Перевод стихотворения Константина Симонова Родина

Motherland

My undefeated, broad and proud country

Stretches along with cities, countryside.

Its great meridians and parallels I wander!

So many days it takes … throughout it to ride.

But at the time when for the sake of its defending

To die you're going … At this moment of your strife

You will remember not the state we're blessing

But that very place … your childhood was in life.

A piece of land around three little birches,

A faraway road behind your favorite wood,

A river which you've crossed with torches,

Its sandy banks … the part of your childhood.

That is the place you born … where you are happy,

That is the place which suits for ever since

To be the dearest and nearest of places,

To be the main idea of everything.

Yes, dear friend, we live in heat and frost and thunder.

Yes, we can starve and feel the greatest pain

And even go to death. But birches to surrender

We can't… We want them all forever to remain.

Konstantin Simonov

1941