The Army Elegy

 

The scent of a soldier's cock is beyond comparison

Which is well known in New York Berlin and Nice

There they know all about tenderness

When taking a sniff of the crotch

 

Terrains of alien pillows

Stains of alien sheets

The disparity of guns' caliber

Grows in viciousness and length

 

I didn't have anyone except the Army

Rosy-cheeked soldiers fall out of windows

When they try to gaze at the sky

Their resilient bodies are dragged away

(And there is something farcical in it)

 

The intoxicating smell of the barracks and dirty feet

The creaking tenderness of several pairs of entangled combat boots

(What to do – I couldn't do otherwise anymore!)

 

Foreign faggots are aroused by Russian soldiers

Russian soldiers are not afraid of foreign faggots

They bravely gaze at the sky

Many of them didn't have anyone except the Army

They fall out of windows

And their able young bodies fall into foreigners' hands

 

They are dragged across the border

Usually to Paris Berlin New York or Nice

Smuggled by a firmly united lusty gang

Getting through customs with difficulty

 

(The creaking and scent alone could drive one crazy

Where it not for the tenderness

That squeezed the crotch in the final gasps

Of disparate guns

                            alien sheets

                                               and pillows)

 

1991, Moscow

Translated from the Russian by Vitaly Chernetsky