[Among the men some carved-bone dice are thrown]

Among the men some carved-bone dice are thrown,

Their wives give gold-toothed smiles in their green-grocers’ stalls,

There’s a regret with no excuse and cause unknown,

Here one sings jail-bird songs, there the departing trains one calls,

The trains are leaving for the far end of Ukraine,

Where there’s a sea just a stone’s throw away,

There’s a regret I can’t excuse, I can’t explain,

Stall-keepers cry like seagulls on the bay.

Translated by Nika Skandiaka