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

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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”:

So, what is for one man? For one man — but a cradle and a grave are.

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

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

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