Случай в ресторане [Sluchay v restorane] [English translation]

Standard paintings are hanging on the restaurant’s walls:

The Three Bears1 and A Slain Russian Soldier.2

At the table, a captain is sitting alone.

"Would you mind?" I have asked. "Please come join me."

"Want to smoke?" "I’m sorry, I don’t smoke this brand."

"It’s O.K. Have a drink! Where’s your tumbler?"

"They’re still serving on me." "Drink! What have I just said!?"

"For your health!" "I’ll be healthy regardless."

"Well, I see now," the captain said, visibly drunk,

"You are skillful with vodka, no questions.

Have you faced machine guns or approaching tanks?

Have you rushed to attack from the trenches?

Forty third was a year when they sent me to Kursk.3

Just made sergeant, but Kursk was a torture!

I lived through quite a lot, quite a lot, lad, for you,

For your safety today and in future!"

He was cussing my name, even brought up my dad.4

He was yelling at me over dishes:

“I gave all of my life for you, rascal, and, lad,

You just wasting your life, oh, you’re filthy…

I would give you a rifle and send on the route!

Yet you’re drinking my vodka in comfort!”

I was hunkering down like in trenches of Kursk,

Where this captain was only a sergeant.

He and I were both getting progressively drunk.

At the end of our tough conversation

I offended this captain with my last remark:

“You will not get a major promotion!"5

1. a colloquial name for "Morning in a Pine Forest" by Ivan Shishkin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_in_a_Pine_Forest2. Probably a colloquial name of a painting by Viktor Vasnetsov "After Prince Igor’s Battle".3. The Battle of Kursk was one of the largest and important engagements between German and Soviet forces in WW2.4. Not a small talk. Captain is asking his opponent what his dad was doing during the war.5. "You will never get a major promotion!" would be more accurate there.

• Artist:Vladimir Vysotsky