Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. The Hill.

List. Text. Translation. Forward.

Commentary to the song “He Was Shot in the Fighting”.

Here comes to mind Rasul Gamzatov’s song “The Cranes” (1968) (this text is adapted from Marc Almond, David Bennett and Anonymous’ translations):

Sometimes it seems to me that our soldiers,
Who came not home from bloody battle plains,
Instead of coming down into the cold ground,
Have taken the form of beautiful white cranes.

Till our very time from those remote days,
They fly above, and reaches us their cry.
Is it for this we, growing silent, often
Gaze melancholy up into the sky?

I’m watching a crane wedge on expedition,
As it flies through a haze toward the dawn.
In this formation, there’s a free position,
Which, maybe, will be my one, when I’m gone.

One day through such a haze I’ll, too, be flying,
I’ll enter a crane wedge on my rebirth,
And, from above, with crane trump I’ll be crying
To all of you I left upon the earth.

Sometimes it seems to me that our soldiers,
Who came not home from bloody battle plains,
Instead of coming down into the cold ground,
Have taken the form of beautiful white cranes.

The song was performed in the films “Our Sons Go to the Battle” (1969) and “The ‘Mer­cedes’ Leaves the Chase” (1980).

The presented text is adapted from Sergey Roy and Alec Vagapov’s translations.

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