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Horse
I'll go out into the field with my horse this night.1
We will go gently into this dark night.2
My horse and I will go together through the field,
My horse and I will go together through the field.
The stars over this field tonight are a blessing.3
Nobody else can be seen in the field.
Just me and my horse, walking through the field.
Just me and my horse, walking through the field.
I rise up onto the horse.
Carry me through the field
Through my boundless field
Through my boundless field
Let me look just the once,
At where the field gives birth to the dawn
And the lingonberry light, scarlet as the sunset,4
Is there, or is there not, such a place?
My old fields and streams,5
The lights of faraway villages,
The golden wheat, the curling flax,
I'm in love with you, Russia, I'm in love.
The year's harvest will be good.
So it always was, so it will always be.
Sing! golden wheat, sing! curling flax,
Sing, of how I love Russia!
Sing, golden wheat! sing, curling flax!..
My horse and I walk together through the field.
- 1. Unsatisfactory. We don't have a word in our language that captures the meaning of "Конь". The first potential word, horse, is too plain; equivalent to the Russian "Лошадь" The second, stallion, is also too plain and has a vaguely (if not overtly) sexual tone; equivalent to the Russian "Жеребец". The word конь, while literally describing a stallion (uncastrated male horse), is imbued with elements of beauty, nobility, strength, grace, ideas that aren't attached to any English word describing horses. Hypothetically, the word "steed" could be applied here, but the word is too archaic and its use anachronistic and somewhat silly. More than anything else the word "steed" brings to mind fairy tails and children's stories, not desirable here. For конь, imagine if all of the qualities ascribed to the word "lion" were applied to horses.
- 2. This faintly echoes the first line of the famous English language poem "Do not go gentle into that good night" which gives it at least a fraction of the original's poeticism. The word "тихо" could be more literally translated as "quietly" if the reader wishes.
- 3. Unsatisfactory. We don't have a good word in our language that captures the meaning of "Благодать". It is like a gift from God, a tangible receipt of God's Grace, and is sometimes translated as "grace". Also "boon" and "gift"; "благодать" is always something given from above.
- 4. Unfortunately this berry is not very common in Anglosphere culture or parlance, and is most commonly known (if known at all) by the awkward name "lingonberry". Look at a picture of a lingonberry to understand what color he means, and know that in Russian it sounds better.
- 5. English does not have a fully functional diminutive system, and diminutives are at least awkward, if not impossible, to translate into English. Sometimes the word "old" is used in English in an analogous way in this context, to show the speaker's fondness for a place or person. A couple examples: "I'll make a brand new start of it, in old New York!" (Frank Sinatra) "Rolling down to old Maui, me boys, rolling down to old Maui! We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui!" (Technically folk, a sailor's song, but I'm thinking of Stan Rogers)
Guest on 2021-12-29✕
Translations of "Конь (Kon')"
Comments
Pinchus 
Don Juan
I do not think that any translation of this song into English would do it real justice, but all we can manage is our best. It leverages every grammatical and phonological aspect of the Russian language to make pure distilled poetry. You know it's a tough song when you have to write a full paragraph to explain one word, four times. Too many lines ending with "field", what can you even do?