From the skies above, it suddenly came down as a rock And with a thud its tender neck broke Before the double headed Eagle with his deadly beaks Cast in steel of brutality Could claim it and smother it and mince it To smithereens, Like that deadly grenade hurled from nowhere to the child did In pink mittens and blue-white bobble hat Running after her mother in a Kiev Park, In mirth giggling amongst the pines and the birches and the oaks, Breathing shallow and uncertain, their branches and leaves singed with saltpetre,

Where can we hide? whispers the little girl in bronze braids, The other sibling, in dread, "Where can we?"

The sky is full of hawks, swift and merciless And we, just bones and flesh, Frail fodder, fish-baits, Worms and minnows In bunkers hid, cold and heartless concrete Gnawed at by the hawks within, Their sharp eyes and sharper claws are brimful to the hilt,

Where do we play, mama? Will Olga, red in blood, play with me? She speaks not, mama. Or we ought not, if you say? The Eagle is every where Cries the mother in grief; Bury deep in my lap, my Mischa, and hear a lullaby Or story of the iron wolf, The eagle will go away, and the hawks will too Shooed by your fearless brother and your mighty papochka One day.

The Griffin is relentless in pursuit The pigeon with frightened eyes Slow and weak. 'It will go away', pines the pigeon deep within; Plumetting suddenly and hitting like a rock Before his neck broke On the bunker with muffled sounds and waning hope,

"Sit in my Ark, sit in my lap, my little darling, be quiet, Olga is gone to the stars, she will shine bright we will watch her at night The griffins and the hawks and the evil Eagle are shredding the shirt of the skies above."

"Hush, hush, my child, they will go away One day. Olga will always be there among the stars faraway.”