Белые розы [Belye rozy] [English translation]

(It's) a little bit warmer behind the glass,

but the angry frosts

I enter these doors, as if into a garden

of July flowers.

I so want to warm them with warmth,

but white roses

in front of everyone's eyes,

I am ready to kiss and caress.

White roses, white roses,

defenceless thorns.

What have the snow, frosts

and ice of blue vitrines done to them?

People'll decorate their holiday with you

only for a couple of days.

And leave you to die on the white,

cold window.

And people carry you home*

and on a late evening

may the festive light fill, within an instant,

all the windows of the yards.

Who'd think to grow you in the winter,

oh white roses,

and to divert the cruel blizzards of cold winds

into this world.

• Artist:Yuri Shatunov