For four years our corsair roved the sea, Our banner hasn’t faded in storms and battles, We finally learned how to darn the sails, And how to close the leaks with our bodies. The squadron is now following our ship. Storm on the sea, we can’t avoid the encounter. But the captain calmly said to us: "We aren’t sunk yet, we aren’t sunk yet!" The frigate with black flags has turned around, And the left deck was painted with smoke. We answered them at random with a cannon shot - Fire and death in the distance, the luck is ours. We got out of our worse troubles before, But the wind is raging, and the hold is leaking. But the captain is sending us a habitual sign: "We aren’t sunk yet, we aren’t sunk yet!" Hundreds of eyes are watching us through binoculars, And they see us going insane from so much smoke. But they shall never see us chained to oars, They will never think that we are cowards. The crazy battle. Our ship has begun to sink. Save our human souls right now! But the captain screamed: "All to the grappling! We aren’t sunk yet, we aren’t sunk yet!" Whoever wants to live, whoever’s happy and not a rat, Prepare your fists to face the battle. And rats! Just let them leave the ship, They’re only preventing us from a reckless fight. And rats thought: "The devil jokes with all!" And they jumped off the ship, escaping the gunshots, While we with our frigate faced the other ship. No, we aren’t sunk yet, we aren’t sunk yet! Face to face, knife to knife, eye to eye - So the sharks and the crabs won’t get us - One with a spear, one with a knife, one in tears, One by one, we were leaving the sinking ship. Hut no, it won’t sink to the bottom. The ocean will help us, it is stronger - Because the ocean stands at our side as well. And the captain was right: "We aren’t sunk yet!"
© Nathan Mer. Translation, 1991