With what clause, from what positions
Can one justify that march?
Why did we flee from our borders,
Why did we fail to attack?

Maybe it’s a clever tactic,
A maneuver of some sort,
But it would have been much better
Not to fight at Moscow walls.

Not so often wounds are aching,
Twenty five is quite a time,
But this memory still pulses
In the temples like a drum.

Muscovites were writing letters
That their city won’t be sacked.
Well at last there’s understanding
That we can’t fall further back.

But our letters were delivered
In an hour’s time at best.
That’s too fast, we’d love that years
Passed before they could be read.

We craved fights like one craves women.
Hulking down in the snow
No one tried to look for guilty,
We all had a common foe.

The retreating Brest’s battalions
And Siberian red guards
All were getting very restless,
All were ready for a charge.

The Siberians are wiry.
Help them God, to live through hell!
In the snowy Moscow evenings
They lay down right where they fell.

Waiting for this hour and minute
To attack, for days and nights!
So that later lines were written
"An unprecedented fight..."

By revenge for our withdrawals,
By our unrelenting faith,
By such devastating losses,
One can’t think of or forget.

Those who got a dreary message
Read, "Your husband, our good friend..."
Long the trains will host those beggars:
Some lack arms and some lack legs.

Memory eternal, heroes,
In our hearts in peace you rest.
But it would have been much better
To avoid the forty-first.

Will you help me, just a little?
Pry me from my wife, comrade.
May God give you faith in living,
Even He’s a warring god.