Ah! A translation! And Russian. That explains a lot. Here's what I came up with.
Telling lies to the young is wrong.
Proving to them lies are true is wrong.
Telling them that God’s in his heaven
And all’s well with the world is wrong.
young
lies / lies
wrong / wrong / wrong
The young know what you mean. The young are people.
young / young
Tell them 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 be encounter
Sorrow happens. Hardship happens.
difficulties / obstacles / sorrow / hardship
The h*ll with it. Who never knew
The price of happiness will not be happy.
price of happiness / not happy
Forgive no error you recognize,
It will repeat itself, increase,
And afterwards our pupils
Will not forgive in us what we forgave
forgive no error / not forgive / forgave
The general tone of the poem is rather dreary. Except for the use of the "young" near the beginning, most of the words which receive emphasis, generally through repetition, are negative: lies, wrong, difficulties, obstacles, sorrow, hardship, the price of happiness, "will not be happy", "forgive no error", "will not forgive". This Calvinist dirge is divided into four sections.
1. It is wrong, wrong, wrong to sugar coat the awful truth just because young people are the audience. (The author seems to think that the truth is predominantly awful. Saying, for example, "all's well in the world" is supposedly lying.)
2. Here we move from what NOT to tell young people to what TO tell them: Young people must be told of the countless difficulties of life, the unavoidable obstacles, the sorrow, and the hardship.
3. A summary statement now intervenes claiming that happiness cannot be achieved unless it is paid for. The price paid is presumably the sorrow and hardships referred to in the previous section.
4. A concluding section offers yet another piece of advice, namely, that the forgiveness of errors in the young is simply the wrong strategy. The reason is that forgiveness of errors leads to further errors. The final warning is to those who don't believe the entire thrust of the poem: If you are lenient with the young, later they will blame you for your leniency. All in all, a much less pithy way of saying "Spare the rod, and spoil the child."
The poem as a whole has nothing to recommend it by way of consistent rhythms or rhymes. It is nearly perverse in its avoidance of any regularity of meter, although to call it avoidance is to ascribe to the author some sort of plan, which may be too generous. [Afterword: This may be due to an unsuccessful translation from Russian rather than to anything in the original.]
It is three lines too long for a sonnet. I don't recognize any other standard form it is written in. [Afterword: Maybe because I don't know the standard forms of Russian poetry.] It lacks so much in poetic technique that it reads more like prose, which is probably appropriate considering all the prosaic sentiments it expresses.
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