I had a bird in my hand
but my bird has flown.
I held a bird in my hand
but am now all alone.
My small bird has left me
full of anger and rage;
my blue bird has left me
alone in a cage.
Небольшая синица была в руках,
небольшая была синица,
небольшая синяя птица.
Улетела, оставив меня в дураках.
Улетела, оставив меня одного
в изумленьи, печали и гневе,
не оставив мне ничего, ничего,
и теперь — с журавлями в небе.
«Who can forget the fatal forties, / The rampant firing of mortars, / The letters turning faces ashen / Their formal words "was killed in action"? It's cold. The sky is spreading out / Above the rumbling railroad, tired / Of moving east with endless crowds / Who lost their homes to bombs...»
«I fell asleep well after three; / The birds were waking in the tree, / The wood stood dark and deep. / And I was happy, young and free / And smiling in my sleep. The dew had fallen on the grass / My sleep was tight and sound / All over me — just shooting stars / And under me — the...»
«There's one night left to build fortifications. / It's in my hands, the hope for our salvation. I'm yearning for the past; then I could warn / Those who were doomed to perish in this war. A man across the street would hear me cry, / "Come here, now, and death will pass you by." I'd know the...»
«Be it fortune or misfortune / Trust the simple truth: / Never go back home in search of / our departed youth. Cindered ruins have been cleared / And the place restored. / Yet, we won't discover there / What we are looking for. Trips to yesteryear, oh brother, / I would forbid to all...»