NIKOLA VAPTSAROV: SONG

Nikola Vaptsarov

(1909-1942)

Song

 

Over Pirin

howling winds

the forests sway.

We were seven

set out to fight

far away;

very soon

we lost sight

of Pirin

and its starry night.

In the bushes

with wild beasts we slept

and across the border

we crept.

On the grass

we seemed to see stains

of our fathers’ blood

washed by the rains.

And we seemed to hear

the green leaves say

where our mothers

in the ground lay.

We knew

when we saw earth cherry-red,

that our first love

lay there dead.

Seven of us

sent away to fight.

Only three of us

came back through the night.

 

Nikola Vaptsarov poetry

fleursdumal.nl magazine

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