טשערנאָביל Chernobyl (Tshernobil) - English translation

Brave Old World feat. Michael Alpert

טשערנאָביל Chernobyl (Tshernobil)

3 translations

Original lyrics

Translation

טשערנאָביל Chernobyl

אַ מעשׂהלע פֿון אָך און װײ

פּאַסירט אין לאַנד פֿון קאַגעבע

דאָרט אין מיטן אוקראַיִנע

רוט זיך שײן ניט מער די שכינה

זאָגן זאָג איך אײַך דעם פּשט

אַז אין טשערנאָביל בײַם פּריפּאַט

דאַרף די שכינה מער ניט ריִען

פֿון זיך אַלײן טוט אַלץ שײן גליִען

ענערגיע, אױ, ס'איז אַ פּראַכט!

נאָר אַ טעותל האָט מען געמאַכט

דאָרט אין לאַנד פֿון רוס דעם שטאָלצן

האָט מע די װעלט שיער ניט פֿאַרשמאָלצן

אַלץ אין אָרדענונג, כאַראַשאָ!

האָט געזאָגט פּאָליטביוראָ

נאָר בײַם רעכטן און בײַם לינקן

האָט מען מורא מילך צו טרינקען

זינט דער צימעס פֿון פּריפּיאַט

די גאַנצע װעלט האָט פֿײַנט סאַלאַט

פֿון קאַמטשאַטקע ביז קאַנאַדע

טרינקען דאַרף מען לימאָנאַדע

טאָ װאָס האָב איך צו יענעם אָרט?

ס'איז ייִדן פֿלעגן װױנען דאָרט

איצטערט, אױף די קבֿר אָבֿות

עס טאַנצט אַ נײַער מלאך־המות

מײנט ניט, אַז דאָס קען געשען

אין יענעם װײַטן לאַנד אַלײן

צי אין קיִעװ, צי דעטרױט

כאַפּן װעסט דעם זעלבן טױט. ‏

Chernobyl

A tale of woe and dole

Took place in the land of KGB1

Over there, in the middle of Ukraine

The Divine2 stays no more

I will just explain it to you

That in Chernobyl3 on the Pripyat river4

The Divine doesn't need to shine anymore

As everything glows there already by itself

Energy, oh, it's a beauty!

Only a tiny mistake5 was made

By a proud Russian6 there in the land

And the world has almost melted

Everything's in order, Karasho!7

So the Politburo8 said9

Only to the right and to the left,

People are scared to drink milk

Since the mess from the Pripat

The whole world dislikes salats

From Kamchatka to Canada

You have to drink soda

So, what do I have to do with that place?

Jews used to live there10

Now, on the graves of the ancestors,

A new angel of death dances

Don't think that this can happen

Only in a far-away country

Whether in Kiev, whether in Detroit

You will catch the same kind of death.

1. A Soviet analogue of American FBI - an agency that was supposed, among other things, to look for national threats like nuclear plant leakages
2. Shekhinah - a dwelling of divine presence
3. The nuclear accident occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
4. The river and also the city that is now completely abandoned
5. It is still not 100% clear what caused the incident, but for sure it was not a tiny mistake. There are several official and non-official explanation, but all agree that it was a number of factors that combined led to the disaster
6. It was not one single man to be blamed of cause but a number of personnel of different nationalities
7. "Ok" in Russian
8. Political bureau is the executive committee for the Communist Party
9. The Soviet authorities were extremely slow in accepting the incident and starting the evacuation of the population
10. Jews've been living in Chernobyl since the beginning of the 17th century. The population suffered greatly from the pogroms by Bogdan Chmelnitsky (1648-1649) and from the Cossacks and Haidamaks in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The latest blows were Hitler (1941) and the Nuclear Plant incident