On the border with Turkey or with Pakistan Lays the neutral strip. On the right, in bushes, Are our border guards and our captain, While on the left side are the other side’s posts. But on the neutral strip there are flowers Of an unusual beauty! The captain’s fiancee decided they should live together. She rolled her eyes and says: "Dear, let’s do it" A bouquet of flowers at the very least is needed for the bride - What’s a wedding without flowers? A binge, and nothing more! But on the neutral strip there are flowers Of an unusual beauty! To the other side’s chief, as if on cue, A dame rolled her eyes, flew to him, And also says "dear", but in Turkish, There’ll be a wedding, she says, a wedding and a holiday! But on the neutral strip there are flowers Of an unusual beauty! Our border guards are brave boys A trio was summoned to go with the captain. But how could they have known that the asians Decided that very night also to make bouquets? But on the neutral strip there are flowers Of an unusual beauty! The captain was drunk from the mortuary smell of flowers Well, the other side’s captain also was drunk as a skunk. He rolled about in the flowers, sighing in Turkish, And crying out in Russian: "Mother!" our captain collapsed. But on the neutral strip there are flowers Of an unusual beauty! The captain sleeps and he dreams That they opened the border like the gates of the Kremlin. He couldn’t give a fig about foreign countries - He just wanted to go across the unowned earth. Why not? Obviously it’s no one’s earth, Obviously it’s neutral! But on the neutral strip there are flowers Of an unusual beauty!
© Peter Struwwel. Translation, ?