OZET

Texts

The Ballad of Yana and Gigi (You Drunken Fuck)

Yana Daniele
when she was young
Yana heard stories from her sister
about the things that boys and girls
used to say
to each other.
So one day when
they were children
alone
by the lake
in Sachkhere park
Yana promised herself
to Grigory Papiashvili.

You nurse your grudge and nurse your drink,
this one will be the last, you think.
Forget her, Grigory, you think that you’re the only one?
A woman’s promise made is not the same
as a promise kept,
you drunken fuck.
It’s sweeter though by far.

Gigi
Papiashvili
Was moved away.
He worked hard but never talked much
about the things that other men
like to say to each other.
Then one day
Gigi saw Yana
hair soft and black
and singing
like a night bird
at the Festival of
the Fifteenth Generation.
He watched her throat move.

The quiet one, the gentle one,
the heartsick, sentimental one’s
the one you want to watch for in the dark across the street.
He hates you but he thinks no one has ever loved like this
That drunken fuck,
sick of tasting his own blood.

Gigi
met Yana
outside the hall,
heard the chorus voices rising.
called her name and watched her eyes
cop that she
didn’t know him.
The next day they
found her body
alone by the lake
in Sachkhere park.
Brothers promise yourselves
to vodka and to OZET!

You nurse your grudge and nurse your drink,
this one will be the last, you think.
Old-fashioned, Grigory, you can’t believe what old men say:
That man is born and lives to murder what his heart cannot possess.
You drunken fuck!
A man owns nothing in this world.