Мамины подружки [Maminy podruzhki] [English translation]

In the happy times of my early, silly childhood,

Which I cannot speak about or describe,

Mummy used to take me to the bath-house in our neighbourhood,

Where she began to wash me and scrub

I stood there jerking feet and crying loud,

Rubbing my eyes with my fists, and did not see,

How my Mummy's girlfriends, who were around,

Splashed the water at each other and at me.

When I grew a little older from my elder brother

Under the seal of secrecy I learnt

Why Mother didn't go to the bath with father

At my question father laughed a lot

Why there are separate baths and toilets

And above them letters f and m

And my Mummy's girlfriends, and my Mummy's girlfriends

In the bath around me - what fun with them

And one day when Mummy scrubbed her back and was not near

The advices of my elder brother I forgot

And asked the fattest of my Mummy's girlfriends Zina

Why don't you have the thing that I have got

Zina was embarrassed like an innocent girl

Reddened and pronounced 'Oh my God!'

And my Mummy's girlfriends, and my Mummy's girlfriends

In the bath-house laughed at me a lot

Zina ran away from us to the cloakroom

Carrying her own washing cloth with her

She complained to my Mummy, Mummy scolded

And took me to the bath-house no more

I abandoned long ago childish amusements

And I see only dreams till I awake

How my Mummy's girlfriends, how my Mummy's girlfriends

Rub with their wash rags all over my back

How naked daughters of my Mummy's girlfriends

Rub with their wash rags all over my back

• Artist:Mikhail Krug