The ballad of the departure for paradiseThe ballad of the departure for paradise
Here's your ticket, here's your railway car,
Everything's in order: you've got a unique chance
To see a dream of technicolour heaven:
Three centuries of non-stop cinema.
All's ready, the photos have been taken,
Everything's been stamped, no contraband we're taking,
You're now as sterile as a cherub,
In second class (not the best), but with linen.
Everything's now come true, as was predicted.
The train takes off for heaven - straight ahead!
How we'd like, how all of us would like it -
Not to die, to fall asleep instead.
The earthly platform... Don't whimper!
And don't weep! He's deaf to our wailing.
One of us has left for paradise;
He'll meet God surely, if some kind of god there is.
He'll transmit our salutations.
If he forgets, no matter, we'll survive.
We've only a few years to live,
We'll somehow manage and, as scheduled, die.
Everything's now coming true, as was predicted.
The train leaves for paradise - Straight ahead!
How we'd like,how all of us would like it -
Not to die, to fall asleep instead.
It's not everybody's lot to sleep in heaven,
Here at any rate we'll have a little fling:
We'll scrap a little, sing; ah, here I sing,
Others love, still others think of loving.
They'll leave like us, toward nothing headed,
Sleepless sons of grandsons, three centuries astride.
And may God grant, there'll be no war,
Or we'll have taken our descendants for a ride.
So everything comes true, as was predicted,
The train leaves for heaven - Straight ahead !
How we'd like, how all of us would like it -
Not to die, to fall asleep instead.
Narry a moan, you couldn't care less;
On your eternal couch you sway.
But such a price, I must confess,
Not for the finest library I'd pay.
Some sort of fellow will awake you,
And usher you into a world where war and cancer,
Like Hong Kong flu, belong to the past.
Are you happy, Fool, for what awaits you ?
Meanwhile, the little bell is ringing.
Bon voyage! Protect yourself from every ill.
And if up there, a God there really is,
Don't forget to deliver him our greeting.
****
He has not come back from the combatHe has not come back from the combat
Everything is not right? Why? It looks as the same:
Sky above, is as blue as it always,
Same is forest, the river, and also the air
But he hasn't returned from the combat
I can't now get straight, who was true there from us
In disputes without sleeping and repose.
It became not to snatch him only, today,
When he has not come back from the combat.
He kept silence out of place and not in tact joined in song,
Always talking a different matter
He didn't let me to sleep, he got up with the sun,
But yesterday didn't return from the combat.
That, it's emptily now, not a matter for talk
We were two- only now I noticed,
As a wind blew out bonfire for me,
When he hasn't returned from combat.
Teared away as from captivity spring,
By mistake I desided to hail him:
"Pal, leave something to smoke",- only silence in response,
Yesterday he remained in the battle.
Those who died won't leave us in trouble,
Our fallen - as senturies are standing...
Sky reflects in the forest, as in the water,
In the azure the trees are all painted.
In dug-out for us there was place quite enough,
Time was flowing for us just for both...
Everything now for one, but it's going to seem,
That it's me who haven't returned.
SOURCE