Mirzo Tursunzade

The eagle

Have you fixed your gaze on the great eagle's nest
When he's teaching his fledglings and puts them to test?
As tender as springtide caressing a tree
With sweet swelling leaf-buds, as gentle is he
With eaglets who still are unable to fly;
But their mighty mentor knows soon they must try.
When wings gain in span and the eagle thinks best
He makes all his fledglings abandon the nest.
Before their keen eyes wide horizons are spread.
Their watchful winged tutor sails close overhead.
He demonstrates gliding and how they must dive,
I'D spy things that move, all that's warm and alive.
At last comes the day when eaglets fly higher.
Their wings can now carry them where they desire,
And then, only then, with his eaglets, the sire
With pride mounts the wind to the tall summit's spire.

O great Russian people, warm-hearted and true,
I sing of the freedom that we owe to you.
You gave to Tajiks pinions vast in their span
And concepts that render great service to man.
With courage and wisdom our nations you led
To the summits of liberty, soaring ahead.
As close as your feelings, as near as your thought,
Like part of your shoulders, with strong muscles taut,
Integral as fingers of one single hand,
We surely are brothers – we're sons of one land.
And, shoulder to shoulder, we'll stand evermore
In work, joy and sorrow, as in that great war.
The victory won in that fight without rest
Has proved that we all come from one eagle's nest.
In this age of heroes our blood is your blood!
We both have one destiny, sharing one love!
Rejoicing I sing songs of your folk and mine.
The two on my lips, in my heart, intertwine.
With your great resplendence my spirit's aglow,
As golden as moonlit Amii's waters flow.
As rivers unite when they merge in the sea,
Our peoples forever united shall be.
You spoke like a prophet, the future discerned.
Our fate in the truest direction you turned.
Always happy our great Soviet nations shall be.
United with you, independent and free.
You shield our great Union from ills and from strife.
You stand for our victory, liberty, life!
1946