To our teacher, Grant Aleksandrovich Genzhentsev



Youth Adventure Club. Reunion...
   A sea of ​​memories
associations...
  But it's great. 
Just look at us!

Now there's no need to be afraid!-
  all the destinies are in full view...
Something has been fulfilled, a success,
   something didn't work out,
something was not right at all,
  something has simply passed...

But... you can breathe calmly -
  now noth-
ing can be changed withal...

Youth Adventure Club. Reunion...
  Stylish porcelain room,
where I find (nostalgie)
   a tea set "Golden Reindeer",
  which stood
     in the carved sideboard
of my granny Iri-
 na
 in Ulansky Pereulok, Central Moscow,
  where we used to live...

  
Now
  everything is in The Upper World,
   in the Other Rea-
    lity...
Everything is as it is...


And here
  songs rush into the starry night,
guitar strings ring...
  I look at the almost old gyus
recognizing them as young things...


But...
  We're still strong!
We can still do a lot!

Who was rude
  is still so - 
ok...
 Some have tenderer ways,
   some have a careful way...


They say,
  before you sit down to write a book
of memoirs,
  the author needs to put on a white frock 
coat  -
 to link 
    the rents 
of silence
    by ties...
  

So let's not recollect bad pies!
 Let's cast
them off.
   Those times
were filled with life
  and happiness -
 we are all involved in the past.


Youth Adventure Club. Reunion...
   What we experienced back then!
And now - we can only sing songs
  without straining the veins.

   
And where would we be
  if it weren't for our teacher...
    Oh, he was great!
We'd wander along
   our own life paths...
It's all solely by his grace.

(In the Palace of Creativity
   you can see
his face)  

And today we wouldn't extract 
   from the geological layers of the mind
these melodies
 of the pastime,
   drawing them up in the air,
knowing the patterns,
   raising the shafts high
and straightening the panels of ancient banners -
  priceless treasures of consciousness -
in simple choruses...

No longer
  are many of us...   

But...
   we remember them -
memories! -
 friends continue their exis-
tence
   in our hearts
at least...

On the threshold of the old age
  we bow our heads...


Full -
   to the visible edge -
are our hikes: 
 the Caucas-
us,
  Lake Seliger, the Istra River,
Dagestan and Karelia...
  You can go on with this list...
This old world
     became new for us...

Reunion of the Youth Adventure Club...
  Everyone is inside themselves thinking about their own...
But it's great - just look at us!
  God willing, we'll sing again!



Oct.3, 2023. Translated by me from my eponymous poem in Russian


http://lit.lib.ru/img/s/slobodkina_o/reuniondoc-1/index.shtml