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Memorial Day - Wait for me (Жди меня)

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    #1

    Memorial Day - Wait for me (Жди меня)

    In keeping with the theme of this forum a WWII Russian poem in honor of US Memorial Day...

    Wait for me (Жди меня)

    Wait for me, and I'll return
    Only wait very hard
    Wait when you are filled with sorrow...
    Wait in the sweltering heat
    Wait when the others have stopped waiting,
    Forgetting their yesterdays.

    Wait even when from afar no letters come to you
    Wait even when others are tired of waiting...
    And when friends sit around the fire,
    Drinking to my memory,
    Wait, and do not hurry to drink to my memory too.

    Wait. For 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 you waiting saved me.
    Only you and I know how I survived.
    It's because you waited, as no one else did.

    Konstantin Simonov - 1941
    Tags: None
    #2
    And a bit of Shakespeare's St. Crispen's Day Speech from Henry V:

    And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
    From this day to the ending of the world,
    But we in it shall be remembered-
    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition;
    And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

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      #3
      One last quote...again British...

      Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals. – William Gladstone (1809-1898)

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        #4
        In Flanders fields the poppies blow
        Between the crosses, row on row,
        That mark our place; and in the sky
        The larks, still bravely singing, fly
        Scarce heard amid the guns below.

        We are the dead. Short days ago
        We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
        Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
        In Flanders fields.

        Take up our quarrel with the foe:
        To you from failing hands we throw
        The torch; be yours to hold it high.
        If ye break faith with us who die
        We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.
        — Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

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          #5
          Daniel - Very appropriate, I remember reciting this poem in a High School speech contest so many years ago. Most folks don't know that McCrae was a Canadian serving in the British Army in WWII.
          Last edited by ehrentitle; 05-25-2009, 10:33 PM.

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            #6
            I was moved by the first poem.

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              #7
              Originally posted by STEBALIN View Post
              I was moved by the first poem.
              STEBALIN - Thanks, I was moved by it too, but I had just watched the 1959 Russian Film "Ballad of a Soldier" which was showing on Turner Classic Movies here in the US. It was so well done I was drawn into the movie and forgot that I was reading subtitles.

              Here is the Wikipeda page on this movie:

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad_of_a_Soldier

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                #8
                "Wait for me" became almost a prayer, its popularity unbound. Try reading it out loud and not getting a shiver down your spine.

                "In flanders field" is very much the same. Here in the UK we mark our rememberance for the fallen on the 11th of November - the end of WW1, for that is when we started that tradition. The symbol of our rememberance of our war dead is the Flanders Poppy, the blood red flower you see us all wear around that time.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Kozlov View Post
                  "Wait for me" became almost a prayer, its popularity unbound. Try reading it out loud and not getting a shiver down your spine.

                  "In flanders field" is very much the same. Here in the UK we mark our rememberance for the fallen on the 11th of November - the end of WW1, for that is when we started that tradition. The symbol of our rememberance of our war dead is the Flanders Poppy, the blood red flower you see us all wear around that time.
                  I take the Poppy to remember all war dead, regardless of where they are from, which is why I wear it in November. Cheers, Torsten.
                  Last edited by torstenbel; 05-28-2009, 01:43 PM.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by torstenbel View Post
                    I take the Poppy to remember all war dead, regardless of where they are from, which is why I wear it in November. Cheers, Torsten.
                    Torsten - I totally agree, see:

                    German - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields
                    English - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

                    The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has been selling "buddy poppies" for donations before Memorial Day here in the States since 1922.

                    I can still remember when I was stationed in Hanau in the late 1980s whenever I drove to Frankfurt in the Spring I'd pass this huge field of red poppies. It always reminded me of WWI dead.

                    Here in Virginia there is a wildflower planting project along highways. So every now and again I'll see a beautiful field of red poppies.

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