No cold, no ice - fall at its best,
The snowball trees1 are red as ever.
But one more man was laid to rest
At Novodevichy2 forever.
He never was on the same page
With idle people’s superstitions:
That Death prefers to grant admission
To those who’ve played their death on stage.
If so, Makárych3, take your time.
Let loose your strings, ease up on gripping.
Try to replay, rewrite each line,
No matter what, you must keep living!
But with a bullet in his stomach,
He made grown men shed tears with ease.
He fell, collapsing to his knees
Beside a copse of snowball trees -
Red-colored saplings on the hummock.
Death always marks the ones who’re worthy,
Then, one by one, takes them away.
A truly great has left today!
His every plan has gone astray:
He won’t rebel, and he won’t worry.
And maybe Rázin4 would be filmed...
Where would you head? Onéga5? Nárach6?
It’s all chit-chatting talk7, Makarych,
But such a lad has failed to live!8
So, with a minute hesitation,
Doom spoke between his clenched teeth:
"Stop guarding him - the chiseled cheeks.
He had avoided, week by week,
All wakes and funeral processions.
Let’s take him early in the morning -
The one who has a heart of gold,
Who bears the burdens of the world -
For tempting fate and not conforming!"
Completely sober, steam-bath9 clean,
When facing God - sincere and honest,
He then died suddenly, in earnest,
With more resolve than on the screen.
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"The Red Snowball Tree" is a 1974 Soviet drama film, written and directed by Vasily Shukshin. Shukshin also played the lead role of a former convict, who gets killed by his former friends.
A famous cemetery in Moscow where many actors, artists and writers are buried.
colloquial pronunciation. A patronymic of Vasily Makarovich Shukshin.
A cancelled major movie picture, based on the Shukshin’s novel about Stenka Razin, a Cossack who lead a major upraising against the tsar.
Lake Onega is located half-way between St. Petersburg and the White Sea.
A scenic lake in Belarus.
This line in the original features a Russian catch-phrase, which was used as a title of Shukshin’s 1972 movie, known in the West as "Happy Go Lucky".
A ref. to the Shukshin’s movie There Is Such a Lad, which was based on a collection of his stories.
In the original "banya", a traditional Russian sauna.
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