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The thing (I'm not sure whether it should be called a poem or a song) is called:
"Anti-Shenandoah: Two Skits and a Chorus".

The final part reads:

…

III. Chorus
Here they are, for all to see,
the fruits of complacency.
Beware of love, of A.D., B.C.,
and the travel agency.

A train may move fast, but time is slow.
History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

So, our advice to you is, Stay put
if you can help it.
Always be ready to say Kaput,
but wear a helmet.

1992

The full text can be found here (the discussion is in Russian, though).

Edit

As the question has been edited since I've typed my answer, the answer makes little sense now.
I haven't read the book, so I went and read the annotation and a review to get the rough idea.

The quoted paragraph can be found in the Preface of the book but this appears to be of little help. I believe the Physics.SE might actually be a better place for this question.

However, if I were to hazard a guess on what the authors mean I'd be thinking of something along the following lines.

We (meaning the humankind here and now) are very far from (the Ancient) Rome in terms of our current beliefs, social life, politics, science, technology, you name it.

And yet we, as a part of the material world, are built up from the same matter that once came into existence as a result of the Big Bang (if the theory is true, that is) and then just kept transforming for billions of years. So, in this sense, we are fairly close to the Big Bang.

PS. I'd be much more interested to know what exactly Brodsky meant by his lines:

History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

I'm not sure Sagan and Schneider understood this but neither can I :)

The thing (I'm not sure whether it should be called a poem or a song) is called:
"Anti-Shenandoah: Two Skits and a Chorus".

The final part reads:

…

III. Chorus
Here they are, for all to see,
the fruits of complacency.
Beware of love, of A.D., B.C.,
and the travel agency.

A train may move fast, but time is slow.
History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

So, our advice to you is, Stay put
if you can help it.
Always be ready to say Kaput,
but wear a helmet.

1992

The full text can be found here (the discussion is in Russian, though).

Edit

As the question has been edited since I've typed my answer, the answer makes little sense now.
I haven't read the book, so I went and read the annotation and a review to get the rough idea.

The quoted paragraph can be found in the Preface of the book but this appears to be of little help. I believe the Physics.SE might actually be a better place for this question.

However, if I were to hazard a guess on what the authors mean I'd be thinking of something along the following lines.

We (meaning the humankind here and now) are very far from (the Ancient) Rome in terms of our current beliefs, social life, politics, science, technology, you name it.

And yet we, as a part of the material world, are built up from the same matter that once came into existence as a result of the Big Bang (if the theory is true, that is) and then just kept transforming for billions of years. So, in this sense, we are fairly close to the Big Bang.

PS. I'd be much more interested to know what exactly Brodsky meant by his lines:

History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

I'm not sure Sagan and Schneider understood this but neither can I :)

The thing (I'm not sure whether it should be called a poem or a song) is called:
"Anti-Shenandoah: Two Skits and a Chorus".

The final part reads:

…

III. Chorus
Here they are, for all to see,
the fruits of complacency.
Beware of love, of A.D., B.C.,
and the travel agency.

A train may move fast, but time is slow.
History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

So, our advice to you is, Stay put
if you can help it.
Always be ready to say Kaput,
but wear a helmet.

1992

The full text can be found here (the discussion is in Russian, though).

Edit

As the question has been edited since I've typed my answer, the answer makes little sense now.
I haven't read the book, so I went and read the annotation and a review to get the rough idea.

The quoted paragraph can be found in the Preface of the book but this appears to be of little help. I believe the Physics.SE might actually be a better place for this question.

However, if I were to hazard a guess on what the authors mean... (to be contiued shortly)

The thing (I'm not sure whether it should be called a poem or a song) is called:
"Anti-Shenandoah: Two Skits and a Chorus".

The final part reads:

…

III. Chorus
Here they are, for all to see,
the fruits of complacency.
Beware of love, of A.D., B.C.,
and the travel agency.

A train may move fast, but time is slow.
History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

So, our advice to you is, Stay put
if you can help it.
Always be ready to say Kaput,
but wear a helmet.

1992

The full text can be found here (the discussion is in Russian, though).

Edit

As the question has been edited since I've typed my answer, the answer makes little sense now.
I haven't read the book, so I went and read the annotation and a review to get the rough idea.

The quoted paragraph can be found in the Preface of the book but this appears to be of little help. I believe the Physics.SE might actually be a better place for this question.

However, if I were to hazard a guess on what the authors mean I'd be thinking of something along the following lines.

We (meaning the humankind here and now) are very far from (the Ancient) Rome in terms of our current beliefs, social life, politics, science, technology, you name it.

And yet we, as a part of the material world, are built up from the same matter that once came into existence as a result of the Big Bang (if the theory is true, that is) and then just kept transforming for billions of years. So, in this sense, we are fairly close to the Big Bang.

PS. I'd be much more interested to know what exactly Brodsky meant by his lines:

History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

I'm not sure Sagan and Schneider understood this but neither can I :)

The thing (I'm not sure whether it should be called a poem or a song) is called:
"Anti-Shenandoah: Two Skits and a Chorus".

The final part reads:

…

III. Chorus
Here they are, for all to see,
the fruits of complacency.
Beware of love, of A.D., B.C.,
and the travel agency.

A train may move fast, but time is slow.
History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

So, our advice to you is, Stay put
if you can help it.
Always be ready to say Kaput,
but wear a helmet.

1992

The full text can be found here (the discussion is in Russian, though).

The thing (I'm not sure whether it should be called a poem or a song) is called:
"Anti-Shenandoah: Two Skits and a Chorus".

The final part reads:

…

III. Chorus
Here they are, for all to see,
the fruits of complacency.
Beware of love, of A.D., B.C.,
and the travel agency.

A train may move fast, but time is slow.
History's closer
to the Big Bang than to Roman Law,
and you are the loser.

So, our advice to you is, Stay put
if you can help it.
Always be ready to say Kaput,
but wear a helmet.

1992

The full text can be found here (the discussion is in Russian, though).

Edit

As the question has been edited since I've typed my answer, the answer makes little sense now.
I haven't read the book, so I went and read the annotation and a review to get the rough idea.

The quoted paragraph can be found in the Preface of the book but this appears to be of little help. I believe the Physics.SE might actually be a better place for this question.

However, if I were to hazard a guess on what the authors mean... (to be contiued shortly)