AAudio Video
VLADIMIR VYSOTSKY (1938-1980)
MEMORY IN SONGS
After the WWI an American poet E.E.Cummings wrote a poem in the form of a letter which a soldier is writing to his girlfriend. Writing straight from the battlefield. The peculiarity of that poem was that the soldier has already been killed. A dead man is speaking. That was the first poetic endeavor of such kind.
Forty years later Vladimir Vysotky used the same artistic move – he wrote a song which is sung on behalf of a killed soldier. Listeners discover that the narrator is a dead person only in the very end and it produces a deep impression. Besides this song’s feature there is another manifestation of Vysotsky’s unique poetic mastership – in each stanza the word “star” reveals its another meaning. Here goes my translation of this song “Stars”. The English version is performed by Fred Altiery (USA).
Stars
This bloody battle I got on the brain —
Death our names was calling ...
And from the sky, like a soundless rain,
Stars kept on falling.
Another went down and I wished not to die,
Not to be killed in that action ...
That’s how my life to the star I could tie —
A stupid connection ...
We were pushed forward, they ordered us: ”Fight!
Spare no shells, no soldiers!”
Here the second star fell from its height
Straight on your shoulders.
This shooting was over and luck took my part —
Seems like I’ve drawn three sevens ...
Here a stray star shot me in the heart
Straight from the heavens ...
Stars in the sky are like fish in the sea —
Each man can get his packet ...
Had I not fallen I’d also receive
A star on my jacket.
I could have given this star to my boy —
Come, sonny, fetch it ...
A star in the sky shines so timid and coy —
There’s no one to catch it ..
Performance
Fred Altieri (USA).
Translated by George Tokarev
© GEORGE TOKAREV 1999
Poetry IN Music