Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. Our Life Has Lots of Edges.

List. Text. Translation. Back. Forward.

Commentary to the poem “He’d gotten whatever wanted...”

Here comes to mind an old saying: “Suis rebus contentum esse maximae sunt divitiae.” (“The greatest wealth is to be content with what is yours.”)

Once Vladimir Vysotsky was asked which of the shortcomings he most disliked, and he an­swered that it was greed.

This answer calls to mind another old saying: “Radix enim malorum omnium est cupiditas.” (“Greed is the root of all evil.”)

Porphyry Ivanov, peace be upon him, said that we should consider everything to be com­mon and share with all people; and Vladimir Vysotsky wrote in the song “For One Man” (1964):

So, what is for one man? But a grave and a cradle.

Here also comes to mind Gabdulla Tukay’s poem “Against Gold” (1907).

Another close in spirit poem is Rudyard Kipling’s quatrain “The Two Men” (“Equality of Sac­ri­fice”) (this text is a reverse translation from Konstantin Simonov’s translation into Rus­sian):

(A.) “I was a man who had just all.” (B.) “And I had nothing.” (Together.) “But each of us to the next world Goes with no farthing.”

One of close in spirit stories on the subject is the story of Zu-l-Karneyn from “The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night”.

Main Page.