Yuri Levitansky
I`ve been there, yes, and so what?..

I've been there, yes, and so what?
It's all bygone, I have forgot.
I can't recall a date, a day,
a battlefield, a river crossed.
I'm from the ranks. I'm No Name.
I'm unaccounted-for and lost.
I 'm an accidental bullet miss.
I'm blood-stained January ice.
I'm frozen in this crystal piece
Like petrified in amber flies.

I've been there, yes, and so what?
I don't remember. I forgot.
I can't recall the names, the moves,
I can't recall a single place.
I'm neigh and thud of horses'hoofs.
I'm whizz of bullets fired in face.
I'm not-lived-through, aborted day.
I'm fire of battle still unquenched.
I'm part of the Eternal Flame
And flame of gun-shots from a trench.

I've been there, yes, and so what?
That cursed "to be or not to be".
I almost totally forgot,
I will forget, I will be free.
I don't participate in war!
The war participates in me.
Eternal Flame does reach my core,
Trembles on my face and burns my skin.

No one can cure me — too late! —
from those years, from that war.
No one can now separate
me from that winter — nevermore.
No one can split me off from all
that snow and cold blood-sodden earth —
Until the final snowfall
in which my traces will be lost.

Translated by Natasha Gotskaya