NOW – 17.12.2014 – War

In the days of rehearsing the AEROKRAFT project based on the music of Nikolay Gusev
I think about war.
I wrote text for eight scenes of the show.
I want the audience to hear the voice and listen to the words
Reading again, I decided that even without the performance these texts are of interest.
Anton Adasinsky

 

 

1
I love you, War
How much courage and light are in you
How precisely you cross those t’s and dot those i’s
How doubtlessly it can be decided who is bad and who is good
How clearly you draw the borders and decide on the destinies of countries
How many feelings and cries you give birth to in our hearts
How carefully you help women wait for men
How many hopes for a bright future are born with each shot and each explosion
How many heroes you give to the people
I am ready to go with you to the end of the war

2
I hate you, War
You’re the main thing people remember
You’re the starting point
What was before and after means nothing
You are the main thing
I hate you because you’re sitting in my head with your names and dates
With newspapers, wounds and beggars
I will not live my life happily because you will come to my door and make me suffer
I have one life, and still in this life there will be at least one war
I hate you, War, and wait for you to die

3
God, how cunning you are, War
I’ll never understand what you want
How many people you need to take
How many words you will say in your defense, how natural and glib they will sound
For each death, thousands of letters and arguments for each drop of blood, pages of gabble and lies from the leaders
You’re experienced, War
You’ll outlive us all, you’ll take a different name and start over again.
You’re sly and pratlling, War
You’re lying on your side and drinking a liqueur while others tell lies and make the decisions
And far away in the fields, boys in baggy uniforms play tag with your friend Death

4
I thank you, War
You helped me solve my problems
You persuaded me to make a choice and change my way
You took away my miseries and dried my tears
I will not have to suffer pain or aging
I am grateful to you, War
You took away my life

5
I’m the same as you, War
I’m full of hate and doubt
I need to shake the muscle and arms
I need to justify my lies and violence
I need to be cunning and diplomatic
I too get tired and want rest and silence
and I too am uncapable of just sitting and doing nothing
I too feed myself with blood and rumours
and I too forget why I fight

6
I am your father, War
You are my child, War
I’m a man, I gave you life and I named you, War
I, human
I, the one who is at war
I, the one who kills or spares
And chooses commanders and soldiers
I choose the target and the task
You’re nobody without people, War
We are at war, we the people, and you are just letters in our mouths
I am your father, War and like all fathers I want you to be the best
Grow big, War
I will lean upon your shoulder when I’m old

7
I can not live without you, War
Forgive me, War
If I do not praise your beauty and stature
Oh, how cool and arrogant you are
How forbidding and desirable
Your romance is in our songs and books
The only thing that remains
Where Death is majestic and just
Where Good always wins over Evil
But at some time, of course,
Evil will return
And swords must not rust
And I want to be the best to get into your ranks, War
Forgive me for not praising you every day, War
For only you will bring me away from boredom and malaise
You will give me direction and purpose
And you will make me believe that killing is possible
Finally! This is what we need you for, War
For a man to fulfil his dream, to kill another

8
What words I must find to make you understand how grateful we are, War!
You gave us the work of War!
We sew on buttons and cast bullets
We draw maps and brew spirits for your soldiers
We paint everything khaki and print bulletins
Aeroplanes and tanks
Cameras and boots
Condoms and sights
Vests and briefs, for summer, autumn, nighttime and underwater
Much, much work
We are millions grateful for the possibility to bring home some money and bread
Thank you! Our children will not starve
You give us all something to do
Please do not end, War
Or we’ll be unemployed
What will be left to write and talk about when you’re not there, War?
What else shall we put in our prayers, hymns and plays?

Everything is meaningless without you, War

9
I forget about you, War
I can’t remember, if it was true
If it was near death.
I see different things
How clouds fly by, how life’s rolling past
How children grow, who will never see a war
We were friends, War, but you were the last
You were old, War, living in memories of great battles
You’ve got no skill to fight like a coward
With lies, gold and oil.

You’re decrepit, war
I walked with you, Old Lady War
I wanted to trip you up and watch you dying
I wanted to commit the last murder in the world
To kill you, War

10
I thank you, War
You helped me solve my problems
You persuaded me to make a choice and change my way
You took away my miseries and dried my tears
I will not have to suffer pain or aging
I am grateful to you, War
You took away my life

11
You’re untidy, War
You’re not cleaning up after yourself, War
There is always garbage and leftovers
Dirty memories in the mind
Tattered photos
Destroyed buildings and old bombs
You’re not cleaning up after yourself, War, still in our heads
Shouts and farewells
Letters and smoke
You want us to remember everything
You leave your marks everywhere
Sweep the streets and the cities after you
Wash the rivers
Burn the bones and flood the cemeteries
Give the cripples back their arms and legs
Put their eyes back in their sockets
Make us, force us to forget you
You’re a magician, War
So make anyone who speaks your name, War
Cover his face with the palm of his hand and walk thus till his death

12*
Where’s the power
That will cleanse the Earth
Of all the filth,
The cowardice and lies
Theft and murder
Cities and countries.
Where are you, power?
Be swift, time is short
For we are clever and cruel
And the world is cramped…
Wipe out all the people
No time to swift the good from the bad
Let it again be quiet and clean,
As it was in the beginning…
Maybe next time….

* From the film «Süd. Grenze» (DEREVO, 2001)

 

 

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photo: Chester Mueller, Roman Dubinnikov, Elena Yarovaya, Carola Fritzsche