You are not forgotten, Georg Mateos,

In my heart your soul will always dwell,

Deep inside I stifle bitter tears,

But my eyes will still with tears swell.

Little changed on Earth since you departed,

Flowers bloom again to herald Spring

Their multicolored fragrant carpet

Birds inspires of my love to sing.

Flowers bloom, oblivious to years

Spent beside you when on Earth you dwelled,

Unaware of your heart’s desire

To hear tales of love that they may tell.

River flows undisturbed by nothing in its way,

Nothing in its graceful, royal motion

Tells the water will run out some day.

Time will come and Sun’s eternal fire

Will dry out river’s brooks and streams,

Only single drop you once desired,

Next to one that great Khayyam admired

Will remain forever in your rhymes.

Sweet magnolia blooms in shady garden,

Where nights are short and days are long,

Yet in places by the weather hardened

Its beauty’s known only from your poems.

And misery, abandoned and forgotten

Still wonders in the night, cold and alone,

In search of lonely heart or one that’s broken

To make its new and  cosy little home.

To settle there and shed some bloody tears,

To follow in your footsteps.

Alas, it knows that you’ve gone ahead

And  long has been your flight.

Don’t regret that in the haste of passing

Never bid me final farewell,

In my heart forever you will dwell.

Prey, step out from your regal chambers

Come to meet me when some time from now

I will travel to the land of angels

And before the Lord I humbly bow.

I will kiss the heavens that you walked on

Where from now on I’ll also dwell

Where your tormented soul at last

Gained the peace that will forever last.

By Liana Margiva

Translated from Russian by Anatol Kardiukov