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| HOW canst thou face thy Maker, how canst thou ever dare | |
| With all the guilt upon thy head to turn to Him in prayer? | |
| Thou rearest thy religion to cloak thy evil deeds; | |
| The torture thou inflicted on those of other creeds, | |
| The exilings, the pogroms, the persecutions all, | 5 |
| Thou plannest with thy minions, within thy palace wall. | |
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| To thy corrupt officialdom thou givest a free rein | |
| To murder, pillage, harass thy subjects for its gain. | |
| With olden-time barbarity, with cruelty unsurpassed, | |
| Thou rulest o’er an Empire, so wonderful, so vast, | 10 |
| Whose boundless wealth lies buried for ages, ’neath the soil, | |
| Whose undeveloped resources wait but for honest toil, | |
| While sore distress and famine go stalking in the land, | |
| All enterprise, initiative stayed by a tyrant’s hand. | |
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| Bright shines the torch of progress in every land but thine, | 15 |
| Illumining every pathway that leads to Freedom’s shrine; | |
| In thy realm superstition and Ignorance hold sway, | |
| Grim allies of oppression that darken every way; | |
| That foster crime and vices of all the vilest sort | |
| And make of human beings a beastly dangerous horde. | 20 |
| Thou art a shame, a byword among the nations all, | |
| Thy subjects’ execrations hang o’er thee like a pall! | |
* * * * * How long wilt thou, O Russia, thy cruel burdens bear? | |
| How long wilt thou meekly succumb to dull despair? | |
| Rise up, throw off thy shackles, strike for the right to live! | 25 |
| For freedom, justice, tolerance, thy people’s wrongs retrieve! | |
| And thou wilt surely triumph, for tyrants cowards are, | |
| They shrink beneath the radiance of Liberty’s bright star. | |
| For thee will dawn an era of brighter, happier days, | |
| And all thy lamentations will change to songs of praise; | 30 |
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| The present chaos, misrule, which now so hopeless seem, | |
| Will then be but a memory, a nightmare in a dream, | |
| Once more among the nations thou wilt then take thy place, | |
| And with their march toward progress and culture keep apace. | |
| Thy people will be blessed o’er all thy broad domain, | 35 |
| When Law and Order shall prevail, and Peace supreme shall reign! | |
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