I have long been a fan of the Russian writer Vasily Grossman, whose major novel - Life and Fate - is a masterpiece. This poem is a tribute inspired by the book and uses references and quotes from the story. Are there any other readers or fans of his out there who pick up on these aspects of this poem? Martin
Steppe
Steppe
i.m. Vasily Grossman 1905 – 1964
A lone soldier’s voice
Lifts comrades’ chorus
“My Lady Death, we beg you,
Please wait outside.”
‘The Little Blue Shawl’
Makes men cry for
Wives and Motherland
A soldier’s overcoat
Is worth more
Than a silk dress.
A foot bandage
More than silk stockings.
A candle brighter than
A diamond ring.
All the wine and caviar
For a pair of boots.
A warm hat and a clear head
Moves further than a
Cartload of furniture.
A night in hiding
Better than being found.
A soft kiss
Better than rough love.
“Not a single hen to cackle
Not a single cock to sing.”
This is the road to Moscow,
This is sound of Stalingrad,
So the Babushkas tell,
The old ones, for those
Who cannot speak.
Martin Swords June 2007
A full stop to the war?
The last lines just phenomenal. good one again...
supply demand or NEED I should say captured so well here
Truly a haunting piece describing so well the bitter-cold plight of the soilder and (in the opening) homesick inner emotion.
The message of the verse being it is better when having to fight for life during war not to have strong reminders of home - - soldiers do better if when stuck to procedure they did not dwell on what could not be. A stark recall of the sheer aloneness in war's degradation of anything light like love. There is a haunting power to this piece..
This is a powerful window into the contradictory nature of war!
In common with most readers, I guess, I don't know the book, so don't get the quotes/references. I do, on the other hand, get the imagery and the symbolism, which is beautifully done. And the one word "Stalingrad" is enough on its own to conjure up the pain of the tragic siege.