Bulat Okudjava

There’s the special music – the glorious, 
which calls for my songs and my cries.
Take off, for yourself, oratorios,
the roll of your drums and your brass.
Take, as your allies, them, notorious, 
take easy – until your days’ last…
And leave me with this music, glorious:
we have many things to discuss.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, May, 2001