:02:14
This is the road to town.
:02:17
Those who leave our village,
:02:20
and those who later return
to their birthplace,
:02:24
walk along this road.
:02:28
She's not waiting for anyone.
:02:31
The one she used to wait for,
her son Alyosha,
:02:34
did not return from the war.
:02:38
He's buried far from his birthplace,
:02:42
near a town with a foreign name.
:02:45
Strangers bring flowers to his grave.
:02:51
They call him a Russian soldier,
:02:54
a hero, a liberator.
:02:57
But to her he was simply a son,
:03:00
about whom she knew everything
:03:03
from the day he was born
:03:05
to the day he left
along this road for the front.
:03:12
He was our friend.
:03:14
We will tell his story,
a story not everyone knows--
:03:18
not even her--his mother.
:03:22
BALLAD OF A SOLDI ER