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Absinthial Haze

She’s not into songs, or the wine to sup
The war like a hound is on our path
She is laid-up
In astral dance of star-crossed souls
In graceful hands our spacious world
Has been cooling off.
 
The star constellations appear to distort
The train-wrecks of people go down the slope
He’s way too old
On those lips so often kissed
And in the springtime garden is
A cross, a wreath
 
Her face to the wall as she lies asleep
He’s dumb in the kitchen for heavy drinks
Absinthe of dreams. Absinthe of haze
A smashed down boat, abandoned pier
A mermaid on stones is singing grief
It’s self-repeat
It’s self-pretense
 
An angel can have nor a tail nor horns
A horse never falls for the swishing thong
A bridge to burn
The ravenous riders show themselves
The fruit get rotten, the eyes get sore
From lilac haze
 
This sign is engraved on a rusty key
Thy heart will be where thy treasure is
Someone cognized
The fire is out, hush rules your home
With only angels singing for
This final time
 
Her face to the wall as she lies asleep
He’s dumb in the kitchen for heavy drinks
Absinthe of dreams.
Absinthe of haze
A smashed down boat, abandoned pier
A mermaid on stones is singing grief
It’s self-repeat
It’s self-pretense
 
It’s self-repeat
It’s self-pretense
 
Absinthe of dreams
Absinthe of haze
 
Оригинални текстови

Горький туман

Кликните да видите оригиналне текстове (руски)

Коментари
sandringsandring
   Субота, 30/05/2020 - 11:29

Thanks, Dea. The rhyming pattern was a nightmare, three rhymes in a row but the song is worth it. :)

silencedsilenced    Субота, 30/05/2020 - 12:05

Very nice!
I'm just curious. I don't pretend to understand the song, but the 2nd line sounds like "she's a trouble magnet" to me.
Why would it be about "us" rather than her (or "them", maybe)?

sandringsandring
   Субота, 30/05/2020 - 12:16

Thanks, Pierre. It's again about the word order. Война собакой (=как собака) идет по следу. The war is following (us) like a hound. It means they have recently been falling out and can't stop it. :)

silencedsilenced    Субота, 30/05/2020 - 12:27

So, if I got you right, to say "is trailing her" you'd have to be more explicit? "ей по следу" or something?
Still, the whole song seems to be a 3rd person narrative about this mismatched couple, so I'm surprised to see the narrator included in this one sentence.

sandringsandring
   Субота, 30/05/2020 - 12:46

In the first stanza, he's speaking about their relations cooling off. If you listen carefully you'll hear "остывал огромный НАШ шар (that is, the world they have created). I corrected the lyrics but Sophia as a submitter didn't agree with me. I don't insist but I translated it the way I hear. So the world of their relations is cooling off and consequently, the war is on THEIR path as he's talking about what they have in common. At least this is how I understand it.

I've really enjoyed that Bible quotation. A shrewd observation :)

silencedsilenced    Субота, 30/05/2020 - 12:54

I wouldn't bet on my understanding against yours :D
So the perspective switches from 1st to 3rd person? This is too broad for my head to wrap around. But this is poetry, so anything goes.

Sophia_Sophia_
   Субота, 30/05/2020 - 15:29
sandring wrote:

In the first stanza, he's speaking about their relations cooling off. If you listen carefully you'll hear "остывал огромный НАШ шар (that is, the world they have created). I corrected the lyrics but Sophia as a submitter didn't agree with me. I don't insist but I translated it the way I hear. So the world of their relations is cooling off and consequently, the war is on THEIR path as he's talking about what they have in common. At least this is how I understand it.

I've really enjoyed that Bible quotation. A shrewd observation :)

I agree about the meaning.
As for огромный наш шар, I don't hear наш, just
остывал огромный шар.

Cheers!

sandringsandring
   Субота, 30/05/2020 - 12:57

Now I understand what puzzles you. The first couplet is in the first person like a monologue, then it switches on to a narration of a looker-on. Pierre, that's Russian. Anything is possible but the song is precious, isn't it?

silencedsilenced    Субота, 30/05/2020 - 12:58

Yes, it is very evocative even for a clueless foreigner like me :)

sandringsandring
   Субота, 30/05/2020 - 13:11

We all are somehow foreigners to this world. I just hope Sophie est heureuse ;)

silencedsilenced    Субота, 30/05/2020 - 13:24

Indeed. You spoiled her, really. Now nobody will dare translate their other songs. You'll have to finish the job yourself!
I'd really like to understand the references in the one about the old-fashioned girl.

sandringsandring
   Субота, 30/05/2020 - 13:24

C'est la vie! - как говорят в России :)

silencedsilenced    Субота, 30/05/2020 - 13:26

... and other places