Хозяин погладил рукою Лохматую рыжую спину: - Прощай,...

The owner stroked his hand
Shaggy red back:
- Goodbye brother! Though I am sorry, I will not hide
But still I will leave you.

Threw a collar under the bench
And hid under a booming canopy
Where is the motley human anthill
Poured into express cars.

The dog never howled.
And only behind a familiar back
Watched by two brown eyes
With almost human longing.

Old man at the station entrance
Said that? Left, poor fellow?
Eh, be you a good breed ...
And then, after all, a simple mongrel!

The fire swept over the chimney
The locomotive roared that there is urine,
In place, like a bull, trodden down
And rushed into the bad weather.

In the wagons, forgetting the scrapes,
They smoked, laughed, dozed ...
Here, apparently, about the red mongrel
They didn’t think, they didn’t remember.

The owner did not know that somewhere
On the sleepers, exhausting myself from strength
Behind the red flickering light
The dog runs breathlessly!

Stumbling, rushes again
In the blood paws on stones are broken,
What is ready to jump out the heart
Out of the open mouth!

The master did not know what forces
Suddenly left the body,
And, bumping his forehead on the railing,
A dog flew under the bridge ...

The corpse of the wave was demolished under the driftwood ...
Old man! You do not know nature:
After all, maybe the body of mutts,
And the heart is of the purest breed!

© Eduard Asadov