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Собачий вальс

Сказали добрые люди,
Что нам грех жить на воле;
Наш путь – терпеть и страдать,
И лечь костьми в чистом поле.
Собачий Вальс
Звучит по всем направлениям,
дыши не дыши;
Собачий вальс –
Болезнь души.
 
Их мир катится в пропасть
На фоне нашего роста;
Ещё бы сжечь эти книги –
Как все было бы просто.
Собачий Вальс,
Зашторить окна и дверь и
не впускать сюда свет;
Собачий вальс;
Необходимости в других уже нет.
 
Но только Бог шельму метит
И в алтаре горит свечка.
Можно врать людям долго,
Но невозможно врать вечно.
Собачий Вальс
У всех в ушах, хотя на деле
вокруг тишина.
Из темноты
Загадочно восходит Луна.
 
Translation

Hangdog waltz

Some good people said
it is a sin to live at liberty1;
our fate is to endure and suffer
and lay down our lives in the field.
A hangdog waltz
plays from all directions,
no way to escape it;
a hangdog waltz,
a disease of the soul.
 
Their world rushes to its doom
against the backdrop of our growth;
we would only have to burn these books,
everything would be so easy then.
A hangdog waltz,
draw the curtains on windows and door,
so that the light cannot reach here;
a hangdog waltz;
for now we don't need others.
 
Now only God knows a wicked heart,
and a candle burns on the altar.
You can lie to people for a long while,
but you cannot lie forever.
A hangdog waltz is
in everybody's ears, while all around
everything is indeed silent.
From the shadows,
the Moon rises uncannily.
 
  • 1. as Soviet propaganda would condemn the Western way of life
Comments
Treugol'nyTreugol'ny    Wed, 29/06/2016 - 07:21

Some kind people said, that it's a sin to live as we pleased, rather then we could live as we pleased. The rest is very good.

sandringsandring    Sat, 12/05/2018 - 07:37

Pierre, a few speculations for you to consider, if you don't mind

Что нам грех жить на воле = That it's a sin to live at liberty (Boris alludes to the Soviet propaganda and its heralds, "good people" who put down the democracies of the West during the Iron Curtain times) "To live as one pleases" is rather "Жить по воле" but it may depend.

И лечь костьми в чистом поле = die in the battlefild (lay down our lives in the field) defending the Communist ideals (T-34, remember?) It's an idiom. :)

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 05:46

That's another way to say "The end"

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 05:54

Of course. or in a romantic novel. A detached sentence like "And on the horizon was shining some..." "And a light wind was carrying ..."

"Собачий Вальс" is the simplest melody to play. so BG says "Look here, everything is as simple as Собачий вальс" Nothing to talk about. The end. That's his sarcastic manner. :)

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 05:56

We can read off BG like you can read off Brassens :)

Treugol'nyTreugol'ny    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 06:09

Но только Бог шельму метит? Is it really means" Only God knows a wicked heart".

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 06:11

Yes, it does, Anatoli, an absolute match. :)

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 06:23

Наш путь – терпеть и страдать - why, that's Dostoyevsky. "The Russian way is sacrifice and self-denial." A very convenient way for authorities to deprive people of a decent living. It's another "Russland, Russland uber alles" but in a spiritual, masochistic way.

Alexander LaskavtsevAlexander Laskavtsev    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 06:45

Вот как-то sacrifice and self-denial (жертвенность и самоотречение) чересчур позитивно звучит для "терпеть и страдать". I would say it sounds like a propaganda. :)
It's rather "to brook and to suffer" - more accurate translation. (IMHO) :)

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 06:51

Alex, that was a propaganda all right. That was how millions of people were driven into open battlefields to "лечь костьми" while those who had coerced them to do so were warming up their bones near the fires.

Alexander LaskavtsevAlexander Laskavtsev    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 06:59

"Когда государство начинает убивать, оно всегда называет себя Родиной" © Friedrich Reinhold Dürrenmatt

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 07:01

Ну вот я том же.

sandringsandring    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 06:57

Alex, you and I know for sure that this propaganda still works and the battlefields are still open. It's all very sad, isn't it?

Alexander LaskavtsevAlexander Laskavtsev    Mon, 14/05/2018 - 07:01

Sure it is... and the modern Gobelses have many more tools in their inventory, than they had before.

silencedsilenced    Fri, 30/10/2020 - 11:51

[@Vera Jahnke] what about a German version?

Vera JahnkeVera Jahnke    Fri, 30/10/2020 - 12:11

Зашторить окна и дверь... Oh, Pierre, I am laying in a sort of deep sleep due to an evil spell, the roses are withered, only thorns all around, like a nightmare, where you're trying to move forward and are not able to... – Please wake me up, so I can sing again...

silencedsilenced    Fri, 30/10/2020 - 12:22

We need your poetry more than ever to make this awful world a bit more bearable. A kind soul should always feel free to sing.

Vladimir4757Vladimir4757    Sun, 29/01/2023 - 08:00
5

Excellent. Captured the spirit of the song and did an excellent job translating in general