We Will Meet Again (for Berlin, East and West)
They loved each other very much.
That was evident when they were parted.
Tears of grief when they were forced apart.
An act of devastation never to be forgotten.
Made by ungodly people with the power of God.
Those in charge didn't see the young couple.
Didn't witness their tears, hear their shouts.
Felt no emotion when they issued the order.
To build a wall to cut a city in half.
Separating families and loved ones.
A nation and city torn in two.
People trying to flee as the last brick was placed.
Escaping any way they could.
Risking their lives to dream a future.
Braving razor wire, guards with dogs and the guns.
Being mercilessly gunned down when seen.
And still they fled their prison city and country.
Doing anything to get across The Wall.
Hoping for a better future in The West.
Not being split in two like the couple.
She in The East, he in The West.
Prisoners of The Cold War for simply being German.
Caught in a game of nuclear chess.
Superpower madness where hope and love disintegrate.
Decades of mistrust and hate poisoning our world.
A generation with paranoid peace.
Trustful tyranny illuminating the way.
For decades some held onto their dream.
Then one cold Berlin day it happened.
The Wall fell down and hope blossomed.
Some couples were finally together.
Middle aged, no longer teenagers.
Hard and bitter, not joyous and free.
But together at last after so many years.
Reunited city and nation.
A world no longer severed in two.
Tears dry and history remembers.
Stories are told proving love will endure.

I do not have any pain
I did not complain
How do we get out?
We met by a miracle
Let's flee to the West
This we can do
For the truth will **** us here
Our truth will end us
You are my life
I am your life
They built a wall round us
Round our city
To keep us in
But they cannot stop us
Will never control our hearts
Nor our will to escape
And prove them wrong
We will break their prison
And breach the wall

Dedicated to Angela Merkel

Mother Germany in word and deed!
The Eurounion’s motor of motors,
As a physicist, she put deeds right, indeed
Laying special stress on economics.
The Lady Wonder: she’s existing again,
In Marvel there was no tale personage.
The foe’s calling her Valkyrja in vain,
She is well- known but not for epatage.
There are no more any Roman Empires,
And Karl the Great’s partially  forgotten.
But as before (we know from popular beliefs):
Over Europe a black eagle is soaring.
{02.12.2019}

КАНЦЛЕР ЕВРОПЫ

Ангеле Меркель

Мать-Германия: слово и дело!
Евросоюза железный мотор
Меркель, как физик, наладила смело,
На экономику сделав упор!

Женщина-Чудо: она существует –
В Marvel не сказочный был персонаж!
Враг называет Валькирией всуе:
Меркель известна не за эпатаж!

Нет уже римских великих империй,
Карл Великий частично забыт.
Но, как и раньше (как знаем с поверий),
Чёрный орёл над Европой парит!
{02.12.2019}

Translator - I. Toporov

I did bring the Berlin wall’s piece on my magnet,
And for thirty years its days have been numbered,
Tourists always take Berlin’s part  with them, the wall
Is with a complex, magnetic fate being not plain at all.
Powers did change in FRG more than once,
The wall was delivered for ever to other countries.
Every day I come to my refrigerator for eating,
And look at the magnet, the Berlin wall holding.
And if I decide to write a letter to somebody and
Send  the Berlin’s part in a picture post- card?
And let the Soviet power’s dictatorship exist
No more, let everybody have the Berlin wall’s piece.
{11.01.2020}

Часть ФРГ

Я привёз на магните кусочек Берлинской стены –
Тридцать лет её дни уже точно навек сочтены.
Часть Берлина туристы всегда забирают с собой –
Непростая стена с очень сложной, волшебной судьбой.

В ФРГ поменялась уже не единожды власть.
Из Берлина по странам стена навсегда развезлась.
Каждый день к холодильнику я подхожу за едой.
И смотрю на магнит, на берлинский магнит со стеной.

Ну, а если кому-то письмо я решусь написать,
Часть берлинской стены на открытке сумею послать.
И пускай уже нет диктатуры советской страны,
Пусть у каждого будет кусочек Берлинской стены!
{11.01.2020}

note: this is not a poem but an account of the mental aftermath of Hanau, where ten people got killed yesterday. one of them was the mother of the killer who worked in a bank, was paranoid and believed in conspiracy theories.


a turkish guy whose name means "justness" was shot to death by him. in the community, he was popular for his kindness.
he was killed because he was an immigrant, a muslim, and because he hung out with his friends in a shisha bar to enjoy his leisure time. got hit by bullets. died, leaving relatives, friends and an entire muslim community, the entire world, in daze.



met three uber drivers today, all of them muslims, two of them know some of the victims personally.  

the first one of them was desperately sad today. i asked him "how are you?" he answered "not well" and told me everything. i was very concerned because i can't deal with such inhumane cruelty.

the second driver was from pakistan. he argued that germany is an open-minded country and that he had left his country due to religious lunacy that is lived by some people there.

the third driver was interestingly humorous. as wired as it may sound, he thought positively after the assasination and said that the relatives of the victims should live on as if their people hadn't been killed.

i don't know about that; yet, everyone deals with terror differently.

hanau is just a couple of miles from my home city, frankfurt am main.

in my heart, my spirit and my soul, i am with all the victims, their relatives, friends and colleagues.

MAY GOD BLESS ALL YOUR SOULS. MY CONDOLENCES. MAY GOD BLESS US ALL.

MUCH LOVE FOR ALL BELIEVERS OF ALL RELIGIONS. LOVE IS THE ONLY WAY TO DEAL WITH THAT.

The killer killed himself after the crime.

OH GOD, GIVE US STRENGTH. WARMTH. HOPE.