Half Measures

By Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Half measures
can kill
when,
chafing at the bit in terror,
we twitch our ears,
all lathered in foam
on the brink of precipices,
because we can't jump halfway across.

Blind is the one
who only half sees
the chasm.
Don't half recoil,
lost in broad daylight,
half rebel,
half suppressor
of the half insurrection
you gave birth to!

With every half-effective
half measure
half the people
remain half pleased.
The half sated
are half hungry.
The half free
are half enslaved.

We are half afraid,
halfway on a rampage...
A bit of this,
yet also half of that party-line
weak-willed "Robin Hood"
who half goes
to a half execution.

Opposition has lost
its resolution.
By swashbuckling jabs
with a flimsy sword
you cannot be half
a guard for the cardinal
and half
a king's musketeer.

Can there be
with honor
a half motherland
and a half conscience?
Half freedom
is perilous,
and saving the motherland halfway
will fail.