What Is Good And What Is Bad by Vladimir Mayakovsky
"He's a good one, yes, indeed, the proper kind of lad!"
What Is Good And What Is Bad
by Vladimir Mayakovsky
translated by Dorian Rottenberg
One fine day
a tiny laddie
came
and asked his dad:
“Could you tell me,
Daddy,
what is good
and what is bad?”
All his daddy said
I heard.
Children,
gather near.
Daddy’s answer,
word for word,
I shall tell you
here.
If the wind
behaves like mad,
bringing hail
and sleet,
anybody knows
it’s bad —
no walking in the street.
After rainfall
comes the sun,
driving off the cold.
That is good
for everyone,
whether young
or old.
When
a tiny little lad has
dirty cheeks
and chin,
this is clearly
very bad
for the youngster’s skin.
If a boy
keeps clean and neat,
washes
twice a day,
he’s a darling,
simply sweet,
a good lad,
anyway.
When a bully,
Tom or Billy,
thrashes
weaker mates,
his behaviour’s bad and silly —
which everybody
hates.
This one shouts:
“You mustn’t touch
smaller boys
than you!”
I admire him
very much,
and so,
I’m sure,
do you.
If you spoil
a book and toy
in
a single day,
“That’s a baddish little boy!”
everyone will say.
This one loves
to work and read,
likes drawing
in his pad.
He’s a good one,
yes, indeed,
the proper kind
of lad!
This baby’s scared
to see a crow.
Shame
upon the lad!
Cowardice,
you ought to know,
is very,
very bad.
This one
shoos the bird away
from a hen and chicks.
Good!
A brave boy,
we can say,
though he’s hardly six.
This one
wallows in the dirt,
giggling with joy,
soils his trousers
and his shirt,
bad,
untidy boy!
This one
cleans his shoes himself,
though
just four years old,
puts his things
upon a shelf.
He’s
as good as gold!
Remember, all who aren’t yet big:
if you’re now
a piggy,
you’ll become
a downright pig
when you grow up
bigger.
Sonny beamed —
he’d understood
and he told his dad:
“Dad,
I’ll always
do what’s good
and never do
what’s bad!”
First published in The Bedbug and Selected Poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Translated by Dorian Rottenberg.