At dawn they came and took you away.
You were my dead: I walked behind.
In the dark room children cried,
the holy candle gasped for air.

They led you away... / They took you away at daybreak. Half wak- / ing, as though at a wake, I followed. / In the dark chamber children were crying, / In the image-case, candlelight guttered. / At your lips, the chill of icon, / A deathly sweat at your brow. / I shall go creep to our walling wall, / Crawl to the Kremlin towers.

Translated by D. M. Thomas