Mikhail Svetlov
Suliko

To Rodam Amirejibi**

I am taking you, Suliko,
Down the paths of memory’s maze
In the charmed land of long-ago
Where I lived in my youthful days.

It was such a long time ago...
The Ukraine... How the sun then shone!
Through the wild steppe gallopped Makhno***
Pointing straight at me his gun.

I was just a greenhorn then
And had little idea that
A revolver’s much heavier than
The toy pistol I had at my belt.

Only twenty years had gone
Since that time (it seems, in a trice),
When I knocked out an SS gun
That was pointed straight in your face.

Let us join our hands, and let’s
Watch the fires of far-off days.
Careful now! Let’s mind our steps
For we walk o’er my comrades graves.

Losing friends... Now, do you know
What it means? Just this: you say
Every day to him, “Brother, hello I”
And one day you say, “Brother, goodbye!”

I have learnt in my life a good deal
And I firmly believe, I pledge,
In a project of a canal
Between youth and the land of old age.

Just you follow me, dear Suliko,
Down the paths, however strange,
It is not very far to go
To the scene of my coming old age.

I can see him, sprightly and quick,
Shaven clean but wizen and furrowed,
Holding on to a walking-stick,
Climbing nimbly the steps of tomorrow.

That is me! That is me, you see,
Me, the one you love so dearly,
Me, whom friends always thought to be
Young forever — or very nearly.

With its thirst for great battles and deeds,
My heart never will grow tame and cold.
Understand me, my dearest, please:
That’s the only way I’ll grow old.

I have lived without fear or reprove,
Never hoarding unwanted wealth,
I the earth will embrace me with love
On the day when I meet my death,

You're my love, Suliko, my fate,
And my love is so young and strong
That I often have drought of late
You’ve come back to me from tire song.

___
*Suliko is the name of a beloved girl in Georgian folksongs.
*Rodam Amirejibi — the poet’s wife.
*Makhno — leader of anarchist bands in the Ukraine during the Civil War of 1918-1921.

Translated by Sergei Roy