Tears city

(перевод стихотворения Сергея Леонтьева "Город Плача" http://stihi.ru/2020/03/05/2246)

          To World war II cemetery cities:
          Stalingrad, Leningrad, Minsk,
          Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Berlin, Dresden, Konigsberg, Coventry, and more, 
          and more...

I'm passing by the girls, who're careless and tweeting
Without any maps I leave my cosy world
I'm confident and tense, I enter Tears' City -
The breething of its past can make me feeling cold.

I feel the trembling ground, I feel the frightened air,
Though peace is everywhere and nothing makes a mess:
The squirell takes a nut from hand without fear
And if you don't know, my friend, you'll never guess
That landmines fell and fell and that was deadly meeting
Because all living things they're turning into sand,
Destroying all around, they tore without pity
Both houses and churches from scared sobbing land.
It seems, I hear blasts, and enemies are argus,
I see the people dropped like puppets in nightmare,
And there's no light, and there's only darkness,
And dirty bloody streams were running everywhere.

The time's already gone and thanks to grandads' boldness
The war is in the grave, you hear singing birds,
Look into City's eyes - you'll feel the frightening coldness,
And look at City's heart - it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!

Behind its noise and race, behind its smile and lighting
Its soul pulsates again, undressed and barefoot.
Don't tell me that's the break, but not the end of fighting,
The clock will strike the end of peaceful quiet route.

It seems to me when I'm here alone
I see the tear which's running from the stone.
I don't have words, I'm scared of the threat,
The only question in my chest is grown -
Tell me, who, who is eager to repeat?

To burn? To kill? To hurt? But why?! For what's this?
Be cursed with your ambitions, plans and doctrines!
And better stop to hide your eyes, to swear,
Come to the Tears' City, to the square,
Where city's wounds are cured with snow's touch,
Where memory of people means so much,
Where war can only cause aversion, hatred,
Which are so strong, so endless and so sacred.
Then touch the bricks and think of your tomorrow -
They are full of the sadness and the sorrow.
It's here now, but it was free before,
It's under stones, but it's alive - the war...
You understand, if we forget about -
Then like a snake it promptly will break out!

Remember, grieve. The city's heart is beating.
Repeat this as the prayer: "Never more!"
So silent and alone I enter Tears' City -
The Age of War.