That's my home. . .

1

That’s my home.
There was a bridge here.
Now there isn’t.

That’s my home.
That’s my yard.
It’s still here.

Where a bridge stood,
there’s a river.
No more bridge.

Where there was once a pass,
now there’s a line.

We live here,
on the line.

In the devil’s belly,
that’s where.

2

I came back
Barely made it
Took a while to get everyone out
I have a big family
My parents are old
Then there are my
Brother my sister my
pregnant daughter
I got them all out
Out of that damned house
Just imagine
There’s a river
There was a bridge there
Now it’s destroyed
On the one side of the river these people
On the other side, those
Whoever they are
Between them, our house
It took me so many trips
There and back
For each person
I barely got them out
A big family
These on the one side, those on the other
The house stands like a shadow
As though lead passes through the walls
Or the house contorts its beams
So that it can dodge the hail of bullets
It twists left and right
What it took me, a woman
To get all of them out
You can’t imagine
One by one
Right from the belly of the beast
Coming back every time,
Diving into all of that,
Not knowing
If there will be a way
But I got them all out
And now my daughter
Yes, the pregnant one
Says she wants to return
She’s headed back tomorrow
She has someone there
A man she loves
See, he stayed back there
And love, well
You know how love goes
With those young people
You know how it is for them
Anything for love


Translated from the Russian by Olga Livshin and Andrew Janco