Письмо [Pis'mo] [English translation]

Half an hour before the assault,

Soon again, under the tanks,

Again listening to the concert of explosions, -

But to the young fighter

They passed on from home

A small, sky blue, triangle of an envelope.

And as though you were not here,

When the hand of a bride

Or your mom and dad have written, -

But something else happened -

It seems, they shouldn't have hurried

To hand the soldier the letter before the battle.

At the beginning it read:

"Please, excuse me my silence,

I won't wait." And that was it all. 1

Only below, a postscript:

"I'm leaving for far away, -

You fight calmly, and forgive, if I've offended." 2

With the first fracture

The lad cried in sorrow:

"Mailman, what the hell did you bring! -

A second before my death

In a triangular envelope

I received a bullet wound."

He stepped from the trench

With the gun on his neck,

He did not watch out for fragments, -

And in the battle for Suroi' 3

He hugged the earth,

And the wind scattered the ripped pieces of paper.

1. I won'r wait (for your return) 2. lit. "if anything (happens)" I meant for it to sound like she doesn't really care, which is I think the point 3. Not clear what exactly he is referring to http://vysotsky.ws/index.php?showtopic=2467