Vladimir Vysotski

I first liked the music because of the singer’s over-the-top gravel-gargling Russian bear voice. Though he looks, on his album covers, like the kind of guy who might have sung songs about galoshes and the alphabet on some USSR version of Sesame Street, Vladimir Vysotski was one of the powerful voices of opposition to the USSR, and he had a real-lifepowerful voice to match. He was an immensely popular actor, but now his legacy lives on in his music on poetry, the publication of which was officially prohibited by the Soviet government until the 1980s, after his death.

Once you know this name, you start to hear it everywhere well-read Russians go. “Have you ever heard of Vysotski’s ‘Plucked Nerve’ poem?” asked one Kokshetau literature professor, explaining to her English class the meaning of a similar phrase found in All the King’s Men. At a winter meeting of the Kokshetau poets’ society, shots of vodka alternated with group sing-alongs of old Vysotski songs until four in the morning. A student of mine proudly showed me her old “samizdat” of Vysotski poetry, which she acquired and read illegally back when Vysotski was still alive. And when I was introduced to a novelist the same friend, by way of introduction, said first that I liked Vysotski, and only second that I was an American. To the Vysotski part, the novelist gave me a thumbs-up and a wink.

So here’s one of his songs. I don’t know if it’s particularly well-known or not – I picked it out of my songbook because of the word “steppe”, thinking it might be apropos of our Peace Corps KZ life. And if I can learn the guitar part too, I'll have something to entertain my poet friends with next time in between shots.


Лежит Камень в Степи

Лежит камень в степи, а под него вода течет,
А на камене написано слово:
Кто направо пойет – ничено не найдет,
А кто прямо пойдет – никуда не придет,
Кто налево пойдет – ничего не поймет
И ни за грош пропадет.

Перед каменем стоят без коней и без мечей
И решают: идти иль не надо.
Вот один из них – зол, он направо пошел,
В одиночку пошел, ничего не нашел –
Ни деревни, ни сел, и обратно пришел.

Прямо нету пути, никуда не прийти.
Но один, не поверв в заклатье,
И, подобравши подол, напрямую пошел,
Сколько он ни бродил, никуда не добрел,
Он вернулся и пил, и обратно пришел.

Ну, а третий был дурак, ничего не знал и так,
И пошел без опаски налево.
Долго ль, которко ль шагал, и совсем не страдал,
Пил, гулял и отдыхал, ничего не понимал,
Ничего не понимал, так всю жизнь и прошагал –
И не ступил, и не продал.


A Stone Lay in the Steppe

A stone lay in the Steppe, and water was flowing beneath it. And on the stone a word was written: “Who goes to the right, will find nothing. Who goes straight, will go nowhere. And who goes to the left, will understand nothing, and wastefully perish.”

They stood in front of the stone, without sword or a stallion, and decided, should they go or not? So one of them was evil, and he went to the right. He went alone and found nothing, no countryside and no villages, and came back.

There was no way forward, nowhere to go. But one of them, not having believed the verse, hiked up his trousers and went forward. No matter how much he wandered, he never got anywhere. He returned, drank, and came back.

Well, the last one was an idiot who didn’t know anything, and so he went without fear to the left. Whether his stride was long or short, he never suffered. He drank, partied, relaxed, and didn’t understand anything. He didn’t understand anything, and in this way passed his entire life. And he did not vanish, and he did not perish.

(I translated this, so if you find mistakes, please post a comment and improve my Russian.)