The Soldier - Nikolai Nekrasov

Then up there comes a veteran.
With medals on his breast;
He scarcely lives, but yet he strives
To drink with all the rest.
"A lucky man am I!" he cries.
And thus to prove the fact he tries;
"In what consists a soldier's luck?
Pray, listen while I tell:
In twenty fights or more I've been,
And yet I never fell;
And, what is more, in peaceful times
Full health I never knew.
Yet, all the same, I have contrived
Not to give Death his due.
Also, for sins both great and small.
Full many a time they've me
With sticks unmercifully flogged;
Yet I'm alive, you see!"
— "Who Lives Happily in Russia"

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Nikolai Nekrasov (1821 - 1878) Russia
Translator not given
Source: The world's wit and humor: an encyclopedia of the classic wit and humor of all ages and nations, edited by Lionel Strachey, Review of Reviews Company, 1906