This land isn’t flat this climate is bad There’re avalanches frome time to time And stones fall from somewhere above And we can turn and go round But what we choose is a difficult route Dangerous like a path of war. You never were here you never took risk It means you never tested yourself Even if you grabbed stars from the sky Down there you’ll never meet Never in your happy life Ten percent of miracles and beauties here No scarlet roses no funeral crepe It doesn’t look like a tombstone The stone that gave you eternal peace In daylight eternal fire sparkles Eternal fire of emerald ice The ice on the mountain top you never reached. And let them gossip and let them talk We know nobody dies in vain This way to die is better than vodka or cold The others will change some comfortable place To risk and a lot of excessive work They will complete your uncompleted route. Look out when climbing these vertical walls Don’t set your hopes upon your luck At mountains we never trust neither stone nor ice All you can trust is your own hands And hands of your friend and safety anchor And prayer to Lord for the quality of the rope. We cut footsteps we never step back We spare no efforts with thembling knees Your heart is ready to leave you after and run The world’s on your palm you’re happy and dumb You envy a bit the climbing people The others with their tops still waiting ahead.
© Alex Sokolov. Translation, 2011