Flowers & Bullets, by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (English translation by Anthony Kahn) Of course: Bullets don't like people who love flowers, They're jealous ladies, bullets, short on kindness. Allison Krause, nineteen years old, you're dead for loving flowers. When, thin and open as the pulse of conscience, you put a flower in a rifle's mouth and said, "Flowers are better than bullets," that was pure hope speaking. Give no flowers to a state that outlaws truth; such states reciprocate with cynical, cruel gifts, and your gift, Allison Krause, was the bullet that blasted the flower. Let every apple orchard blossom black, black in mourning. Ah, how the lilac smells! You're without feeling. Nothing, Nixon said it: "You're a bum." All the dead are bums. It's not their crime. You lie in the grass, a melting candy in your mouth, done with dressing in new clothes, done with books. You used to be a student. You studied fine arts. But other arts exist, of blood and terror, and headsmen with a genuius for the axe. Who was Hitler? A cubist of gas chambers. In the name of all flowers I curse your works, you architect of lies, maestros of murder! Mothers of the world whisper "O God, God!" and seers are afraid to look ahead. Death dances rock-and-roll upon the bones of Vietnam, Cambodia - On what stage is it booked to dance tomorrow? Rise up, Tokyo girls, Roman boys, take up your flowers against the common foe. Blow the world's dandelions up into a blizzard! Flowers, to war! Punish the punishers! Tulip after tulip, carnation after carnation rip out of your tidy beds in anger, choke every lying throat with earth and root! You, jasmine, clog the spinning blades of mine-layers. Boldy, block the cross-hair sights, drive your sting into the lenses, nettles! Rise up, lily of the Ganges, lotus of the Nile, stop the roaring props of planes pregnant with the death of chidren! Roses, don't be proud to find yourselves sold at higher prices. Nice as it is to touch a tender cheek, thrust a sharper thorn a little deeper into the fuel tanks of bombers. Of course: Bullets are stronger than flowers. Flowers aren't enough to overwhelm them. Stems are too fragile, petals are poor armor. But a Vietnam girl of Allison's age, taking a gun in her hands is the armed flower of the people's wrath! If even flowers rise, then we've had enough of playing games with history. Young America, tie up the killer's hands. Let there be an escalation of truth to overwhelm the escalating lie crushing people's lives! Flowers, make war! Defend what's beautiful! Drown the city streets and country roads like the flood of an army advancing and in the ranks of people and flowers arise, murdered Allison Krause, Immortal of the age, Thorn-Flower of protest!
Yevgeny Yevtushenko Image appeared in Columbia University Record Vol. 25, No. 25 Bullets & Flowers was originally published in May, 1970 in the communist party's Pravda newspaper. This poem is dedicated to Allison Krause, one of the four slain on May 4th, who had reportedly placed a flower in the barrel of a National Guardsman's rifle on the previous day and said, "Flowers are better than bullets." In December, 1970, Yevgeny Yevtushenko donated the manuscript of this poem to the Kent State University Libraries' Department of Special Collections & Archives. This translation of the poem by Anthony Kahn was published by City Lights Books in 1970. The image above is also courtesy of the Kent State University Library. The seated woman is Betty Kirschner, and the occasion is the dismantling of the tent city of protestors that grew on the practice football field when, in April, 1977, Kent State University administrators decided that the school had "grieved long enough" and started construction of a gymnasium annex over a large part of the site of the May 4th "confrontation." 192 protestors were arrested. |
|
Kudzu Monthly urges all readers to provide feedback for the authors and editors of articles on this site. If you would like to comment on this article, you can enter your comments in the form below. They will be added to this page. |
My brother, Tom, (Aquinas) said, "I could hear the devil laughing on that day, as we all danced to his music." This work is great. It expresses so much feeling.I love it. Heath Pierce - Monday, October 25, 2004 at 11:40:22 (EDT) I'm looking for one of Mr. yvtushenko's poems that i couldnt find on the net! FREEDOM TO KILL. please could u send me a copy of it if you have it.?.! thanks karim <marouazi@wanadoo.fr> - Thursday, September 30, 2004 at 09:21:29 (EDT) Thank you so much for printing the text of this poem. I was in a youth hostel near Nagasaki when we heard the news about Kent State over the loudspeaker. Our Japanese friends had to confirm the horrible news was really true. I was looking for this poem to put in a piece that I am writing about that era, and could not find it in print. It was published by City Lights, but is not in an existing volume, I don't think. Elaine <eelinson@tosft.,net> - Saturday, February 07, 2004 at 12:58:25 (EST) I first read this poem in my 8th grade English class. I have looked for it for a long time. Thank you! It touched me then and again now. Mary Ellen <Meba61@aol.com> - Sunday, September 28, 2003 at 16:37:58 (EDT) I was wondering if anyone can find the poem "Freedom to Kill". It is about Robert Kennedy's (Brother to JFK) assasination. I have searched the web for it but have not come across it. I heard about this poem in the book SHADOW PLAY by William Klaber and Philip H. Melauson. It starts of "The color of the Statue of Liberty grows even more deathly pale..." Email me if you find it. P.S. Support our troops if you still want poetry. Mark Smith <smittie1984@hotmail.com> - Friday, June 06, 2003 at 03:27:11 (EDT) I am a junior in high school and I am doing a report on the Kent State Riot right now. Reading this poem, I found more information to go with Allison Krause. I thought that this poem was very good and that I said a little about what the 70s were like. Thanks! Samantha <sun_kiss_gurl@yahoo.com> - Wednesday, April 30, 2003 at 20:08:55 (EDT) Thank you for bringing this to the net. I met Yevtushenko in Berkeley in oh.. 67-68? He still makes me cry.. Justus Drake <jdrake51@msn.com> - Tuesday, April 15, 2003 at 21:16:13 (EDT) This angry poem may have been written thirty years ago - but the bitch that bred the subject of the poets wrath is dangerous - and on heat again! Martin Hallam <martin_hallam@hotmail.com> - Thursday, February 13, 2003 at 05:29:59 (EST) I am a junior in highschool, never having learned about the Kent State shootings in school, I wanted to learn of it on my own. This is the first time I read this poem, and never had heard about it before. I only wish that all could read this and understand its message, which is so touchingly related by its author. Marissa <holly_golightly@excite.com> - Friday, January 10, 2003 at 21:00:03 (EST) A bit preachy, but that, I suppose, is the spirit of the seventies. Ethan - Monday, November 25, 2002 at 17:04:03 (EST) Thirty years have gone by since this poem was written - will the problem ever be solved - flowers or bullets? A great tribute. cecile <cecilehare@go.com> - Tuesday, May 21, 2002 at 19:13:38 (EDT) Remembering the changes reminds of who I am. Seventeen at the time, unconscious, being formed by the environment in which my spirit grew. Thanks for the poem. Jay - Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 18:55:22 (EDT) Fascinating!! The Magnificient Wordphoole <phoole41@yahoo.com> - Friday, May 10, 2002 at 08:49:09 (EDT) I remember Kent State, hearing the news reports, standing in disbelief too shocked to respond. Patrica Cresswell <redoaks@thunderstar.net> - Sunday, May 05, 2002 at 22:05:02 (EDT) |