Let the guitar sound
Pust' gitara zvutshit nye-ustanaya,
pust' rýdayet struna za strunoi!
Mozg tumanyet glaza tvayi pyanýe
pod napyev i tvoi smekh rakavoi.
Let the guitar sound, let it not tire,
let it cry, string by string,
I see your drunken eyes through a fog,
and through the song i hear your fateful laughter.
Shto mnye gorye, v zhizni morye
nado výpit' nam do dna!
Sertse tishe! Výshe, výshe
kubki starovo vina!
What do I care! In our lifetime a whole sea
we have to drink up down to the ground.
My heart, be still! Higher, higher
raise the glasses with old wine!
Uzh nye slýshitsya pyesnya tsiganskaya,
fsye tsiganye usnuli davno.
No paka yest' v bakalakh shampanskaya,
zhizn il smert' dla minya fsyo ravno.
The gipsy song has died away,
all the gipsies are alseep long since,
but as long as there's champagne in the glasses,
life or death are all the same to me!
Shto mnye gorye, v zhizni morye
nado výpit' nam do dna!
Sertse tishe! Výshe, výshe
kubki starovo vina!
What do I care! In our lifetime a whole sea
we have to drink up down to the ground.
My heart, be still! Higher, higher
raise the glasses with old wine!
Nu i stozh, budu vetshno paslushným ya,
ot sud'bý, fsyo ravno, nye uidyosh,
i na shto nam, sud'ba ravnodushnaya,
nyet lyubvi, nu i tak, prazhivyosh!
All the same, I will have to comply eternally,
you can't escape your fate anyhow,
fate is indifferent to us,
there's no love, so let's revel and riot!
Shto mnye gorye, v zhizni morye
nado výpit' nam do dna!
Sertse tishe! Výshe, výshe
kubki starovo vina!
What do I care! In our lifetime a whole sea
we have to drink up down to the ground.
My heart, be still! Higher, higher
raise the glasses with old wine!
Words and music: Russian folksong
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:
Like the well known song "Dark eyes",
also "Let the guitar sound" is a Gipsy song.
The words mention these great musicians,
and also the melody shows this characteristic
time shifting:
To begin the chorus with a rest,
to drag the first tone from one beat to the next,
and then to return easily to the normal time beat
–
such audacious rhythms are typical
for the virtuosity of Gipsy music.
© Kai Kracht 2002