Monday 6 June 2011

And Also the Trees

The first “And Also the Trees” song I heard was “Scarlet Arch”. It happened last autumn. At that time I was looking for a new title to translate. I had just discovered the thrill of equi-rhythmic translation, and wanted to find a text with clear structure but beautiful and pensive. Being a long time curehead, I recollected that the name of some band called “AATT” had been mentioned by Robert Smith in one of his interviews. I googled it, and the first link was just “Scarlet Arch”. I knew from the first time I heard it, that it was going to be a long time affection. I didn’t know how strong it would turn out to be though…


So when “Lie in the pale summer heat” turned into “Ляг в выцветший лета жар” I was flooded with a strange feeling, a sort of premonition that not a few times I would wrench my mind trying to catch that elusive drift. Up to now I have translated 38 “AATT” songs. Some translations I hope are good, some I’m afraid are not, but all of them were a real pleasure to do.

Sometimes solutions for translations would come down on me unexpectedly and in odd places. For instance, last November I accompanied my wife on a photo session (she’s a photographer). We climbed up a hill in the suburbs facing rocks and thick forests. It was not too cold but the snow was softly falling and the loose sky lay on hills’ tops. My wife was working and I was staring into the sky and thinking of nothing. The snowflakes were slowly floating in the air, and I felt like I floated too. It was very quiet. Then all of a sudden in one split second I knew how to translate “Stay Away from the Accordion Girl”. I must confess that almost nothing can be compared to that feel. It was pure physical pleasure.

I keep “AATT” music in my car. When I have to spend a lot of time in it waiting for someone, I lean back and listen to the music that touches me deeply. From time to time I drive to a big territory called Khakasia for the same reason as mentioned in the previous paragraph. It’s a vast land of steppes and hills, unhindered skylines and clouds. It’s very ancient and mysterious. One can find hundreds of “Menghirs” there – big flat stones dug into the earth to mark a grave, an event or esoteric place several thousand years ago. So, it’s almost supernatural witnessing “AATT” songs envelop the stones which were already here when Rome was not even founded!

So, this was really a lucky chance when I remembered that old Robert Smith’s interview… And now I cannot wait for the upcoming album…

Suddenly I Craved for Love

It's a self-translation from russian... A small piece, intended to be sort of hilarious...


Suddenly I craved for love
Young and bold and heady
Suddenly I craved for lips
Kissable and daring
I was struck, what do I do
Lie or sit or go
Suddenly I craved for love
Like I’m young you know
And I gaze with utter lust
At your legs I tell you
And compared to my blog
They’re of greater value
You laugh and you move aside
But your eyes are shining
I control myself I do
Or at least I’m trying
Wanna touch your precious thigh
And my hand is naughty
Wanna have it here and now
Wanna get erotic
But your skirt is a stronghold
Really tough I got it
I’m in love and it means that
Nothing’s more important
I swear that I wouldn’t have
This chance lost and squandered
Such a shame a month of quiet
By my doctor’s ordered

Saturday 4 June 2011

A Sad Joke

This is my translation of the poem "A Sad Joke" by Vladimir Lifshitz, russian writer who I admire. It was written in 1973. I don't know the correct literature term, but I tried to keep all the accents and the number of syllables.


Time will come and I will die
There’ll be me no longer
In the morn the sun will rise
There’ll be me no longer

There’ll be dark and there’ll be light
Summertime, wintertime
Cats and houses will survive
There’ll be me no longer

But I know the run of things
Is forever endless
And one day, I do believe
I return to this place

The same set of primal cells
In the same straight order
And the tender look would tell
Of things it told before then

Still in Moscow I would live
Meet the usual fellows
And the same ideas you see
In my head would bellow

And habitual sins I might
Be again committing
My verse for the second time
Might again be written

Nothing would my fate forget
Which it has recorded
I would be an I again…
There’ll be me no longer

Little Black Paws

(this is a translation of a funny song by a russian band called NOM which was written way back in the 90's)



From over hills, and past the swamps
Past river’s stream, that slowly rolls
In the dim dusk with goals unknown
A youngish man was walking alone

He trod his way, direction was east
And leather sack he was carrying with
He was so tall and bald was his bean
Fussily gnawing on sunflower seeds

It seems last year in local woods
All evil spirits, they did beshrew
Old forester went for pine cones
Nobody saw him and neither his bones

Once upon winter in the same thick
Dersu the hunter fell into a pit
His body was found in seventy days
Lying on skulls disfigured and maimed!

The moon climbed up. The guy with the sack
Would have stalked on down the same track
Had he not met in the moonlight
A little girl not older than five

Stupidly sitting in the green moss
It was so clear, that lost she was
To keep the infant from getting dead
The man set his mind on helping instead

Right to her savior the little lass clings
Squishes with her nose and gobbles on seeds
Soon through the dark there shimmered some light
It meant they reached a settlement’s side

Together with granny the little girl dwells
They also have there a goat and hens
The man just got sleepy in tobacco smoke
The warmth of the house lulled the poor bloke

The night is so dark and it hardly moves
Way too much late now to rescue the dude
Rags starting to stir in the grim cellar
Little black paws have woken down there

Frightful and scary and gooey is dark!
Death himself coming for his big hunt
In knitted hat and old coat he goes
Little black paws! Ah little black paws!

New forester in the midst of a day
Afterwards saw the remains of that place
Girl and her granny, no sign of them both
Only the footprints! Little black paws…

I Was Torn out of Life So Dreary

It's my first attempt at translating classic russian poetry. The original poem was written by Nikolai Gumilev in 1917.


I was torn out of life so dreary
Of life so scarce, and life so plain
By beauty torturing and daring
And inescapable again

And then I died and saw a fire
That I had never seen before
And hurtful for my blinded eye
A blue star shined in great galore

And morphing both spirit and body
A tune was climbing high to wane
That talk and tingle was, I got it,
Your blood’s lute-like descanting say

And smell was lurid and was sweeter
Than anything I’d ever find
Than even lily’s, which won’t wither
In garden heavenly divine

And suddenly from depths so shiny
The face of earth appeared again
And like a wounded bird, and stunning
You trembled in my frightened hand

You told me you were agonizing
But what then do I do so far
When finally I’m realizing
That you are nothing but blue star

In Front of You

how come you can’t see
everything has changed its shape
guess i am free
and you’re still here
and we have time but time is strange
and swallows dive
the sky so high
still I feel something is so wrong
i lie
to keep your fragile trust
and keep your dreamy smile

i tear me apart in front of you
but hope you never know I do

how come you can’t see
threadbare masks are crumbling down
guess i am still
and you’re free here
with people laughing all around
and moth flies low
the pressure falls
and storms are forming in the sky
i know
that I will neither love
nor ever let you go