Uncle Styopa Part 4 By S. Mickhalkov Poem by Yuri Starostin

4. Uncle Styopa -the veteran

He lived in Moscow, Stepan Stepanov
The noble policeman.
And now Stepan Stepanov -
The average pensioner.

The veteran have many years,
The man is already hoar.
Yet he is the youngest
Among all people.

Stepanov do not sitting home,
Do not looking all day in the window
And he is not looking for a friends
In order to fight in a domino.

What is et busy uncle Styopa,
Our childhood hero?
As before, uncle Styopa
Friends tight with a kids.

Take, for example, the stadium -
Where the children are, there he is!
The children go on in the zoo -
The children uncle Stepa are waiting for.

Now he goes by his wide step
Across the square.
And the children throng is around -
The curious people.

- Tell us, uncle Styopa,
How lives your son Egor?

- Show, uncle Styopa,
How to look over the fence? -
Uncle Styopa glad to try:
Will show! See, mates! ..

He does not know the sense of a measure, -
The pensioners say.
Uncle Styopa and now
Wants to be younger than us!

_____

Unless there's something else,
That you can hide for a long time?
Fifth grader Rybkin Peter
Slowly began to smoke.

The kid have to a cigarettes
And the arms stretches.
To do not know the pupil
He is last in all subjects.

The fool begin coughing.
This is a mean the tobacco!

Uncle Styopa harit the eyebrows:
- Who do among you, boys, smoke?
A smokers I don't suffer!
The health I do not destroy!
You are - the conscious people!
That do, who smokes, the step forward!

One answer for himself,
Blushing at all as a cancer,
Fifth grader Rybkin Peter
Made a required step.

What is here to say more?
'I promise to do not smoke!

Stepanov winked to the children
Shake the boy arm...
All know that Rybkin Peter
Kept the word.

_____

The height the infantry takes -
The military forces go in the offensive.
Someone pulls the 'tongue'
As a frog, from the swamp.

Even the girls can't sleep,
They, the nurses, do not to sleep...
It is a game 'Zarnitsa' -
Not a military war.

Uncle Styopa on the hill
Yes yet on the mound
Watches by the sharp look
For the battle in the distance.

Vertushkin Mitya ran,
The platoon commander asks:
'Uncle Styopa! Though crouch!
You're such a landmark!

Uncle Styopa smiled,
But he did - he ducked.

The former foreman:
Though playing, but the war!

_____

Surrounded uncle Styopa is,
Directly to escort him to the staff:
'Please tell me, uncle Styopa,
You are 'fan' for whom?

- I will not answer
I'm supposed to be silent.
Arrested I am. I'm prisoner.
No word I will not told!

_____

Once morning uncle Styopa
Meet in the yard;
- Where are you go?
- Fly to Europe!
Home I will be in the september.
I have the tickets and have the trip ticket,
On the aeroplane from Moscow to Paris.

To refuse indeed awkward:
And even no desire- fly on!
All go in the aeroplane:
'Well, curry on, Aeroflot!

Uncle Styopa sat down in a chair,
He fasten belts. He eaten the breakfast.
Just he get the newspaper
What is it? He arrived!
He landed on the three points
He arrive in Paris.

The Eiffel tower in Paris
Uncle Styopa visited.
'You, of course, a little lower! ' -
The translator joked.

The venerable mayor receive
At the old town hall the tourists,
Our pensioner raise
The sparkling glass for Paris.

Sitting near to the partisan,
He spoke about Moscow,
Gift the russian nested doll
To the two workers-veterans

Uncle Stepa was invited
And in the Museum, and in the restaurant
And everywhere to represent:
'This is the Russian giant! '

And once with the suitcase,
Going through x-rays firstly,
Tourist Stepan Stepanov
Board the plane Paris - Moscow.

He sat down in a chair at the window.
Fasten belts. He eaten the breakfast.
Just he get the newspaper
What is it? Arrived!

How is the flight, uncle Styopa?
- How is your health?
How is Europe? '
And Stepanov say to all in the response:
- Better the home - no a place!

_____

The meeting of the class in fifth grade.
All should be on the meeting!
Declared the rush job:
Uncle Styopa has fallen ill!

Uncle Styopa cold
And he fall in the bed.
And the friends are too here:
They went in, and these are waiting for...

Who bring him the jam,
Who send the poem,
Who is making the tea:
'Uncle Styopa! Here the raspberries,
Drink instead the aspirin!
'Uncle Styopa! Do not be bored! ..

And, touched by the attention,
Be full of a thanks,
Aunt Manya meet all -
Uncle Styopa wife.

A week is not gone yet,
Uncle Styopa get up the bed,
Went on Friday to the yard,
And meet the son Egor.

The son meet with the father,
Everyone looks very good!

- You can congratulate us with my daughter!
The astronaut said to the father...

It is necessary here to stamp the point.
Uncle Styopa is the grandfather!

Veteran Stepan Stepanov,
If healthy to see,
Should sooner or later,
Unfortunately, die.

It's amazing deal:
Day after day, year after year,
Many springs have passed,
And Stepanov still lives!

He has the retrait
And the senior year,
But he was not older
No and never!

Those who knew him sometime
And walked with him to the kindergarten
Those are bearded today
And acquaint him the grandchildren.

Uncle Styopa with their friends -
He is true to the guys
And ready anytime, anywhere
To help them in any trouble.

The adults and the children know,
All reading people,
That living in this world,
Uncle Styopa will not die!

Sergei Mikhalkov. Favorites.
World library of poetry.
Rostov-on-don, Phoenix,1999.