Thread: cheesy? russian song

hello everyone,

i work with a 60 year old man from kazakhistan who speaks very little english (but he's improved a lot in the past year). he loves to play accordian and has an extensive library of old popular russian songs (sheet music). anyway, i've commited to memory the following song, and have a decent understanding of what it means but would appreciate someone else's attempt at literal or poetic translation...

thanks in advance.


Воды арыка, бегут как живые,
Переливаясь, журча и звеня.
Возле арыка, я помню, впервые
Глянули эти глаза на меня.

В небе блещыт звёзды золотые,
Ярче звёзт очей твоих краса.
Толька у любимой могут быть такие
Необыкновенные глаза!

Где бы я ни был - в пыстыне безбрежной,
В море, в горах, с пастухом у огня,
Эти глаза неотрывно и нежно,
Мне помогая глядят на меня.

В небе блещыт звёзды золотые,
Ярче звёзт очей твоих краса.
Толька у любимой могут быть такие
Необыкновенные глаза!

Hmmm.. it does't sound good in english...

Waters of aryk run like alive
Shimmering, babbling and ringing.
Near this aryk, as I remember, first
Glanced these eyes at me.

Golden stars are shining in the sky
But beauty of your eyes's brighter
Only my love can have such
Exstraordinary eyes.

...

My english is too poor

Воды арыка, бегут(,) как живые,
Переливаясь, журча и звеня.
Возле арыка, я помню, впервые
Глянули эти глаза на меня.

В небе блещ(у)т звёзды золотые,
Ярче звёз(д) очей твоих краса.
Тольк(о) у любимой могут быть такие
Необыкновенные глаза!

Где бы я ни был - в п(у)стыне безбрежной,
В море, в горах, с пастухом у огня,
Эти глаза неотрывно и нежно,
Мне помогая глядят на меня.

В небе блещ(у)т звёзды золотые,
Ярче звёз(д) очей твоих краса.
Тольк(о) у любимой могут быть такие
Необыкновенные глаза!

I've corrected the mistakes i found in the poem... the correct letters are in brackets...

now for the second part:

Whereever i am -- in a limitless desert,
in the sea, in mountains or sitting with a shepherd by a fire (surely 'step' is ment here)
these eyes always look at me, continuously and tenderly,
always helping me out...

Dear Ibolit, it must "steppe" with two P's, not "step".

Such field as geography has at least several terms borrowed from Russian. Another one is e.g. polynya (полынья) - a pool in the ice. Very interesting, but hardly to the point.

wow, thanks guys...
sorry about the mis-spellings, it was my first time using cyrillic font...
it's a beautiful poem/song, and viktor would very much like me to sing it to my old girlfriend in belarus (he taught it to me replacing "y любимой" with "y снежаны." by the way, is that the correct ending for the case of this noun (the "ы," that is)? also, i understand that "aryka" means channel (of water), and probably implies a region of russia. what region might this be, and is there an appropriate analog of the word in english? (brook, stream, sound, gully, river, canal, cove, lake, creek, pond, etc.) - basically is this a vast body of water or something smaller? (a brook "babbles," and an ocean "rings," but babbling and ringing seem contradictory, so i'm confused...)
again, thanks for your help (and what promptness! i guess good-naturedness is amplified by occasional ennui).

-melchior

Not at all... I mean, you are welcome.
As far as the APblK is conserned... it does imply a region, but not of Russia... It's somewhere in Central Asia, Kazakhstan seems to be the likeliest variant.
As to what it is. It is a man-made irrigative channel. I don't think it's very wide... However, i cannot be quite sure, for the word is not quite russian.
As to the ending, it is correct...

Originally Posted by ibolit

Not at all... I mean, you are welcome.
As far as the APblK is conserned... it does imply a region, but not of Russia... It's somewhere in Central Asia, Kazakhstan seems to be the likeliest variant.
As to what it is. It is a man-made irrigative channel. I don't think it's very wide... However, i cannot be quite sure, for the word is not quite russian.
As to the ending, it is correct...

Хотел найти в интернете фотографию какого-нибудь арыка, чтобы было понятно, что это такое, а попалась эта статья:
http://www.nvariant.kirov.ru/?action=sh ... tatia=10.2
Цитирую:
Помните строки из популярной некогда песни: "Воды арыков бегут как живые, переливаясь, журча и звеня". Так вот, арыки - это зловонные канавы, где детям моют попы и оттуда же берут воду для приготовления пищи и других хозяйственных нужд.

Originally Posted by ibolit

Not at all... I mean, you are welcome.
As far as the APblK is conserned... it does imply a region, but not of Russia... It's somewhere in Central Asia, Kazakhstan seems to be the likeliest variant.
As to what it is. It is a man-made irrigative channel. I don't think it's very wide... However, i cannot be quite sure, for the word is not quite russian.
As to the ending, it is correct...

When I was in Uzbekistan aryks looked like this:

http://www.mbox.uz/details.php?image_id=1451

sometimes not so wide and with concrete borders