Matches

The war was on its cruel way to start,
My grandpa bought too big a box of matches.
At home his wife complaining very hard
Kept calling names. “How could he be just such a…”
He’d better buy some butter and some flour.
Small children are at home for food awaiting.
This stupid man spent money and what for?
Some sweets for daughters would have been much better.
And later on the war took all the men.
The village got the woman’s face this moment.
They paid too much for petty stuff to gain
At least enough for little children’s feeding.
A piece of coal of every single match
Was cherished as it warmed adults and children.
My grandpa was then far from human touch,
But people by his purchase were heated.
They asked my granny for these little coals
To burn their ovens during frosty winter.
The people prayed: God save him for us all,
Maria’s soldier, husband and a hero.
They were proud: good for her Ivan
To buy the things so cheap and very silly.
He might have been intolerably drunk
Or was it just some more than only feeling?

Перевод стихотворения http://stihi.ru/2022/08/01/4237