Farewell, boys..

0 war, you're so heartless in villainy:
Our yards have grown silent and bare
And boys with precocious virility
The weight of maturity bear.
We'd no time to relish the sight of you-
To soldiers you instantly turned...
Farewell, boys!
Farewell and goodbye to you!
Be sure, boys, be sure to return!
Don't hide, go head high and with heart aflame!
Not sparing your bullets, in turn
Don't spare yourselves either...
But all the same
Be sure, boys, be sure to return!
0 war, you're so heartless in villainy:
A cloud over weddings you cast!
Their white frocks and finery willingly
Our girls to their sisters have passed.
You're now wearing knee-boots... So what of it!
And sporting your green epaulettes...
Ignore, girls, the gibes of the gossipers!
We'll deal with them later, you bet!
"Stop hoping!" they'll keep on advising you,
"For fate can take many a turn..."
Farewell, girls!
Farewell and goodbye to you!
Be sure, girls, be sure to return!

Poet: Bulat Okudjava (b. 1924).

Translated by Peter Tempest.

Bulat Okudjava (b. 1924). Poet and novelist. On leaving school he volunteered for the front in 1942. Graduating from Tbilisi Univer-sity in 1950, he taught in schools for a time. His work was first pub-lished in 1953 and his first book of poems. Lyrics, appeared in 1956. Author of many books of poetry and of several novels and novellas, he is also well-known as a performer of songs and ballads he writes and composes himself.