Quote Originally Posted by jgonc View Post
Hello everybody. I need a faithful translation of these simple lines of a poem/epitaph:

"шапки товарищи снимем перед этои гранитнои скалои ребята мы вас не покинем. мы теплом своим согреем ваши души, не покинувшие этих гор"

Thanks in advance.
Here it is, line-by-line -- a few spelling corrections in red, stressed vowels underlined, and I've tried to add commas/periods where appropriate (though I often screw up Russian punctuation!)...

Шапки, товарищи, снимём
Let's take off [our] hats, comrades,

перед этой гранитной скалой.
in front of this granite cliff.

Ребята, мы вас не покинем.
Guys, we shall not abandon you.

Мы теплом своим согреем ваши души,
With our own warmth [i.e., physical body-heat], we'll warm up your souls,

не покинувшие этих гор.
which have not abandoned these mountains.

It's a deceptively simple but very powerful epitaph, presumably a prayer or memorial to lost mountain-climbers!


P.S. A few vocabulary notes if you're curious:

The word шапка very specifically means "a warm winter cap/hat made from fur or knitted from wool":

shapka-platochnoi-vyazkoi-raznocvetnaya.jpg

-- as opposed to шляпа, which can mean all sorts of hats, from an Abraham Lincoln "stovepipe hat" to a Mexican sombrero.

Товарищ is very often translated to English as "comrade" (i.e, suggesting the official terminology of Communism), but in non-Soviet contexts, a better and more colloquial translation could be "buddy" (US) or "mate" (UK).

Ребята is used only in the plural and especially (though not always) in second-person "vocative" constructions -- thus, it's extremely close to English "Hey, you guys!"

The verb покинуть ("to leave a place; to abandon a person; to quit a habit") is perfective; the corresponding imperfective is покидать.

And ironically enough, the noun душа ("the immortal human soul") is treated as неодушевлённое ("grammatically inanimate") -- not just here, but in general.