Like anyone, we can be happy or be sad But if we must make a choice - and the choice is evil - Then we should choose to be wooden-clad, People! People! Hey, hey, they tell us - you’re making a mistake. Ah come on now - you’ve seen nothing yet. These are just beginnings, the early steps you make, And then they offer: this or that! Enjoy beaches, openings or steamships - Always packed out and completely mad - And races, shindigs and wild trips, Or just be wooden-clad. And maybe they’ll be happy, maybe sad, Judge us kindly or be jesters of evil, But they will always let us be wooden-clad People! People! Maybe then they’ll even offer us a tag - Ah yes, you’ve not smoked for a while - too bad. And you’ve still barely started life’s drag So then they offer: this or that! A smoke of a fag can clear the brain: One puff - and your thoughts won’t be so bad. I need a smoke! God, I need a drag again! But its time to be wooden-clad. They can be polite and sometimes even friendly: Here’s life on a plate for you - here’s the key, pal. But we’ll refuse - and they’ll strike back cruelly, People! People...
1 This song was written for the ending of the bitingly satirical 1968 film Intervention, in which Vysotsky played the Bolshevik Brodsky, hunted high and low by Whites, and also Michael Voronov, who teaches a son of a rich widow. Brodsky is finally caught, and in the closing scene, he sings this song that explains his choice between betrayal of his comrades and death. For him, the only choice is always the coffin - being wooden-clad.
 
© John Farndon + Olga Nakston. Translation, 2022