Why is everything amiss? All seems to be as before:
The sky is unchanged - still blue,
Neither the forest, nor the water, nor the air have changed,
Only he did not return from battle.

Now I will never know, who was in the right,
In our arguments during sleepless nights.
Only now I realize how dear he was to me,
When he did not return from battle.

He was silent out of turn, and he sang out of tune,
I never seemed to understand him,
He never let me sleep, always getting up with the dawn,
But yesterday, he did not return from battle.

Now that all is empty - and I can't seem to find the right words,
I suddenly realized - there were two of us.
It was as if wind extinguished a bonfire,
When he did not return from battle.

Today it escaped from me, as spring breaks free from captivity,
I mistakenly called out to him,
"My friend, let me have a smoke!" - And in response - silence:
Yesterday he did not return from battle.

Our dead will never let us down,
Our fallen - are like sentries.
The sky is reflected in the forest as if in water,
And the trees stand, blue.

We had plenty of space even in the foxhole,
And even time ran for us both.
Now everything is for one. Only it seems to me,
That it is I who did not return from battle.