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Translated by J. Bowring
MOSKVA is stunned with the thunder-storm’s rattle: | |
| See! for the Don has sprung over its banks, | |
| Armed ’gainst the foe in fury and battle. | |
| Crowd to the ranks! | |
| Arm for the right, | 5 |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| Trump of the Tzar! which to triumph calls loudly, | |
| Spirits of Moskva! ye warriors away! | |
| Thousand times thousand arrange themselves proudly, | |
| Ripe for the fray, | 10 |
| Armed for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| “Strive against God and our Russia shall no men,” | |
| Ataman cried, while he brandished his spear; | |
| “Scattered like ashes, they perish,—our foemen, | 15 |
| Where are they,—where?” | |
| Arm for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| Fame-circled monarch! like waterfalls gushing | |
| Down from the rocks, see thy children advance | 20 |
| On the false foe, in their energy rushing, | |
| Sabre and lance! | |
| Armed for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| Russians shall make them a pathway victorious; | 25 |
| Russians shall conquer from Neva to Rhine; | |
| Armies shall fly at their enterprise glorious; | |
| Triumph is thine, | |
| Armed for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | 30 |
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| Russia! O, fear not! no foe shall assemble | |
| Near thee; they shrink from the cross-flag adored: | |
| Lo! at thy slings and thy sabres they tremble— | |
| Ready thy sword! | |
| Armed for the right, | 35 |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| Yes! let thy enemy rage, let him hector; | |
| Strong though he be, he shall fly from the field: | |
| Is not the mother of God our protector, | |
| Michael our shield? | 40 |
| Armed for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| Ready! to horse! for the cannon shouts call our | |
| Heroes to struggle for hopes so sublime! | |
| God himself smiles on the deeds of high valour! | 45 |
| Children, ’t is time! | |
| Arm for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| Rush on the Franks, as pyramids steady: | |
| Say, shall they enter the heart of our land? | 50 |
| No! for our heroes are gathering all ready; | |
| Firmly they stand, | |
| Armed for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| See! for our legions are wildly advancing. | 55 |
| Bonaparte flies from the sons of the Don; | |
| Dull is the fame that so brightly was glancing,— | |
| France is o’erthrown. | |
| Arm for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | 60 |
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| Arrows like hail-stones are clattering around us; | |
| Sabres and spear-heads shine bright in the breeze; | |
| And the swift bullets seem whispering: they sound as | |
| Swarming of bees: | |
| Armed for the right, | 65 |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| Three hundred thousand twice reckoned oppose them | |
| Vainly to Russia; ’t is glory to see | |
| How a small band of Cossacks overthrows them. | |
| Look how they flee! | 70 |
| Arm for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
| |
| Cannons and muskets abandoned, and duty | |
| Forgotten, for death and for terror are nigh; | |
| Willingly yield they their knapsacks and booty, | 75 |
| Only to fly: | |
| Arm for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
| |
| See how the raven is crouching, affrighted, | |
| Where the proud eagle hath built its own home; | 80 |
| Russia hath left them alarmed and benighted, | |
| Russia their tomb. | |
| Armed for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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| So is the generous struggle rewarded; | 85 |
| So do the insolent enemy bleed: | |
| So is the palace-crowned, liberty-guarded | |
| Capital freed. | |
| Arm for the right, | |
| Strong in the fight! | 90 |
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| Thanks to the Highest One! honour and glory,— | |
| He has conducted us,—saved is the throne! | |
| Peace to the Tzar, and may garlands grow o’er ye, | |
| Sons of the Don! | |
| Armed for the right, | 95 |
| Strong in the fight! | |
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