Why is everything wrong? All seems same as it should. There’s the blue sky again of the same sight. There are same water, same air and the same wood, But he has not returned from the fight. Now, I’ll not understand who was right, he or I, In our disputes without dream and quiet. All my needing of him has begun only now When he has not returned from the fight. He would sing out of time, out of place mute he was, Spoke of life in the different light. He would hamper my doze, at daybreak always rose. Now he has not returned from the fight. That it’s so empty now, there’s no talking about. ’Twas the two of us I’ve had in my mind. And for me ’twas like fire by wind was blown out, When he did not return from the fight. Now a spring has from the captivity rushed. I mistakenly hailed him today: "Buddy, give me a smoke". In response ’twas the hush. He was not back from fight yesterday. Our dead men will help us to bare the Rood. Our perished are sentries without rest. Like in water the sky is reflected in wood, So the sky blue trees stand in the forest. There was plenty of room in a mud hut for us, And the time for the two of us rattled. All is now for the one, but methought all at once It was I who was not back from battle.
© Eugeny Koshelev. Translation, 2007