DO THE RUSSIANS WANT WAR?

Music by E. Kolmanovsky
Lyrics by Y. Yevtushenko

Performing M. Bernes

Equirhythmic translation by Em Rostverg

Do the Russians want war?

You ask the stillness evermore

Above a wide expanse of fields,

And ask the birch and poplar trees.

You ask the soldiers who now lie

Beneath the birch trees and the sky,

And let their sons tell you once more

If the Russians really want...,

If the Russians really want war.

Not only for their own land

Did Russian soldiers fight and fall.

They died that men from every shore

Might live without fears of war.

Ask those who fought, and those erased,

Ask those who at the Elbe hugged us.

And you will see again once more

If the Russians really want...,

If the Russians really want war.

Yes, we can fight when fight we must,

But don't wish to see again,

How our guys give up their lives

In battles so before their time.

You ask the mothers, ask my wife,

And you will understand at last,

And you will never wonder more

If the Russians really want...,

If the Russians really want war.

1961