Nikolay Rubtsov
O, my peaceful motherland

Dedicated to V.Belov

O, my peaceful motherland!
Nightingales, willows and streams,
Mother's regrettable funeral,
That, all my life, I have seen.

— Tell me the way to the cemetery.
I by myself cannot find.
Countrymen answered me, whispering:
It's on the opposite side.

Countrymen answered willingly,
Softly passed by string of carts,
Church cloister dome, vividly,
Grown with bright-coloured grass.

Places, I swam for fish to hook,
Now have many hay stacks
There between those river crooks
Dug was canal in a crack.

Slimy and boggy is river band,
Where I liked swimming. As yet!
Oh, my peaceful motherland!
Nothing I cannot forget.

Ther's a new fence in front of school,
Green scope's the same, wide and fine.
Like a crow so cheerful
Right on the fence I shall climb.

Oh, my school! Wooden school of mine!
Time will approach to leave —
And behind me foggy river line
Will, from myself, flee and flee.

With every hut, heavy cloudness
And thunder, ready to fall,
I feel the link so boundless,
Scalding and mortal in all.

Translated by Lyubov Kalmykova