Vladimir Vysocky (1938-1980)

 the most popular songwriter in Russia until nowdays…

Ballad about love - translated by Jouravel

When, after all, the Great Deluge was over,

The seas came back within their coastal lines,

Out of the foam of the receding water

The love came out softly to the land.

And, for some time, it faded in the air,

And lasted for an eon and some then.

And some eccentrics that still do exist

Inhale with their full lungs that crazy mix,

Expecting neither scolding nor reward,

And thinking they are free to breath it in

They realize one day that they fit in

Somebody else's intermittent breathing.

But remember: a feeling's like a boat

It's afloat until you realize:

That the words "I love" mean simply that

"I can breathe" and "I am still alive".

There will be plenty of despair and roaming.

The land of love is the most noble land.

The knights of love will have to go through testing

With ever higher standards and demands.

They will be separated by a distance,

Devoid of leisure, sleep without rest.

But nothing in the world can turn them back.

Those madmen do agree to pay it back,

Pay any price, their lives won't be excepted

In order to preserve and to protect

Some indiscernible and magic thread

Which love between them now has extended.

Wind and snow swept them off their feet,

Made them drunk and raised them from the dead.

'Cause remember you have neither lived,

Nor have breathed, if you have never loved.

And most of them have choked with love forever.

They can't be reached no matter what you do.

They are accounted by idle talk and rumor,

And that account is laced with pure blood.

But we will light up candles in the memory

Of those who died from the unprecedented love.

Their souls, among the flowers, will run

And their voices will blend and sound as one.

They will inhale eternity together.

And somewhere, on a fragile river cross,

A narrow bridge across the universe

Holding their breath, then they will meet each other.

I will open fields to those who love!

Let them sing awake and in their rest.

I do breathe and that means -  I'm in love!

I'm in love and that means - I exist!