То, что делает нас людьми [To chto delayet nas liudmi] [English translation]

Nor love's surrogates,

Nor noisy festivals,

Nor soup operas,

Nor computer addiction,

Nor flickering of shop windows,

Nor boredom, nor idleness,

Nor wearing a wrist bangle,

Nor laying absinth on the table...

Nor screams, nor dirty words,

Nor filthy stairs,

Nor advertising slogans,

Nor glossy covers,

Nor phoney smiles,

Nor charts, nor ratings,

Nor tribunes, nor catwalks,

Nor pedestals...

All those aren't worth a tinker's damn,

Not worth wasting your breath on!

Those things can't make us humane.

Those aren't which rule the world,

Those things can't make us humane...

It's another matter if people fit out a humanitarian aid aircraft,

Or sacrifice themselves

with an infinite courage,

Or at least feed homeless cats

on their own kitchens,

Or hum lullabies to their kids.

Those tender sounds

Make the sun peep out from behind the clouds,

That's what makes us humane.

May they never die away,

And may humaneness

never get overcast!

May people build sandcastles at the water's edge,

And recklessly assault

iced peaks,

Or at least cautiously bring squill posies -

picked with their own hand -

To the sweethearts!..

The lover would smile and give a serene glance -

And the sun would peep out from behind the clouds,

That's what makes us humane.

May that smile never die,

And may humaneness

never get overcast!