Pushkin: No It's Just You (From Russian)

No It's Just You

By A.S. Pushkin

Translated by A.Z. Foreman

So you're a Pole. No harm in this.
Kościuszko is. Mickiewicz is.
You could be any kind of foreign.
Be Tatar even. No harm there.
Or be a Jew. I still don't care.
The harm's that you're Vidocq Vulgarin.*

*The original Фигляринъ is a transposition of the name “Булгаринъ” based on the word “фигляръ” (“joker, fool”). I've substituted something else that might have meaning in English.

The Original:

Не то бѣда, что ты полякъ:
Костюшко ляхъ, Мицкевичъ ляхъ!
Пожалуй, будь себѣ татаринъ, —
И тутъ не вижу я стыда;
Будь жидъ — и это не бѣда;
Бѣда, что ты Видокъ Фигляринъ.