Why has everything changed? Life goes on as it should...
There’s the sky over us, blue as ever,
As before there’s the air, the water, the wood...
But he’s lost in the fighting for ever.

I do not understand who was right, who was wrong
In disputes that we had, rather biting.
It was not until now that I started to long
For the one who did not come from fighting.

He’d be awkwardly silent, he’d sing out of tune,
And his absence of mind was exciting,
He would not let me sleep, sitting up by the moon...
but last night he did not come from fighting.

I’m destitute now, and I’ve just touched the ground,
It occurred to me: I’d been beside him...
And I felt as if I had my fire blown out
when he didn’t return from the fighting.

Like a prisoner from jail, spring has broken away.
By mistake I addressed him now, shouting:
"Got a lighter, old man?" - but what could he say? -
If last night he did not come from fighting.

 
 
 
 

In the dugout we had room enough to get by,
And for both of us time would be sliding...
But now he is gone, and I think it was I
Who did not come alive from the fighting.