Mother Earth is all covered with ice - all year long it is covered with ice. There’s no spring, it appears, nor summer - White as snow is the planet’s garment - now and then someone falls on the ice. You may fly all around the Globe and may not even touch the ground, - anyway you are sure to drop an a slippery plain or slope... To be crushed underfoot you are bound! There is nothing but ice, like glass, but it isn’t a rink for skating. Perhaps a beast will quietly pass... All is iced! A two-legged one has to land on all fours - no escaping.
© Alec Vagapov. Translation, 1998