NIKOLAY GREBNEV: "There Are Three Sacred Songs..."

"There Are Three Sacred Songs..."

(From Rasul Gamzatov)
There are three sacred men’s songs, so far,
In them their joy and woe ever settled.
The first is brighter than the others are – 
A mother sings it sitting by a cradle.

The second song is too the mothers’ one:
While gently touching cheeks as white as snow,
They sing it o’er a coffin of a son…
And the third song – all songs, except these both. 


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, June, 2001