(Shades in Paradise)

by Elena Fanailova
translated by Genya Turovskaya

from THE RUSSIAN VERSION

(Shades in Paradise)

They come home,
They lie down together.
They don’t give a damn about anyone,
About themselves for that matter.
It’s all the same to them.
They lie down on the bottom.

They sit in a circle,
They lie down on the snow,
Like North and South,
They lie down crown to crown.
As if on chalk water,
As if in a world at war.
They lie down without words,
They kiss on the eyes,
They don’t remember why,
They leave no trace.
Nothing keeps them in place:
Not honor, not valor, not duty.

For them cities are voids,
Facing the skies.
The air returned the embrace
Of their midnight wings.

On the whole, they lack strength.
No justification at all.
Nothing other than water
That will carry their features away.