This is your train. This is your seat. All fine and dandy. You have proven you belong. In paradise a dream you’ll see: An endless movie that’s three hundred years long. They took your prints. They scanned your eyes. They checked for contraband, and you have passed the screen. Now like a ghost you’re sterilized. This ain’t no business class, but hey - the sheets are clean! And so the prophecy is now reality. This train is heavenbound, and the climb is steep. Oh how we wish - excuse my banality - We all wish not to die but merely to sleep! He’s on his way, can’t hear our cries. Don’t waste your tears: one of us has made the lists. The man has gone to paradise! He will meet God there if God really exists! He’ll say “Hello!” from all of us. If he forgets, no harm, somehow we’ll get by. In a few years we’ll all be dust: We’ll fool around and undoubtedly die. And so the prophecy becomes reality. This train is heavenbound, and the climb is steep. Oh how we wish - excuse my banality - We all wish not to die but merely to sleep! The rest of us can’t come along. But we can mess around here well enough. We fight, we sing... I sing this song! Somebody loves, and someone else intends to love. We pass through life and nothing more. Our children and their children follow suit. I only pray there is no war! Or else our grandchildren will be forever fooled! And so the prophecy is now reality. This train is heavenbound, and the climb is steep. Oh how we wish - excuse my banality - We all wish not to die but merely to sleep! You’re on your way, lying by yourself, Ingesting a three hundred year-long bliss. Now as for me: for a chic bookshelf I would not pay the price as high as this. When you’re awake, some chap lets you Into the world with no diseases, dirt, and wars, Where long defeated is the swine flu... Fool, are you happy in this premade universe? But now the bell is ringing loud. Have a safe trip now, as I know you must. And if you really do see God, Please, don’t forget and say “Hello!” from us!
© Vadim Astrakhan. Translation, 2017
© Vadim Astrakhan. Performance, 2017