I went with Dymphna and co to a performance of music that made my heart want to break. they played the folk song – Stenka Razin, one which the carnival is over is based. The musicians were spectacularly good and bored out of their brains. I wish they had a better life than playing to tourists. I hope that as the economy improved they found useful work elsewhere.
Here are the original words from Wikipedia.
Из-за острова на стрежень,
На простор речной волны,
Выплывают расписные,
Острогрудые челны.
From beyond the wooded island
To the river wide and free
Proudly sailed the arrow-breasted
Ships of Cossack yeomanry.
На переднем Стенька Разин,
Обнявшись, сидит с княжной,
Свадьбу новую справляет,
Сам веселый и хмельной.
On the first is Stenka Razin
With his princess by his side
Drunken holds in marriage revels
With his beauteous young bride
Позади их слышен ропот:
Нас на бабу променял!
Только ночь с ней провозился
Сам наутро бабой стал . . . .
From behind there comes a murmur
“He has left his sword to woo;
One short night and Stenka Razin
Has become a woman, too.”
Этот ропот и насмешки
Слышит грозный атаман,
И могучею рукою
Обнял персиянки стан.
Stenka Razin hears the murmur
Of his discontented band
And his lovely Persian princess
He has circled with his hand.
Брови черные сошлися,
Надвигается гроза.
Буйной кровью налилися
Атамановы глаза.
His dark brows are drawn together
As the waves of anger rise;
And the blood comes rushing swiftly
To his piercing jet black eyes.
“Ничего не пожалею,
Буйну голову отдам!” —
Раздаётся голос властный
По окрестным берегам.
“I will give you all you ask for
Head and heart and life and hand.”
And his voice rolls out like thunder
Out across the distant land.
“Волга, Волга, мать родная,
Волга, русская река,
Не видала ты подарка
От донского казака!
Volga, Volga, Mother Volga
Wide and deep beneath the sun,
You have never seen such a present
From the Cossacks of the Don.
Чтобы не было раздора
Между вольными людьми,
Волга, Волга, мать родная,
На, красавицу возьми!”
So that peace may reign forever
In this band so free and brave
Volga, Volga, Mother Volga
Make this lovely girl a grave.
Мощным взмахом поднимает
Он красавицу княжну
И за борт ее бросает
В набежавшую волну.
Now, with one swift mighty motion
He has raised his bride on high
And has cast her where the waters
Of the Volga roll and sigh.
“Что ж вы, братцы, приуныли?
Эй, ты, Филька, черт, пляши!
Грянем песню удалую
На помин ее души!..”
“Dance, you fools, and let’s be merry
What is this that’s in your eyes?
Let us thunder out a chanty
To the place where beauty lies.”
Из-за острова на стрежень,
На простор речной волны,
Выплывают расписные
Острогрудые челны.
From beyond the wooded island
To the river wide and free
Proudly sailed the arrow-breasted
Ships of Cossack yeomanry.