Eh, there Taxi Driver, lake me to Butyrki hamlet: Where the jail stands; and make it quick "You are two years behind, tovarisch: That jail was torn down, the bricks used somewhere else" That’s too bad, this morning I decided, Tî visit spots I knew... Take me then to the Taganka prison, I was an inmate of that prison too... "Old Taganka has also been demolished Long ago just levelled to the ground"... In that case let’s head back home There is no sense in driving just around... But wait, first let’s have a smike; Better still let’s have a drink, my friend Let’s drink to the closing of the jails; To no more Labour Camps throughout the Russian land.
© Misha Allen. Translation, 1987