:02:09
This is the road to town.
:02:12
Those who leave our village,
:02:15
and those who later return
to their birthplace,
:02:18
walk along this road.
:02:22
She's not waiting for anyone.
:02:24
The one she used to wait for,
her son Alyosha,
:02:28
did not return from the war.
:02:32
He's buried far from his birthplace,
:02:35
near a town with a foreign name.
:02:38
Strangers bring flowers to his grave.
:02:44
They call him a Russian soldier,
:02:47
a hero, a liberator.
:02:50
But to her he was simply a son,
:02:53
about whom she knew everything
:02:55
from the day he was born
:02:58
to the day he left
along this road for the front.
:03:04
He was our friend.
:03:06
We will tell his story,
a story not everyone knows--
:03:10
not even her--his mother.
:03:14
BALLAD OF A SOLDIER