Songs of Russia/Spring in Prison
SPRING IN PRISON
P. POLIVANOV
The spring is coming! Nature everywhere
Has wakened from her long and wintry sleep,
And she has shaken off her robe of snow,
And broken up the ice, so thick and deep.
O’er the clear sky the cranes in northward flight
Have passed in bands since early dawn of day;
Wild ducks are rushing by in clanging flocks;
The curlew’s whistle sounds from far away.
The noisy sea-gull hovers o’er the lake,
And still to-day, as in the days of yore,
All full of mighty strength, with stormy joy,
The wave is breaking on the sandy shore.
Long since, the joyous sounds of wakening life
Have ceased an echo in our breasts to find;
Deadened the soul has grown through grief and pain,
And over-weary are the heart and mind.
The spring sun gives us but a cheerless light
Through the dull glass that dims its golden ray,
And the heart harbors deep a gloomy thought
That even springtime will not drive away.