In memoriam Shaban al-Dalou. He was a software engineering student at Gaza's al-Azhar University [Courtesy of the al-Dalou family]
In Memory of a Comrade
What was I doing then? Tying sheaves,
Or maybe weeding,
When you were also crawling across the field,
Where every meter was scarred by shrapnel.
Someone who was too young for the front will understand me,
A boy who lived on the Ob or Kama.
He also took geography classes
On a map covered with little flags.
Never forgetting my friend for a minute,
I lived without knowing a word about you.
The war is over. If another one comes,
We will have to appear for the draft without you.
But how alive you are! Not as a memory, not as a shadow,
But so that it seems that you are right here, right next to us,
Who died on the Moscow front,
Perhaps the youngest partisan.
And the days are running faster and faster.
They are in a hurry. They are hurrying us.
Not by the years, but by the hour
The history textbooks are aging now.
The war years are getting further and further away from us,
The thunder of unforgettable battles is getting duller.
But sleep peacefully, great boy!
Like them, you will not be forgotten.
And the days are running.
The world is decorated with a great friendly spring, as far as the eye can see.
How we should value our life,
When it has cost so much!
Perhaps a long life has been allotted to me.
I must live my life in such a way
That it will be counted by my country,
On an equal footing with your short life.
Vladimir Sokolov 1948 (Please right-click for English Translation)