Quote Originally Posted by Suobig View Post
I'd translate simply:
"But the tune will get him even there
And he'll dance his way into the grave"

Here is a continuation of an allegory «"Katyusha" (launcher) firing rockets - Katyusha (girl) singing song».
Not sure if phrase "dance one's way into the grave" makes sense in english.
Yes, this makes perfect sense. I didn't realize that мотив was used here in the musical sense of "leitmotif" -- and I should've guessed that станцевать is a perfective form of танцевать!


"Кулички" (или "кулижки") here means small pieces of dry land on a bog or meadows in a forest - some very distant and deserted places. So literal traslation would be "go to meet imp deep into the forest", but you need something from folklore, you're right.
At first I thought that "кулички" had something to do with "small Easter cakes"! But then I checked Викисловарь and found this definition: удалённое, заболоченное место в лесу, где, по суеверным представлениям, обитала нечистая сила -- which immediately made me think of Stephen King's Pet Semetary! (In the book, there's a haunted "куличик", originally an индейское кладбище, that lies beyond the cemetery where children bury their pets.) However, a Stephen King reference would be an anachronism in a WW2 song, so I just decided to say "damnation." (Another euphemism for "Hell" is "perdition," but that word sounds much too книжный for soldiers to say.)



Analog for "Лупить" would be "pommel".
The verb you're thinking of is "pummel." The noun "pommel" is the raised front part of a седло: