Heat white steam for me, my dear hostess - So I can get used to free life, - I’ll get looped, and in my muddled thoughtlessness, Splash of water will loosen my tongue. Heat the bath hut for me, dear hostess, - I will get myself angry and hot, On the bench, by the bucket and steaming rocks, I will drown my doubts and thoughts. I will grow relaxed in my misery, Splash of water - and all is behind, - The tattoo from the times of cult leadership On the left breast will stand out in pride. Heat white steam for me, my dear hostess - I’m unused to life free of Gulag, - I’ll get looped, and in my muddled thoughtlessness, Steaming sauna will loosen my tongue. So much faith, like the trees, has been slaughtered, So much anguish, assignments and fright! On my left breast in blue Stalin’s face in thought, And Marinka’s face smiles on the right. Oh, it seems for my sheer blind fealty Gulag’s heaven I tasted for years! For a life full of hopeless misery I exchanged all my failed youthful quests. Heat white steam for me, my dear hostess - I’m unused to life free of Gulag, - I’ll get looped, and in my muddled thoughtlessness, Steaming sauna will loosen my tongue. I remember one morning as sunrise dawned Yelled last time to my brother: “Get help!” - As two cheerful guards showed at the door And moved me to Siberian hell. Afterwards - in the mines, in the marshes’ mires, Gulping tears and fumes in barracks, O’er the heart we tattooed Stalin’s stern profiles, So he’d hear like burst our hearts. Don’t heat the steam for me, my hostess - I’m unused to life free of Gulag, - I’ll get looped, and in my muddled thoughtlessness, Steaming sauna will loosen my tongue. I get chills from this story meticulous! Steam drove thought from my reason in wrath. From the mist of my frozen history I dip into hot mist of your bath. Thoughts knock hard in my head like an outpour: Why, turns out I’m branded in vain, - And I whip the blue face of my tormentor With the bundle of birch in my pain. Heat white steam for me, my dear hostess - So I can get used to free life, - I’ll get looped, and in my muddled thoughtlessness, Splash of water will loosen my tongue.
© Yakov Shapiro. Translation, 2023