Speaking In Tongues
Guided by Voices

Alexander Perzhinsky

Translated by Boris Garbuzov and Taras Shatko



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***

It was long and dark night
The noisy train was flying ahead.
We are rumbling to you without a break
Towards home. And this was in spring.


At dawn, at first break of day
The sun slightly rose from behind a fir tree
Blue tit sang about sincere affection
Somewhere on the grass still lay melted snow
It was in 20th numbers of April.


I came back home,
For a few days or less,
Having on hand just a little of money,
A carrier bag-the-sack,
And a visa to the land I was dreaming to reach.


I had no sleep
But all my tortures will soon come to an end.
So long had I suffered, hard hit by them.
No one can understand,
Nor likely ever realize
Without testing on oneself
That being an immigrant
Unwillingly - it's will
Which leads to freedom.


I got tired of falsehood and hatred without compassion,
Just give me.
I ordered a taxi at the crack of dawn
The cabman pulled up to me and took my shabby sacks,
And asked, as in a film,
- Where you want me to drive?
And my quiet reply,
- To the airport.


And we go together as in fairy tale
From night to morning or Tallinn's dawn,
Having only a few cars around
And all simple people just sleep and slightly snore,
They would never guess that I part with my native land.