Стаи летят [Stai letyat] [English translation]

Led by the hand, told of the faithful

Bowed at the feet; flights on the flight

Handkerchiefed hearts1; and the life’s bane yet

Dropped in the throat; may be absolved

Hours wasted in search for breast sashes

The mouths are set; time forward goes

The rood’s out-front, flagged are the elbows2

Bayoneted flags; the yield trampled by goats3

Gray quietude; sleeping pills for use4

Tremor in veins; lightsome condition

The light barefoot fig’s at the nose

To run abreast on a short leash

The quenchless flame; daylight fluorescents5

The stairwell’s dark; do mind the step

The potion’s hard; the kin’s lamenting

Nooked6 is the table; the icon’s candled7

Led by the hand, flights on the flight

May be absolved…

1. "Handkerchiefed" here means "with handkerchiefs nearby (in chest pockets)"2. Yanka's "локти устали" ("the elbows are tired") has another variant in the book by Yakov Sokolov http://yanka.lenin.ru/knigi/ya_ha.pdf "локти у стали", ("elbows are near steel") but that is, probably, a typo.3. Here Yanka uses a piece of the idiom "пустить козла в огород" ("to let a goat into the kitchengarden")4. "Колёса" ("wheels") (slang) - any psychoactive pills, often pills of any type, including aspirin, are called so.5. "Лампы дневные" - here, fluorescent tubes of "daylight" color, widely used in hospitals, morgues, etc. in the USSR in 1980s.6. "Nooked" can mean here not only "having angles, corners", but also "hidden in a corner" too, Yanka uses only simple nouns in this string, that have a descriptive meaning.7. "Candled" will thus mean "illuminated by candlelight".

• Artist:Yanka Dyagileva