Lies

Telling lies to the young is wrong.
Proving to them that lies are true is wrong.
Telling them that God's in his heaven
and all's well with the world is wrong.
The young know what you mean.
The young are people.
Tell them the difficulties can't be counted
and let them see not only what will be
but see with clarity these present times.
Say obstacles exist they must encounter
sorrow happens, hardship happens.
The hell with it. Who never knew
the price of happiness will not be happy.
Forgive no error you recognize.
It will repeat itself, increase,
and afterwards our pupils
will not forgive in us what we forgave.

Yevtushenko: Selected poems
by Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
Translated by Robin Milner-Gulland and Peter Levi, S.J.
Penguin Books, 1962.

Yevtushenko was born in Siberia in 1933.