The three of us together robbed the same apartment, We breached together through the selfsame hole. We came together like three missing foster brothers, Who never knew each other all along. For bread and water, and for my freedom, My deepest thanks and praise to all of Soviet people! For nights in prison, interrogations, I wish to deeply thank our city legislation! We all were transferred to the port Nakhodka1; Tomorrow I will be released, released they’ll be. We got acquainted like three rubles for one vodka2, But ended like a bottle shared by three. For bread and water, and for my freedom, My deepest thanks and praise to all of Soviet people! For nights in prison, interrogations, I wish to deeply thank our city legislation! How well the whole wide world now operates! Just yesterday came a decree of judgement: To be released before the scheduled date3, And signed by Voroshilov, Georgadze4. For bread and water, and for my freedom, My deepest thanks and praise to all of Soviet people! For nights in prison, interrogations, I wish to deeply thank our city legislation! It is, indeed, arithmetic of gods: The twelve long years - that was my prison sentence. The seven years, years of my life are lost, But five of them are back to me presented! For bread and water, and for my freedom, My deepest thanks and praise to all of Soviet people! For nights in prison, interrogations, I wish to deeply thank our city legislation!
1 A Russian port city on the bay of the Sea of Japan. In USSR many places of the Russian Far East were associated with labor camps and prisons.
2 After the ban on the sale of alcohol in most catering establishments, it became a common practice to drink with random acquaintances, by chipping in one ruble, since the price of a bottle of vodka was 3 rubles.
3 This part is about the amnesty of 1957, dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution.
4 Kliment Voroshilov was a Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Soviet head of state, from 1953 to 1960. Mikhail Georgadze was a Secretary of the Presidium.
 
© Kirill Tolmachev. Translation, 2021