Старый король [Staryy korolʹ] [English translation]

The king was preparing to invade a foreign country.

The queen has made for him hard chucks a whole bag

and his old mantle she has mended so accurately,

She gave him a pack of tobacco and salt in a rag.

And she put her hands on the king's chest and said

while caressing him with radiant gaze:

"Hit them harder, or you'll be famous as pacifist, your grace,

And don't forget to take from the enemy sweet gingerbread".

And the king sees--his troops are standing in the yard and pray.

Five sad soldiers, five cheerful soldiers and a corporal in between.

The king told then:" we don't fear neither the press nor the wind,

we'll beat the enemy, and return victorious, and hooray!"

But at last the celebration of farewell speeches come to an end.

During the march, the king changed his army formation:

the cheerful soldiers he at once appointed as quartermasters,

but he left the sad ones as a soldiers-- "Maybe nothing will happen".

The days of victory have come, imagine that.

Five sad soldiers didn't returned from the fight.

The corporal, morally weak, took a captive for a wife,

but they capture a whole bag of gingerbread.

Play, orchestras, let's hear the songs and laughter sound.

It's not worth friends to indulge with a minute of silence .

After all, for the sad soldiers to stay alive makes no sense,

and ginger bread, by the way, always not enough for everyone around.

• Artist:Bulat Okudzhava