Spring has assaulted every boulder —
The topsoil bursts with sprouting seeds,
Only my son's steadfast toy soldier
Is doomed to his heroic deeds.
A joyless master somehow happened
To join this set of tiny parts...
Ask the toy soldier: Are you happy?
And he will fire at your heart.
As fashions, moods and hopes are swinging
With every year that comes and goes,
People are laughing, crying, singing,
While he keeps waiting for his foes.
His muscles tense, his senses heightened:
He'll fight before he's torn apart!..
Ask the toy soldier: Are you frightened?
And he will fire at your heart.
He sees our buzzing busy static
As just a stretch from harm to harm.
His sorry little automatic
Has merged forever with his arm.
No peace for my unwilling buffer
And catalyst of coming hurt...
Ask the toy soldier: Do you suffer?
And he will fire at your heart.
Земля гудит под соловьями,
Под майским нежится дождём,
А вот солдатик оловянный
На вечный подвиг осуждён.
Его, наверно, грустный мастер
Пустил по свету, невзлюбя.
Спроси солдатика: «Ты счастлив?»
И он прицелится в тебя.
И в смене праздников и буден,
В нестройном шествии веков
Смеются люди, плачут люди,
А он всё ждёт своих врагов.
Он ждёт упрямо и пристрастно,
когда накинутся, трубя…
Спроси его: «Тебе не страшно?»
И он прицелится в тебя.
Живёт солдатик оловянный
Предвестником больших разлук,
И автоматик окаянный
Боится выпустить из рук.
Живёт защитник мой, невольно
Сигнал к сраженью торопя.
Спроси его: «Тебе не больно?»
И он прицелится в тебя.
«All valor I forgot and noble deeds / And glory on this grief-filled earth, / While in a simple frame your face / Glowed before me on the desk. The hour arrived, you left the house. / I flung the cherished ring into the night. / You pledged yourself to someone else, / And I forgot your l...»
«Oh, how desperately I want to live: / Immortalize the real, / Personify thefaceless, / Give flesh to the nonexistent! Life's crushing dream may smother me / I may suffocate as I dream, - / And yet a lighthearted youth, perhaps / Will say of me in times to come: Let us forgive his gloo...»
«And with longing and love you will shake off / The heavy dream of everyday consciousness. / V. Soloviev I apprehend You. The years pass by - / Yet in constant form, I apprehend You. The whole horizon is aflame - impossibly sharp, / And mute, I wait, - with longing and with love. The whole...»
«Those born in obscure times / Do not remember their way. / We, children of Russia's frightful years / Cannot forget a thing. Incinerating years!, do you bring tidings / of madness or of hope? / The days of war, the days of freedom / Have left a bloody sheen on our faces. There is a mu...»