Kalinin Bridge

Poem by Joel Shatzky © 1991

in memoriam Ilya Krichevsky

Music by Leonard Lehrman © 1992

commissioned by The Prof. Edgar H. Lehrman Memorial Foundation

for Ethics, Religion, Science and the Arts, Incorporated

The metal column pauses at the river,

Surrounding it, defiant, angry crowds;

Then from their midst one man strides out before them

And voices pent-up anger, clear and loud.

The darkness of Kalinin Bridge behind him:

in front the waiting guns, arrogant as death.

Alone he strides before the tanks, defiant.

He shouts, then pauses, gathers hurried breath.

A crack of light, a shot breaks through his shouting

And Ilya falls, an item in the news:

"Kalinin Bridge became the scene of conflict:

Three died last night: Two Russians and a Jew."

And dying too his vision and his power,

The joyful plans for homes of light and glass;

New cities filled with gleaming domes and towers,

And now this architect fills space beneath the grass.

That world he died for, broken in an instant!

That harmony, now fractured voices in the air.

Will we know again the courage of that moment

When Ilya's dare had spoken for a million dares?

What vision did he hold to make his stand,

This architect of hope born from despair?

May Ilya's voice live on where freedom lives.

His dare will speak out for a million dares.

His memory will speak out for a million dares.