Алёха [Aleha] [English translation]

Yesterday thoroughly bad news were sent to us:

It was said to us, that Alyosha had given up his ghost.

How can that be? He tolds us, that he enjoys life,

That in a week he will begin to celebrate the wedding!

The girl will not see this wedding,

Because at a fight he fell on a knife.

Because it is bad - but not for the first time,

Alyosha got a new hole in his soul.

If he patched up for that his soul like a shirt,

To be killed when drunk in a fight by the riff-raff!

If everything were in order, we should go today to the wedding,

But he was found in the morning with a knife in the shoulderblade.

What now, the girl is broken.

What now, she is in dispair - and the tears dry,

And then, without a sigh, she opens the door to everybody.

It doesn't matter, Alyosha, you don't care now.

We shall bury him very modestly. Why sob!

There is nobody to tell about the burial.

Because nobody knows, where Alyosha's home is.

That is, such a crazy death is then awaiting all of us.

What now, the girl is broken.

What now, she is in dispair - and the tears dry,

An then, without a sigh, she opens the door to everybody.

God forgives, Alyosha! It doesn't matter to him now.

• Artist:Vladimir Vysotsky