I’d rahter live with Mom and Dad in Moscow downtown Instead I am in a medical battalion on a bed, bandaged We don’t care for glory and for Klava the nurse My right neighbour is dead already the left one is not yet. And once like in frenzy my left neighbour Suddenly said, listen pal you have no leg, have you? No, no, no, I don’t believe it most likely it’s a joke We will cut your toes only this was doctor’s own words. But my left neighbour kept laughing and joking Even when he raved at night he was talking about my leg Never stand up, pal (he jeered) never see your wife again I wish, comrade you could look at yourself. If I were not a cripple and could stand ap I would reach my left neighbour and just bite through his throat I was pleading Klava the nurse to show me what am I now If my right neighbour were alive he would tell me the truth.
© Alex Sokolov. Translation, 2011