«Planes are rising into the sky…»
***
Planes are rising into the sky
To bomb terrorists from ISIL.
It will probably be their hundredth flight.
It’s hard to be strong enough for such work.
Stars on the wings are sparkling.
The ground is shaking from explosions.
It’s too late to think about peace.
Regiments are rushing into battle.
***
Night comes to the Novgorod Kremlin* now,
Like a mayor comes to the city,
And illuminates the sky with stars.
A belfry is silent at that hour.
The bell seems asleep.
The owl flies soundlessly
Above the roofs of towers, above the fortress wall.
The honestly deserved peace reigns here
After the turbulent centuries.
And this majestic silence contains a message to the descendants.
***
The understanding of life
Is like a hot ember.
It is in the things
To forget or remember.
It is in the words.
It is in the dreams.
And people with it
Are wise by all means.
I wish I can find
Such understanding
And tell everyone,
“I’m glad! Outstanding!”
I think, in that case,
Everything would be great,
And I would be happy
With my land and my fate.
***
Nights in our land are full of stars,
Nights in our land are full of memories.
And the air is trembling silently,
Like the breath of centuries.
Looking at our vast expanses at night,
It’s difficult not to be grateful
To the land, where we learned to love
And where we learned to be faithful.
***
When you’re in love, the world is beautiful,
And you are looking into the distance with hope,
And there is no place for anxiety in your thoughts,
And you are happy with your path, you can’t mope.
When you’re in love, your soul is full
With a kind of wonderful feeling, as if you can fly,
And your heart directs your actions,
And you are shining like the sun in the sky.
***
Our fate drives us around the world.
I am falling asleep in the gloomy, second-class carriage.
And another life comes to my dreams
With the sound of train tracks.
That life contains something from my youth
And something from my daydreams.
The train is riding toward the lights and stations.
And the world is eternally kind to us,
As long as there is a stop along the way.
Perhaps even Kochetovka Station,
Where a mother is waiting for her son
With gentle awe in her tired eyes.
***
You came into my life from the legends and myths,
Where snow-white fog envelopes ancient tombs,
Where the sun in its golden crown rises
And drops its tender rays on you.
So, our thorny paths are coming together,
And we will be with each other all days.
Your cross necklace repels all evil spirits.
And eternity lies at our feet.
***
Earthly and heavenly have merged together in you.
There’s something in you I couldn’t understand so far.
But then I saw the cloudy height thrown open,
I saw there your face shining like a star.
I realized that’s a sign from above.
I stopped my wanderings through the wilderness.
The distant semi-darkness flooded with light,
And my life flooded with your tenderness.
***
It’s as clear as a sunny day,
That my muse will not bring me sorrow.
How your red beads suit you!
Wear them to the party tomorrow.
Your beads are glittering like the Kremlin stars**,
And the color of love is red.
I believe the feeling don’t come too late,
If you can see it’s shining ahead.
***
I can hear the mellow crunch of snow underfoot,
I can see your hot breath steams from your lips.
Life is like an ice-hole in the fast river.
If you look into it, you can find a treasure
Or you can fall under the ice…
No, I’d rather stay with you.
To be riding high or going downhill –
I don’t care, because I’m happy with you.
***
I’ve give my heart to the banks of Volkhov River,
So beautiful that it’s difficult to describe,
Where willows and thickets of reeds are growing,
Where the wind plays the reed pipe.
Fragile snowflakes are falling from the sky here
As slowly, as if they are dreaming in flight.
And the horizon has disappeared completely,
But you are hurrying to me through the night.
* Novgorod Kremlin is an old major fortified central complex on the left bank of the Volkhov River in Veliky Novgorod, the one of the most important historic cities in Russia.
** The Kremlin stars are the pentagonal luminescent ruby glass stars, installed in the 1930s on five towers of the Moscow Kremlin, replacing gilded eagles that had symbolized Imperial Russia.
About the author:
Anatoly Obyedkov is a poet, a member of the Writers’ Union of Russia, a corresponding member of Petrovskaya Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was born in the Tambov Region. Since 1974, he lives in Novgorod. Anatoly Obyedkov is an author of nine poetry books. His poems have been published in the newspapers “Literaturnaya Rossiya” (“Literary Russia”), “Den Literatury” (“The Day of Literature”), in the poetry anthology “Utro. Molodye sovremenniki” (“The Morning. Young Contemporaries”), Moscow: Sovremennik, 1983, and in literary magazines “Sever” (“The North”), “Nevsky Almanac”, “Nash sovremennik” (“Our Contemporary”), “Mir Zhenschiny” (“Woman’s World”), “Poeziya. Dvadtsat pervyi vek ot Rozhdestva Khristova” (“Poetry. The 21st century after Christ”).
