Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. Life Is Twisted.

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.Translated by Akbar Muhammad.

I. The Last Cheater.

Health to you,

Our favorable viewers,
Our rigorous critics!
Now you’ll see a film of the last of the cheaters.

This occasion,

Perhaps, hasn’t taken place ever,
And how it’ll be later —
That’s really the question which demands much to solve it.

What you’ll see,

Don’t count a decision:
Each thing there’s a fiction,

This is

No more than a game,
Now we’ll play a game.

Those strange people,

Who’re known as the cheaters,
They perpetrate hoaxes,
And on that account spend their time in the prisons.

These are

Too strongly built buildings
With barred doors and windows,
It’s good but to watch them, no more than to watch them.

And this film,

Don’t count a direction
To our lads and lasses,

This is

No more than a game,
Now we’ll play a game.

Those strange people,

Who’re known as the cheaters,
They can be met sometimes,
But it happens more rarely than it was in old times.

Understand us,

We’ve faced a hard problem,
Because no one person
Till now has been met with the last of the cheaters.

Don’t forget,

Our favorable viewers,
This film is eccentric,

Therefore,

It’s really a game.
And let’s start this game!

II. The Final Song.

So here’s what:

Life’s beautiful, comrades,
It’s striking and marvelous,
And it’s very short — that’s the most significant thing.

In the film,

This wasn’t stated openly —
You might haven’t gotten sight of
And think that the most significant thing wasn’t shown there.

Maybe,

It really wasn’t shown there —
There was but a striving,

Therefore,

It’ll be shown to you
At some other time.

And here’s what:

One shouldn’t count another
Unknown, men are brothers,
Companions and friends — that’s the most significant thing.

Labor should

Ennoble and raise us,
But labor can make us
The genuine men — that’s the most significant thing.

Frankly,

This matter wasn’t shown there —
There was but a striving,

Therefore,

It’ll be shown to you
At some other time.

Our Earth is

The cradle of mankind,
But not ever shall we
Stay in, long ago Tsiolkovsky said that.

Very soon

Even those stars which now we
With our scopes can’t make out
Will be our own ones — that’s the most significant thing.

Really,

This wasn’t stated openly —
There was but a striving,

Therefore,

It’ll be shown to you
At some other time.

1966.

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