A translation of a romance by the great Russian bard Vladimir Vysockiy. The original text can be found here . You can watch Vysocki singing it in a film (though not the full version translated here) starting with 2:15 into this clip.

Used to be I'd love and suffer
Used to be I'd only dream
Watch her slyly in my slumber
Amazon across the stream...

What use to me the wisdom of dry tomes
When on my knees her footprints I could kiss?
Queen of my daydreams, where do you roam?
What came of you, my ephemeral bliss?

Our souls bathed together in May.
Our heads swam together in fire.
She pushed sadness and pain away,
And it seemed gloom forever retired...

And now -- one could build her a tomb --
I laugh through tears and cry without reason.
Your blood is chilled, regardless of the season,
By fear of life and presaging of gloom.

My voice is gone, my songs forever done.
My dreams are gone, I know I dreamt my last.
As webs of lies my days with her were spun,
But that mirage is now in the past.

I trample festive clothes with my feet.
I rip guitar strings, free myself of dope.
I will not serve as slave to empty hope.
I will not bow to the idols of deceit.

	 15 December, 2018