Dubinushka
Mnogo pyesen slýkhal
ya v radnoi staranye,
v nikh pro radost' i gorye mne pyeli.
Iz fsyekh pyesen odna
f pamat' vrezalas mnye,
eta pyesnya rabotshey arteli:
I have heard a lot of songs
in my native place,
they sang of joy and sorrow.
But one of all these songs
has sunk into my mind,
this is the song of the working people:
Ekh, dubinushka, ukhnem!
Ekh, zelyonaya sama paidyot!
Padyornim! Padyornim!
Da ukhnem!
Hey, oaken cudgel, come on!
Hey, the green cudgel moves by itself!
Let's pull, let's pull
together!
I ot dyedof k otsam,
ot otsof k sýnovyam
eta pyesnya idyot po nasledstvu.
I lish tolko kak stanet
rabotat' nyevmotsh,
my k dubine, kak vernomu sredstvu.
From the grandfather to the father,
from the father to the son
this song has been handed down.
And always when
the work became too hard
we reached for the cudgel, our true help.
Ekh, dubinushka, ukhnem!
Ekh, zelyonaya sama paidyot!
Padyornim! Padyornim!
Da ukhnem!
Hey, oaken cudgel, come on!
Hey, the green cudgel moves by itself!
Let's pull, let's pull
together!
Anglitshanin mudrets:
Shtob rabote pamotsh,
isabryol za mashinoi mashinu.
A nash ruski muzhik,
kol rabotat' nyevmotsh,
tak zatyanet radnuyu dubinu.
The Englishman is cute:
To make the work easier
he invented machine by machine.
But our poor Russian peasant,
when his work gets too hard,
still sings the song of the cudgel:
Ekh, dubinushka, ukhnem!
Ekh, zelyonaya sama paidyot!
Padyornim! Padyornim!
Da ukhnem!
Hey, oaken cudgel, come on!
Hey, the green cudgel moves by itself!
Let's pull, let's pull
together!
Tyanet s lyesom sudno
il zhelezo kuyot
il f Sibiri rudu dobývayet:
S mukoi, s bolyu v grudyi
adnu pyesnyu payot,
pro dubinushku v nyey vspominayet.
If he has to tow a barge with wood,
or if he has to forge iron,
or if he is mining ore in Siberia:
With strain, and with pains in his chest
he sings this song again and again
and thereby remembers the cudgel:
Ekh, dubinushka, ukhnem!
Ekh, zelyonaya sama paidyot!
Padyornim! Padyornim!
Da ukhnem!
Hey, oaken cudgel, come on!
Hey, the green cudgel moves by itself!
Let's pull, let's pull
together!
I na Volge rekye,
utopaya f peskye,
on lomayet i nogi i spinu,
nadrývayet tam grud',
i stob lekhtshe tyanut',
fsyo payot pro radnuyu dubinu.
And on the towing-paths along the Volga,
nearly sinking in the sand,
breaking his legs and his spine,
chafing his chest,
only to tow a bit easier
he keeps singing the song of the cudgel:
Ekh, dubinushka, ukhnem!
Ekh, zelyonaya sama paidyot!
Padyornim! Padyornim!
Da ukhnem!
Hey, oaken cudgel, come on!
Hey, the green cudgel moves by itself!
Let's pull, let's pull
together!
Po darogye bolshoi,
po bolshoi stolbovoi,
shto Vladimirskoi zdrevle zavyotsya,
zvon tsepyey razdayotsya
glukhoi, rakavoi,
i Dubinushka stroino nesyotsya:
And along the big road,
along the big post road,
which is named after Vladimir long since,
there the sound of chains is to heard,
dull, fateful,
and in the same rhythm the song of the cudgel:
Ekh, dubinushka, ukhnem!
Ekh, zelyonaya sama paidyot!
Padyornim! Padyornim!
Da ukhnem!
Hey, oaken cudgel, come on!
Hey, the green cudgel moves by itself!
Let's pull, let's pull
together!
No nastala para,
i prosnulsya narod,
razognul on mogutshuyu spinu
i stryakhnul s pletsh daloi
tyazhki gnyot vekavoi,
na wragof pripodnyal on dubinu:
But the time has come,
and the people rose,
and it straightened its mighty spine,
and it shook off from its shoulders
the heavy yoke that had been there for centuries,
and now it raised the cudgel against its enemies:
Ekh, dubinushka, ukhnem!
Ekh, zelyonaya sama paidyot!
Padyornim! Padyornim!
Da ukhnem!
Hey, oaken cudgel, come on!
Hey, the green cudgel moves by itself!
Let's pull, let's pull
together!
Words after a poem by B. Bogdanov, 1865
Music: Russian traditional
Pronunciation:
a as in "bar", e as in "bed", i as in "bid", o as in "bore", u as in "blue"
y = as in "yellow" /
ý = dull i, as in "bill"
s = always voiceless, as in "son" / z = voiced, as in "zone"
sh = voiceless, as in "mesh" / zh = voiced, like the s in "measure"
kh = mostly rough, like the ch in Scotch "loch", but smooth when "e" or "i" follows
a, e, i, o, u, y
= the underlined vowel signifies the stressed syllable of a word.
Arrangement for balalaika, musical notation,
transcription and analogous translation: Kai Kracht
Comment:
"Dubinushka" probably is an old worksong:
The oaken cudgel could serve as lever
and increase one's own power,
or even multiply it
if there came others to help
–
the commands for the whole group
to put their back into it
are still visible in the refrain.
But today only the poetical version is known
which was given to this song by V.Bogdanov in 1865.
Just before, in 1861, tsar Alexander II had
yielded to the growing riots of the peasantry
and repealed the serfdom in Russia officially.
But in fact the peasants got
only three fifth of the land they had cultivated before,
they had to buy it from the big landowners,
and until they had not paid the whole price
they were forced to do compulsory labour
for the landowners as before.
The peasants felt that the landowners had
deprived them of the new freedom
which "Father Tsar" had granted them,
the riots turned into revolts and armed rebellion,
and the army needed two years to put down the
many insurrections all over country.
But the commotion grew,
while Bogdanov wrote this song,
pauperization and famine caused
a new rebellion of the peasants in 1885
–
and "Dubinushka", the oaken cudgel
which can remove even the biggest obstacles
if people unite their power,
became a symbol of the common struggle
against injustice and exploitation.
© Kai Kracht 2002