And you, my friends who have been called away,
I have been spared to mourn for you and weep,
Not as a frozen willow over your memory,
But to cry to the world the names of those who sleep.
What names are those!
I slam shut the calender,
Down on your knees all!
Blood of my heart,
The people of Leningrad march out in even rows,
The living, the dead: fame can’t tell them apart.
А вы, мои друзья последнего призыва!
Чтоб вас оплакивать, мне жизнь сохранена.
Над вашей памятью не стыть плакучей ивой,
А крикнуть на весь мир все́ ваши имена!
Да что там имена! — захлопываю святцы;
И на колени все́! — багровый хлынул свет,
Рядами стройными проходят ленинградцы,
Живые с мёртвыми: для Бога мёртвых нет.
«Animals do not sleep. At night / They stand over the world like a stone wall. The cow’s retreating head / Rustles the straw with its smooth horns, / The rocky brow a wedge / Between age-old cheekbones, / And the mute eyes / Turning sluggishly. There’s more intelligence and beauty i...»
«The signs of the Zodiac are fading / Above the wide expanse of fields. / And the animal, the Dog, sleeps, / And the bird, the Sparrow, slumbers. / Mermaids soar, broad in the beam, / Soar straight up into the heavens, / With their arms as stout as boughs / And their breasts as round as...»
« Open, Open, / The gates of the tsar! / Darkness dimmed and poured out far. / With clean heat / Burns the altar — / Resurrect, Christ, / Yesterday's tsar! Without glory fell / Two-headed eagle. / Tsar — you were wrong. He'll remember inheritance / Many more times ...»
«Let us now praise freedom's twilight, / The glorious twilit year! / Into the midnight boiling waters / A massive forest of snares is lowered. / You rise above obscure years, — / O sun, O judge, my people. Let us praise the fateful burden / The people's leader takes up tearfully. — /...»