A Wrong Song

In my dream some yellow light
Blinds me and I’m groaning:
“Get away, a painful night!
Come, a sunny morning!”
But the morning is an ill,
Wrong and boring comer...
You just smoke or drink some swill
On an empty stomach.

Once again, yes, once again,
Many, many times again...
Once again, yes, once again,
Many, many times again...

Jerks and bums in cheap saloons
Feast for no reason...
It’s a paradise for goons
But for me - a prison!
Incense in the church they burn -
Stench like from a dustbin...
No, the church is also wrong,
Not the way it must be!

Wheezing, up the hill I lurch,
I am tired and harried...
On the top there is a birch,
Way below - a cherry...
Wish the hill were ivy-twined,
Then I’d be in clover;
Wish another joy I’d find -
But it’s wrong all over!

Once again, yes, once again,
Many, many times again...
Once again, yes, once again,
Many, many times again...

I keep running on and on
Through the field with daisies...
Light is black and God is gone,
And my road mazes.
Now it goes through the wood,
Hags collect their taxes,
In the end of it you could
See the block with axes!

Horses in a sluggish mode,
Dance with no desire...
All is wrong along the road,
But the end is dire!
Neither church, nor a saloon -
Nothing’s, nothing’s holy...
All is wrong under the moon,
Wrong and quite appalling!

Once again, yes, once again,
Many, many times again...
Once again, yes, once again,
Many, many times again...

-Vysotskiy