Навіщо. What For

To Vadim Antonov, a soldier of the "Donbas" Battalion

His nickname is Airplane,

For Antonov liner

Was downed today...

His friends had twice wanted to carry his body away:

A wall of fire,

Enemy's ambush;

They'll go for the third time.

Just yesterday he was joking

That the volunteers

Who went to war from Maidan

Should have their sperm collected by doctors

And saved

For their wives and beloved

And those girls they don't know

But who'll cry later,

When they see his face framed in black,

And say:"Why is it the best who die?"

And thus they would have a chance

To bear a boy,

Or even better, a girl,

Two, three girls

With the smile like his,

A really wonderful smile.

How unfunny his joke is,

How painful.

Even my face is twisted

As if I have bitten something sour.

It's not yet the season for Antonovka apples

But the boys are shaking them off the branches.

And the apples fall down, they do fall down,

They return to the ground.

Let them grow!

10 August 2014