear
(The message came from far): thank God,
Yermak’s great march will do a lot
Of good for us as it will clear
The way to greaten our lands.
Thanks for Siberia, friends!”

-15-
The Cossacks’ faces changed greatly
When they stood up: Koltso Ivan

p. 94
Was all in tears that had lately
Across his face begun to run:
A vermin, man whose execution
Had been announced, in confusion
Appeared to be a knight; the King
Allowed the Cossack to hand in
His missive letter, gave for kissing
His tsarist hand; the tsarist praise
Approached his ears. Joannes’ grace
(Not his animadversion) pleasing
Ivan inspired him to strive
For giving Father-Tsar his life.

-16-
The Tsar observed the rule of giving
Rich presents to forgive one’s sin:
Koltso was happy when receiving,
Like his companions who had been
So faithful with all their souls,
From Joannes great salaries and rolls
Of cloth, of silks; their leader got
A tsarist coat; two armours brought
To him were gilt; a jasper ladle
With silver patterns which was made
In the Fryazh works (the brand was great!),
As beautiful as angels’ cradle;
A missive letter: ever since
Yermak was called Siberian Prince.

-17-
The Tsar empowered the latter
To exercise the Tsar’s control,
To manage everything and better
The life and order of the whole
Siberian region. By the order
Of Joannes to patriotic murder
Five hundred soldiers were sent
Together with I.Glukhov, and

p. 95
Prince Bolkhovsky Semyon Dimitrich
Was then assigned voivode. In spring
 He was to take command of in
Its fighting trim the merchants’ fleet which
Was ready for the further trip
To follow Yermak’s head ship.

-18-
The monarch deigned to tell the bishop
Of Vologda to quickly urge,
According to his tsarist wish, up
To ten good families of church,
To give (with orthodox ingredients)
Spiritual food to the obedience,
To hold services, enlight
With prayers their pagan night,
To show them to education
Through the Good News, in their minds
Enroot the sense of their rights
On their doubts’ negotiation…
Koltso was charged on his way back
To call the men to change their track,

-19-
And settle in the vacant region
Up the Tobol, encourage, send,
Quite openly, the Russian “legion”
To populate the foreign land,
Intrude the depth of the wild bosom,
Like mighty cedars. It was true, some
Of Russian people had a wish
To taste the outlandish dish.
The vasts of Russia are ginormous,
And to the Cossack’s hot appeals
Some volunteers came their wills
To put in force, live the enormous
Severities of the hard march,
Put down the Russian roots, as such.

p. 96.

-20-
As for Yermak, he didn’t idly
Wait in Siberia to get
News from the capital and mildly,
Decidedly proceeded, met
His destiny: he floated farther,
Down the Tavda, and had another
Date with Vogulich tribes to make
A stop ashore a mouth lake,
 Where Siberian thrones
(Prince Pecheneg, Prince Labutan),
Full of themselves, at last were won
By great Yermak… And many bones
And skulls bore witness of the fight
While their ashes were in sight.

-21-
The natives of Koshutsky district,
As well as Tabarinsky, paid
Fur tribute; their characteristic
Dependence on the Russians made
Them shy, but it was not unbidden:
The reason of the fear was hidden
In the aggressive source… An old
And worshipful magician told
Yermak with awesome admiration
That he would earn eternal fame
(Not just in his centennium), claim
For good the people’s adoration…
He didn’t mention in a breath
(Concealed) Yermak’s impending death.

-22-
Yermak observed the household,
The customs of Vogulich tribes,
Saw in the savages a fold,

p. 97
An artless folk with simple minds,
Accustomed to appeal to those
Much richer (wiser!) when arose
A squall among them; ask to judge
The quarrellers who had a grudge
Against each other. Having neither
Law nor a statesmanship they did
Not have a concept or a seed
Of concept of their rights, or either
A temple… A grave, a home – they’d got
The virgin Nature’s pagan God.

-23-
Their God… It was an idol, a rocky
High hill, the red-hot sun, a spring,
The spirit of a beast. A stocky
Grey shaman with a tambourine
Sang fervent prayers. Thus, for ages,
The shamans looked in their rages
For answers, sought in  their dreams
The sense of fearful words, and screams
With foam from the mouths spattered
In dances round the fire; fright
Of mystic nature was inside
Vogulich souls; horror scattered
Their spirit, killed their hearts in front
Of forces wizards could demand.

-24-
One day the Cossacks suddenly found
Deuce when a porcupine attacked
Them from behind a woody mount:
A thug (three metres!), as if packed
In scale-like scab. (It was about
Tabarinsk). There is no doubt,

p. 98
The devil cannot give a fright
To Cossacks. (You should keep in mind:
‘T was neither devil nor a bear-
A man was running). At the sight
Of such a foe mystic fright
Stirred the intrepid Cossacks’ hair
Under the caps. The fiend ran on,
Coughed:”K-heh”… “Why, there is something wrong

-25-
With him! He’s got a cold, so
He wants a drink! Hey, Jacob, pour
A drink for him and let him go!” –
A Cossack joked. The monster’s paw,
His hairy hand… It tore the rope
Of their nooses (no hope!)
Like thread, and (joking apart!)
Scores of the Cossacks, like a nut,
In those paws were flattened out…
The arquebuses couldn’t kill
The hairy bandersnatch until
A cannon, in the hot shot-out,
Killed the gorilla on the spot.
The Cossacks neared him. They sought

-26-
To see him well. In admiration
They thought: “From where could emerge
Such an uncommon tribulation?
What is it?” They began to surge:
“Yeryoma, can it be Vogulich?”
-“You’ve got a fright, haven’t you, Mikulich?
Vogulich men are under size.
Their growth doesn’t even rise
To two arsheens.” They sloped close
Around the form for brighter light:
“Not less than two sagenes’” - ”That’s right,

p. 99
And a vershok, as I supose.”
“Looks like a man… Is that an imp?”
“Ask in the wood, Mikulich, simp.”

-27-
“Not me! I”d rather ask the shaman
When we approach the town. It’s he
Who set the fiend! Fire’s a charming
Means of tongue-loosing.’ – “Don’t you see:
Our God is living. He has wooden
Dead idols. When our faith including
The Christian world ñomes here, perchance,
The far descendants of the ones
Who’s living here, has been living,
Will always live, speak well of us
In church, compose a song, and thus
Commemorate us all believing
In what we all believe. The song
“Ll be sung at table… Well, come on,

-28-
Let’s earth the fellow. However,
He was a man… Do not be late
For the repast. I wish you never
Saw anyone again. The date
Of getting underway’s tomorrow.-
Yermak pronounced. And the sorrow
Of burying the body was
Replaced by great surprise because
The Cossacks found in the body
Ten bullet marks. The breastbone firmed
In the gigantic ribs and formed
A whole framework, strong and sturdy,
Thus making an enormous test
That could defend the giant’s chest.

p. 100

-29-
It might have been a tale or, rather,
The plot of someone’s fable, still…
Still life, one way or, well, another
Dictates to us its own will,
Makes us forget the daily bustle,
Believe in miracles. A puzzle
(A dream, a happening) is steep
To all but one who has to keep
It sectret, sectretly believing
That it was true…We don’t trust
In all the letters say, we just
Must not forget: the legends giving
Too much extravagance can draw
On something real people saw.

-30-
Yermak took prisoners on reaching
The swampland of Pelym to learn
From them new routes, new roads stitching
The Tavda’s upstream, not so stern
As th’ old ways to Perm, to Russia
(That were more dangerous and harsher),
With fewer foes to withstand.
Yermak approached  the quicksand
Deep in the wood. He didn’t clear
The way, but left the poor land
As he had blankly put an end
T’ his trip along the Ob for fear
Of hurtful snows. He returned
To his Siberian winter, turned

-31-
To be the rule of the continuous
Demesne; besides, in spite of all
His enemies, applied his genius,

p. 101
On conquering more land, to call
More tributaries. He, with a handful
Of Cossacks, reached the Sosva land, full
Of beasts and treasures of the streams,
Of woods, great rivers, little springs;
Joined to the land of Kondin, owned
By Mosow princes. There Yermak
Took richest tolls; he had luck:
The unrenowned land (I don’t
Aggrandize) was a trove full
Of precious stones for the rule.