Yunna Moritz

[Ilya Shambat]

A light in ruins shimmers like a star
Someone lives there, holding the flames with teeth.
The war is over, we walk along a path,
And world is comely, I must go so far!
And for two miles around me you can smell
The living piece of heavy cleaning soap
And force of cleanliness above us floats
The flannel's clean and hair is clean as well!
And I am dressed in a smock-frock, so neat,
And next to my clean mother I do step
And on my way I nearly fall asleep,
The streetcar's ringing silvering my sleep.
And bathhouse knot with clothes, in my arms
Is silvering. And silver is the cosmos.
And there's no war, and we walk from the bathhouse,
I'm eight years old, and I must go so far!
And we won't take the streetcar, it appears,
For anything - in baths we've been de-liced!
And world is comely, and all are alive,
And they will now live for hundred years!
And world is comely, I must go so far,
I fear not poverty - I am defended -
And O my lord! How fearsome and splendid
A light in ruins shimmers like a star.

By Yunna Moritz
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat
https://www.oocities.org/ilya_shambat2005