Песня о госпитале [Pesnja o gospitale] [English translation]

I lived with mother and father

On the Arbat - if it were always so.

And now I am in a hospital

In the bed, all in bandages.

What is for us glory, what is for us Klava -

The nurse and bright light?

My neighbour on the right died,

The one, who is on the left - not yet.

And once - like carbon monoxide fumes -

That neighbour, who is on the left,

Told me suddenly: - Now listen, buddy,

You have a leg less.

How come! That's not true brother!

He, probably, joked?

- We only cut off toes, -

So the doctor told me.

But the neighbour, who is on the left,

Smiled all the time, joked all the time.

Even if nightly he was delirious -

He spoke about the leg.

Mockingly he said: You will not get up!

You won't see, he said, your wife!

If you only could, comrade,

See yourself from the side.

If I were not a cripple

And could get down from the bed,

I'd the one, who is to the left,

Simply bite through the throat!

I implored nursie Klava

To show me what happened to me.

If the neighbour, who was on the left, were alive, -

He would tell me the truth ...

• Artist:Vladimir Vysotsky