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

Well, I lived with mom and daddy,

In the center,1 life was swell.

And today I’m in a sickbay,

On a bunk bed, bandaged well.

Not for valor, not for Taylor2 –

Whole wide world, who gives a damn!

On my right a guy has perished,

On my left side one still hangs.

And one eve – he sure was raving –

That left guy has told me straight:

“I just wonder, did you notice?

You are missing one of legs.”

“What the hell? He’s lying, brothers!

It must be a joke of sort?”

“Only toes are amputated,” –

That is all I’ve heard from Doc.

But this fellow, on my left side,

Would not stop with laughs and jokes.

Through the night he still would maunder,

Missing leg was all his talks.

He would mock me: “Not a walker!

You will never see your wife!”

"– Wish you’d see yourself, dear comrade,

How you look in real life.

If I would not be a cripple,

I would climb from my bunk bed,

And the one who’s on my left side,

Rest assured, will be dead.

I was begging my nurse Taylor

To tell bluntly, do not soothe.

If my right-side pal were present,3

He would tell me all the truth…

1. Arbat street in the original. Arbat is a pedestrian street about one kilometer long in the historical center of Moscow, Russia. 2. Kláva in the original3. alt. Wish my right pal didn't perish

• Artist:Vladimir Vysotsky