VLADIMIR VYSOTSKY (1938-1980)
We continue our song journey into the Vysotsky terrain. This time there is a war song. Vysotsky wrote about twenty war songs. Mind you - not anti-war songs which are plentiful, but namely war songs. Songs which show us men at war, the collisions happening there and how soldiers behave and fight. Vysotsky wrote war songs about the World War II.
He didn't participate in it ,as those days he was just a kid. But his fantastic imagination combined with the unrivaled poetic mastership allowed him to write about the war in such a manner that real war veterans would later on argue that the man, who wrote these songs, was their brother-in-arms and fought with them in the same regiment.
The song presented here is a unique piece - it is written on behalf of the German soldiers invading the Ukraine back in 1942. Vysotsky wrote it as a sound track for theater play. As he himself described it - "the song shows the bravery of idiots". The main song's message is that any aggressor will eventually be defeated and crushed.
My English translation of this song has been performed by an American artist Dan Bern who also created this song's video.
“Zentrum” Armies Group Soldiers
( German onslaught in the Ukraine, 1942)
A soldier’s always fit, In rain or frost or heat
He treads ahead on any road – he’s always on his feet!
And on the move he’s dining, Without changing pace,
His boots are brightly shining To match his shining face!
Achieving the momentum Across the plain,
The group of armies “Zentrum” Are ripping the Ukraine!
Dress left! Attention! Number off! – “One, two …”
Number one deserves a prize! – “One, two …”
And each number two, a hero too,
Greets number one: “I’m here with you,
Sharing the prize
Up in the skies,
In Paradise!”
All that is blooming we will burn And ruin as we pass.
We never think – it’s the concern Of him, who’s leading us!
We will return as warriors Who are the nation’s pride,
Respected, merry, glorious, And each will get a bride!
But home is a phantom We’ve on the brain,
Today the tanks of “Zentrum” Are raping the Ukraine!
Dress left! Attention! Number off! – “One, two …”
Number one deserves a prize! – “One, two …”
And each number two, a hero too,
Greets number one: “I’m here with you,
Sharing the prize,
Up in the skies,
In Paradise!”
Performance
Dan Bern & Orit Shimoni
Translated by George Tokarev
© GEORGE TOKAREV 2001
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Audio Video
War In Music