This evening I’ll memorize and leave it in my soul - Not a festive table, not the meeting with friends: Today I’m the main dispatcher in full control, And today switch train tracks on my own I can. And although in the deserts I send trains, Where there are only dunes and hot sun in the sky, - My trains will not return empty again, While my oasis has not yet withered and die. I’ve traveled enough and even above the norm, - I stand, remembering, squeezing checkbox, As I sped in the train past the sleeping platforms And rivers with bridges that I burned, when I crossed. Now into the distant desert I send many trains, Where there are only dunes and hot sun in the sky, - My trains will not return empty again While my oasis has not yet withered and die. They will rush around the world without me - I don’t wring my hands I don’t cry out loud, - Otherwise they will impose passengers on me - Which I don’t want to get on the train, no doubt. So, into the distant desert I sent many trains, Where there are only dunes and hot sun in the sky, - My trains will not return empty again, While my oasis has not yet withered and die. The ice melted as well as miles and years - My first train came back to the station, - And my precious rocks it did not delivered, But the rails are humming and he’s back home. Let’s stand a little to cool down and rest: You haven’t met a river, you’re red-hot my friend. I myself didn’t go with you in the desert - And now my oasis was killed by the sand.
© Anatoli Trojanowski. Translation, 2021