Original: http://www.stihi-rus.ru/1/glinka/4.htm
A ribbon lasting in the random
In mist and wistful dreams alloyed,
A highway orphaned and abandoned
Sends lamentations into void
As far away, beyond the mire,
As smoke leaks, as bells a-chime,
The brave new railway rolls its fire
With noise, velocity and shine.
The highway weeps its sad misfortune,
"What have you done oh faithless man?
You favored rails! My wound is scorching
And I may never rise again!"
"Recall how coachmen a-shout
And praise me, and I pleasure them.
Minds changed! I am completely out,
A poor widow I am."
"A rare walker pays a visit
Once in a while, a poor match
To angry trolls you trapped, oh wizard,
For wheels to run, for routes to stretch!"
But rails are next in line. A dreamer
May climb to zenith airborne
And give the tiny crawling steamer
A fleeting glimpse of pride and scorn,
And to the future man of air
(A-gliding in the air stream)
Steel rails and pebbly thoroughfare
Same kind of chains may one day seem.
Make peace, two roads, you are peers,
One pain to bite, one way to make
While men turn gods in crystal spheres
Or die of thunder they awake.
1. "Railway" is intentional. The original "чугунка" (literally, "a [road] of cast iron") is an inferior-style archaism in Russian but still a legitimate expression (not even a colloquialism) in Belarusian and Ukrainian; hence the "Briticism".
2. The troll is a compromise. There is no Western legendary creature of size, habits and attitude towards man matching those of Russian "леший", "the forest fairy". Worse, I found no matching legend, belief or superstition in the popular perception of steam engines in Western Europe, British India or North America. Cobolds are too small and gremlins are a XX century modernism originated in aviation. Curiously, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, an early XX century occultist and theosopher, mentions "Ahrimanic demons" allegedly powering any vacuum-driven device, but I doubt this theory has ever been popularly accepted.