Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Wait for me...

Yours truly has been stuck sick at home for the last 2 days. Used the time to watch 26 episodes of "The World at War" non-stop for 13 hours each day... One of the best historical documentary series on WW2...

The most moving moment occurred in the episode - "The Red Star" - that narrates the war in Russia, where Hitler was broken, but with 20 million Russian dead. Sir Laurence Olivier narrates this poignant poem that was written by a Russian soldier to his wife in the dark winter of 1941, when everything seemed lost and the fall of Moscow seemed imminent...


"Wait for me and I'll return, only wait very hard.
Wait when you are filled with sorrow as you watch the yellow rain.
Wait when the wind sweeps the snowdrifts.
Wait in the sweltering heat.
Wait when others have stopped waiting, forgetting their yesterdays.
Wait even when from afar no letters come for you.
Wait even when others are tired of waiting.

Wait for me and I'll return, but wait patiently.
Wait even when you are told that you should forget.
Wait even when my mother and son think I am no more.
And when friends sit around the fire drinking to my memory
Wait and do not hurry to drink to my memory too.

Wait for me and I'll return, defying every death.
And let those who do not wait say that I was lucky.
They will never understand that in the midst of death
You with your waiting saved me.
Only you and I will know how I survived:
It was because you waited as no one else did."


The poem was written by Konstantin Simonov. It was published in Pravda, the Soviet communist mouthpiece. Almost every soldier had torn out the page with the poem and had it in his breastpocket.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this..

I have been looking for this poem, the one in The World at War documentary is shortened and I found yours by chance.

It is good to see that no matter where on this planet we live, no matter what our background, we all feel the same and are touched similarly by such emotions.

Best regards,
Janez from Slovenia, Europe