Thread: 1 small phrase...

The last sentence really bugs me :

"Может, завтра совсем по-другому
Я уйду, исцеленный навек,
Слушать песни дождей и черемух,
Чем здоровый живет человек. "

I really have no clue how to translate that ?

Thanks for your help!

Чем здоровый живет человек. = How a healthy man lives.

So I'll try to translate the quatrain.


"Maybe tomorrow I'll go away in a completely different manner, healed for ever, and will listen to songs of rains and bird cherries how a healthy man lives."

Maybe it looks awkward but I hope you get the idea.

Thanks !

May be it's better to not be so literal in this case. "Чем здоровый живет человек" is "al the things that make a normal person happy". Meaning - all this songs of rain and trees can make a normal man's day

"чем живет" is a colloquialism, means "things, that make life worthwhile"

May be it's better to not be so literal in this case.

Of course, it'd be better. But that was all I could come up with at that moment
Although I also thought about putting "normal" instead of "healthy" in my translation.

With Gerty
"things, that make life worthwhile"
Or:

All that makes life worthwhile

Originally Posted by wilco000

The last sentence really bugs me :

"Может, завтра совсем по-другому
Я уйду, исцеленный навек,
Слушать песни дождей и черемух,
Чем здоровый живет человек. "

I really have no clue how to translate that ?

Thanks for your help!

The last line puzzles me too, though I am a native Russian speaker.
Either some punctuation is missing or the phrase disfigures the grammar. Let's rephrase the verse:
Может быть, я завтра уйду... (как?) совсем по-другому (делать что?) слушать песни ... чем (кто?) and here is another sentence:живёт здоровый человек.

And here:
... слушать песни, (которыми) живёт здоровый человек.

to hear songs which let a healthy man live.

That которыми is really necessary when comprehending the sense but it is too long to fit the measure.

жить чем-либо = to really enjoy something (and that thing alone), or smth like that.
It's an idiom, a rather rare one these days.