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.
I am pleading: do not bother,
Don't stir up my soul.
For I will rush away from here —
And who will bring me back?
On my sled, back to that year —
Chasing old snow tracks.
I will find my way to where
In nineteen forty-five
Mom — so young! — is standing near
Father, still alive.
По несчастью или к счастью,
Истина проста:
Никогда не возвращайся
В прежние места.
Даже если пепелище
Выглядит вполне,
Не найти того, что ищем,
Ни тебе, ни мне.
Путешествие в обратно
Я бы запретил,
Я прошу тебя, как брата,
Душу не мути.
А не то рвану по следу —
Кто меня вернет? —
И на валенках уеду
В сорок пятый год.
В сорок пятом угадаю,
Там, где — боже мой! —
Будет мама молодая
И отец живой.
«The working day started at night. / Denunciations, papers, certificates. / Death sentences signed in a hurry. / Yawning, drinking of wine Vodka, all day, for the soldiers. / Come evening, by candlelight, / time to read out lists, herd / men and women into a dark yard, remove shoes, clo...»
«Scorching, as hot tar: / Unendurable a second time! / My brother, with so / Strange an admixture Of discord... (The sound / Of a torn branch comes here?) / My brother, suddenly setting / Like so many suns! My brother, with no other sisters: / Made entirely my own! / Up to your fune...»
«The hour of the soul 1 In the dark night of the soul, / Un-reckoned by any clock, / I gazed into the eyes of a boy, / Un-reckoned in the nights Of anyone yet, like two ponds / — Unclouded by memory and brimming — In repose... / At this point / Your li...»
«The hour of the soul 2 In the dark hour of the soul, / In the dark — of night... / (The gigantic footstep of the soul, / Of the soul at night) At that hour, soul, take control / Of those worlds, where you want / To rule — mansion of the soul, / Soul, of that, take control. Redden...»