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English

WAIT FOR ME AND I’LL RETURN!
K. Simonov.

Equirhythmic translation by Em Rostverg

 

 

Wait for me, and I'll return!
Wait with all your might!
Wait, when yellow foliage rains
Make you really sad.

Wait when snows are falling fast,
Wait through summer's heat,

Wait when others do not wait

Forgetting faded past.

Wait, when from the place remote
Letters don't arrive.
Wait, when those, with whom you wait, 
Doubt that I’m alive.

 

Wait for me, and I'll return!
Don’t mean well to those…

Those, who know, as if by heart,

Time to let me go.

Even when my Mom and son
Say that I am lost,
Even when my friends give up,
Sit and count the cost,
Drink a glass of bitter wine
To the fallen friend -
Wait! And do not drink with them!
Wait until I come!

 

Wait for me and I'll return, 
Dodging any fate! 
"What a bit of luck!" they'll say, 
Those who will not wait. 
They will never understand 
How amidst the war, 
By your constant waiting, dear, 
You have saved my soul. 
Only you and I will know 
How you got me through. 
How you knew to wait for me - 
No one else… but you.

 

 

July - August 1941

© 2015-2024 The Institute of the Sun
Pictures of the paintings: Sergrei Didyk