V.Vysotsky, We Rotate The Earth - Translation (Rus.) Poem by Lyudmila Purgina

V.Vysotsky, We Rotate The Earth - Translation (Rus.)



by Vladimir Vysotsky
(From the road diary)

And the waiting was long,
But the send-off - was short though...
And the friends wished me: 'Wow!
All the best on your roads! '
And four countries have drawn
Their ways eyes before,
And four borders arose
With the bars high upwards.

And the shadows dark
Of the passing-by birches
Voluntarily lied under wheels,
The highway dimly shined,
As the bayonet, pointed
Sharply into the heavens, indeed.

The eternal condemned flies - mosquitos -
Got smashed up just in front of my nose,
And the windscreen'd become as the picture
Of the artist Dahli, widely famous.
Muddled thoughts so lazy
were beating
In my head-crown roughly in turn,
Shook my mind so crazy - let's spit them!
And the war time had entered inwards...
Time, which's mixed up with blood, no doubt...
To the cab entered eyes in the bandages,
And they asked: 'Where are you?
To the west? Turn back now! '
But I kept silence...
Bullets scratched
Over covering...
I've heard the scream: 'Lie! Bombs! Be careful! Here!

And the highway had gone...
This the true only channel...
And the trunks of the fire
Were without the cut tops by mines,
The illusive such flow
Had bypased the radiator.
And the whole day's way
Wasn't in progres at all.

I've slept at the wheel,
I've languished to yawning.
What to do: to pinch ear,
Or to rub eyes to open?
Suddenly I've seen
In my car the foot sergeant:
'Ho! It's a trophy thing! ' - he said, -
'It is easy to sit'.

We did eat with the sergant the cutlets and radishes.
He surprised with such food while the war-time.
'I had, brer, '- he said, -' eaten eight days in Minsk previously.
Go then, thanks! May be I'll have a look in some time...'

He had gone to the east
With the depleted detachment...
And again the quiet peace Entered cab through the plating.
This time glanced
With the only one woman eye's look,
She said silently:
'Are you tired? Please, rest. I'll replace you'.

All is right, and at last we're two now.
We are going to border... Thirty years divide
These strange meetings, although...
The car brushed ran up,
Washed the windscreen, and there
We'd seen the road signs - caution for us.
There was nothing on road, besides
the pits and bumps rare,
Which resemble the war. Only the so young trees...
But it seemed to me that
two huge bayonets appeared,
And had slashed with a cold on my shivering skin...
On this straight speedway I've minded,
Though never been fighting,
That I've been at the war...
And the highway was then
The grey bayonets sharpening,
And the raggs of the swastikas
Dangled on this bayonet.

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Lyudmila Purgina

Lyudmila Purgina

Russian Federation
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