Он не вернулся из боя [On ne vernulsya iz boya] [English translation]

Why everything is so wrong? Everything seems the same like ever:

The same sky – still blue,

The same forest, the same air and the same water,

But he didn’t come back from the battle.

I can’t get it now, who was right between us

In our sleepless and restless arguments.

I started to miss it just now,

When he didn’t come back from the battle.

I kept silent not in time and I didn’t sing in cadence,

He always talked about other thing,

He didn’t let me sleep, he used to get up at dawn,

But yesterday he didn’t come back from the battle.

That, it is empty now, - the talk is not about that,

Suddenly I noticed – we were two.

It seemed to me that the wind blew away the campfire,

When he didn’t come back from the battle.

Now it escaped, as though from captivity, spring,

By mistake I shouted him:

- Friend, let me a bit to smoke! – But as the answer – the silence:

Yesterday he didn’t come back from the battle.

Our dead people won’t let us alone in trouble,

Our fallen on the battlefield people – they’re like guards.

The sky is reflected in the forest, like in the water,

And the blue trees are standing.

We had enough space in the dugout,

And we had enough time for us.

Now everything belongs to one. But it just seems to me,

That it’s me who didn’t come back from the battle.

• Artist:Vladimir Vysotsky