Зима [Zima] [English translation]

Down the flood, down the flood far the lad'ya fared,

And for thee the swift wind was conveying my song.

Oh, I waited and waited, and stood here and stared,

But a sheet of thick ice formed at length therealong.

The winter arrived and the welkin grew colder.

Neath the coat of the blizzard the years come and go.

Now white is the braid that rests on my shoulder,

And my love cannot melt the much-gathered snow.

Over all is the snow - the white world is spread,

The water of life with the ice flows unfree.

A close friend of my heart, a neighbour, has said -

"Has thy falcon so fair thus forgotten 'bout thee?"

The luchina is dying and dwindling quite.

My spindle but spinning the blizzards of fate.

And lo, I myself, as the snow, am so white,

But here, all the same, for thee I still wait,

And lo, I myself, as death, am so white,

But here, all the same, for thee I still wait.

1

Flood = river (this is an original, more literal meaning of flood "a flowing of water"; equivalent to the German cognate Fluss)

lad'ya (also spelt/pronounced lod'ya) - a slavic longship. This is also the Russian word used to refer to the rook in chess.

Luchina - a slowly burning wood-splinter often used to light a hut