Zhuravli

More in the spirit of WWII ....

Zhuravli (Rasoul Hamzatov)


Translation of Lyrics

It seems to me that sometimes that soldiers
Who didn't come home from the blood-soaked battlefields,
Weren't laid to rest in the earth,
But turned into white cranes...

That ever since that time long ago 
They have been flying, calling,
Maybe that's why we often, and sadly,
Fall silent, staring into the sky!

The tired flock flies and flies up in the sky, 
It flies in the fog, as the day dies,
And in this formation there is a space;
Maybe it is a place for me.

The day will come when I will also drift
With the flock of the cranes in the same blue-grey haze,
Calling from the sky, in the language of the birds,
The names of you I have left on earth.

It seems to me sometimes that soldiers
Who didn't come home from the blood-soaked battlefields,
Weren't laid to rest in the earth,
But turned into white cranes...