Russia is waging a disgraceful war on Ukraine. Stand With Ukraine!

How you can support Ukraine 🇺🇦

Последний троллейбус (Posledniy trolleybus) (English translation)

Artist: Bulat Okudzhava (Булат Окуджава, ბულატ ოკუჯავა) •Also performed by: Elena Kamburova, Galina Khomchik, Zhanna Aguzarova
Song: Последний троллейбус (Posledniy trolleybus)
•
9 translations
English #1, #2
+7 more
, #3, #4, French, German #1, #2, Spanish, Turkish
•
1 translations of covers
English
Translations: English #1, #2
+7 more
, #3, #4, French, German #1, #2, Spanish, Turkish
•Translations of covers: English

Russian/Romanization/Romanization

Russian/Romanization/+1Romanization

A A

Последний троллейбус

Когда мне невмочь пересилить беду,

Когда подступает отчаянье,

Я в синий троллейбус сажусь на ходу,

В последний, в случайный.

Я в синий троллейбус сажусь на ходу,

В последний, в случайный.

Последний троллейбус, по улицам мчи,

Верши по бульварам круженье,

Чтоб всех подобрать, потерпевших в ночи

Крушенье, крушенье.

Чтоб всех подобрать, потерпевших в ночи

Крушенье, крушенье.

Последний троллейбус, мне дверь отвори!

Я знаю, как в зябкую полночь

Твои пассажиры, матросы твои

Приходят на помощь.

Твои пассажиры, матросы твои

Приходят на помощь.

Я с ними не раз уходил из беды,

Я к ним прикасался плечами...

Как много, представьте себе, доброты

В молчанье, молчанье.

Как много, представьте себе, доброты

В молчанье, молчанье.

Последний троллейбус плывет по Москве,

Москва, как река, затухает,

И боль, что скворчонком стучала в виске,

Стихает, стихает.

И боль, что скворчонком стучала в виске,

Стихает, стихает.

Submitted by

boraaras on Fri, 10/01/2014 - 22:45

English translationEnglish

The last trolleybus

Versions: #1 #2#3#4

When I am overwhelmed by ill fate

and despair creeps in,

I jump on the first blue trolleybus I see,

be it the last one.

I jump on the first blue trolleybus I see,

be it the last one.

Race through the streets, my last trolleybus,

roam the boulevards around the city

to rescue all the castaways

marooned in the night.

to rescue all the castaways

marooned in the night.

My last trolleybus, please let me in,

for I know that in the chill of midnight

your passengers, your sailors

will come to the rescue

your passengers, your sailors

will come to the rescue.

Many times I escaped misfortune,

shoulder to shoulder with them...

There's so much kindness to be found

in their silence, their silence.

There's so much kindness to be found

in their silence, their silence.

The last trolleybus glides over Moscow

and the city fades away like a river,

and the pain that was fluttering at my temples

recedes, recedes.

and the pain that was fluttering at my temples

recedes, recedes.

Thanks! ❤
thanked 10 times

Submitted by

Guest on Mon, 12/02/2018 - 19:44

Author's comments:

Certainly not a perfect translation, but at least I didn't try to prettify the original...

Translations of "Последний троллейбус..."

English S sandring

English St. Sol

English Guest

English Rashpill

French S sandring

German Guest

German P,S Guest

Spanish Guest

Turkish boraaras

Collections with "Последний троллейбус"

1.	Songs about Moscow
2.	Songs to Get You Through Tough Times

Bulat Okudzhava: Top 3

1.	Десятый наш десантный батальон (Desyatyy nash desantnyy bataly'on)
2.	А как первая любовь (A kak pervaya lyubovʹ)
3.	Молитва Франсуа Вийона (Molitva Fransua Viyona)

Idioms from "Последний троллейбус"

на ходу

Comments

Vera Jahnke

Thu, 03/10/2019 - 09:44

A beautiful translation, thank you! This song was the reason, why I came to LT. Although I definitely can't sing, I did it once in a small theatre nearby, my foot was trembling all the time, but the audience (Russian emigrants) was very kind...
By the way - Bulat Okudzhava (his father came from Georgia!) was once in my hometown at a book exhibition. My father met him, he was looking for penfriends, but I didn't know that he was in town and my father didn't know that I love him deeply. When I think about this, it really hurts.

silenced

Thu, 03/10/2019 - 10:02

Fancy that! This song happens to be my favourite of Okudzhava's, and Okudzhava my favourite Russian bard.
My desire to understand his poetry was a powerful drive to salvage my derelict Russian. The very first thing I published here years ago was a French version of Песенка об Арбате.
Though my German is not great, I felt something special in this translation of yours. Now I see I was not mistaken. Maybe you missed a chance to talk to him, but he talked to your soul. Through you, his poetry lives on.

Vera Jahnke

Thu, 03/10/2019 - 11:59

silenced, I have tears in my eyes now...
It was hard for me to write the comment and to remember the missed chance. But what you said - that he talks to my soul now...- it is so beautiful, so consoling... Van Gogh wrote once about the possibilty that all painters and poets will meet on a far away star and death will be the train to go to this place... - Thank you!
(https://lyricstranslate.com/de/brief-506-auszug-lettre-506-extrait.html)