Eagles and butterflies (and some other things)
Still live. Let's leave them in peace.
And clouds. Don't disturb them either.
Let there be you and I, two umbrellas and the rain.
And if everything gets broken, there'll be nothing,
And people have broken so much inside.
Орлы и бабочки (и кое-что другое)
Еще живут. Оставим их в покое.
И облака. Их тоже не тревожь.
Пусть будут ты да я, два зонтика и дождь.
А если всё сломать, то ничего не будет,
И так уж многое внутри сломали люди.
«We saw death at rather close range, / and perhaps we could have died ourselves, / we walked wherever it was possible to walk, / and looked at everything that one could look at. / We climbed into trenches / drenched with the smell of creosote / and “sake” spilt on the sand, / where ...»
«To A. Surkov Remember, Alyosha, the roads of Smolensk, / The cruel, the endlessly falling rain, / The tired women bringing us earthenware vessels, / And hugging them, like children, from the rain, How they wiped their eyes, stealthily, / And whispered on parting: “May God protect you! / ...»
«On an accordion which had seen plenty, / Moving his fingers over husky keys, / In an unfamiliar car the blind man played / The song “Along the Highway.”1 Blinded near Molodechno, / Back in that other, different war, / Straight from the clinic, he had set out, crippled, / His eyes sh...»
«Wait for me, and I’ll come back, / But wait with all your might, / Wait when dreariness descends / With the yellow rains, / Wait when snowdrifts sweep the ground, / Wait during the heat, / Wait when others are given up / And together with the past forgotten. / Wait when from distan...»