Thread: Easy to understand song about Russian superstitions

Lyrics:

Если вернулся в дом -
Дороги не жди потом.
Плохая примета -
Прохожий с пустым ведром,
Он скажет тебе: "Привет!",
А ты промолчи в ответ.
Я знаю об этом и знаю еще о том,

Что если

Припев:
Птицы прилетают -
Это означает май, май, май.
Птицы улетают -
Каждый понимает - осень, осень.
В гости приглашают,
Значит, наливают чай, чай, чай.
В девять приезжают,
Если обещали в восемь.

Много плохих примет
Известно уже сто лет.
Чуть-чуть посвистели,
В кармане посмотрели -
Обидно, но денег нет,
И сразу же, как назло
Тринадцатое число -
Плохая примета.
Ужасно не повезло.

Припев. (2)

В гости приглашают,
Значит, наливают чай, чай, чай.
В девять приезжают,
Если обещали в восемь.
Совсем не приезжают,
Если обещали в восемь.
Ну и пусть не приезжают,
Если обещали в восемь.

Thanks very much for posting the song. Right now I'm on a very slow connection and the YouTube video won't play properly (although I can see Филипп Киркоров sitting on a bed, loosening his necktie!). But I enjoyed reading the lyrics, although I'm not sure I completely understood this superstition:

Плохая примета -
Прохожий с пустым ведром,
Он скажет тебе: "Привет!",
А ты промолчи в ответ.

So, if someone walks past you with an empty bucket, and greets you, does the bad luck come from staying silent, or from speaking to him?

I mean, does the imperative промолчи have a conditional "if" meaning in this context, or is it a "normal" imperative?

Also, the lines about птицы coming and going reminds me о ещё суеверии, якобы русском -- "about another superstition, supposedly a Russian one."

Говорят, что при казни Иисуса, воробьи повели себя особенно злобно, и сами собой притащили гвозди для Распятия на Голгофу! А ласточкам, наоборот, очень жаль было Иисуса, и они пытались украсть гвозди у римских солдатов.

("It's said, that when Jesus was being put to death, the sparrows behaved in an especially malicious way, and personally carried the Crucifixion nails to Golgotha/Calvary! But the swallows, on the contrary, felt very sorry for Jesus, and they tried to steal the nails away from the Roman soldiers.")

As far as I know, folktales about birds at the Crucifixion exist in many Christian lands, but the exact identities of the birds are different from one place to another -- sometimes it's crows, sometimes it's owls, and possibly in some countries it's flamingos. And in some cases there are other animals besides birds who either feel sorry for Jesus, or mock and torment him.

So my question for Russians is this -- are you familiar with the variant in which воробьи are the "villains" and ласточки are the "good guys"? And do you consider this to be a "truly Russian" folk belief, or would you guess that it's really of Ukrainian or Gypsy origin (or whatever), but is known in Russia?

Finally, some variants of the basic "птицы у Распятия" motif say that the wicked birds (whether sparrows or crows or geese or vultures or penguins, or whatever) were punished by God for their cruelty to Jesus. If you are familiar with the воробей-version, what was the punishment, if any?

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

So, if someone walks past you with an empty bucket, and greets you, does the bad luck come from staying silent, or from speaking to him?

I mean, does the imperative промолчи have a conditional "if" meaning in this context, or is it a "normal" imperative?

It's a normal imperative.

So my question for Russians is this -- are you familiar with the variant in which воробьи are the "villains" and ласточки are the "good guys"

No, I'm not familiar, but I think there might be something like it in Russia. I don't exactly know the origin of the word "воробей", but the birds are kind of a bad guys - "воробей" sounds very semiliar to "вора бей" or the same "бей вора" (beat the thief). The bird is probably inclined to steal, but, I suppose, you may have known it without me.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

So, if someone walks past you with an empty bucket, and greets you, does the bad luck come from staying silent, or from speaking to him?

The bad luck has already come to you if you had met somebody with an empty bucket. The idea with greetings seems to be used for lyrics only.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

ещё о суеверии, якобы русском
or
о ещё одном суеверии, ...

Originally Posted by kib

No, I'm not familiar, but I think there might be something like it in Russia. I don't exactly know the origin of the word "воробей", but the birds are kind of a bad guys - "воробей" sounds very semiliar to "вора бей" or the same "бей вора" (beat the thief). The bird is probably inclined to steal, but, I suppose, you may have known it without me.

I've never heard of such a version of the word "воробей" etymplogy . Sometimes people tend to find (or rather to stuff) a sense where there is actually no any. If one can split a word in to two that does not mean that the meaning of the original one and the two splits are identical. For an example if use this word splitting idea we can come to the word "ворожить" meaning "let a thief to live" .