I Recall The Miraculous Moment -- Pushkin/Glinka

Hi there YouTubers! It's been a long, long time since I uploaded a video and it's high time I did! I have been studying the Russian language under the tutelage of our own Usenetposts, a.k.a Professor Viktor Dimitrievich Huliganov, and as part of my expanded study of the language here in California, with the help of a native Russian speaker, Svetlana Nikolayevna Poklad, I have been working on some Russian literature and I learned a few Russian songs. This one is one of my favorites. "Я Помню Чудное Мгновенье", pronounced for English speakers like Yah Pomniyoo Choodnayeh Mgnavenyeh, is a lovely poem by the famous Russian writer, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, set to music by the famous Russian composer, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka. I hope you enjoy this wonderful, expressive song as much as I do.

Here is the text of the poem, in Russian, followed by the translation in English. Text and translation courtesy of:
http://www.pushkins-poems.com/push03.htm

К А. П. КЕРН

Я помню чудное мгновенье:
Передо мной явилась ты,
Как мимолетное виденье,
Как гений чистой красоты.

В томленьях грусти безнадежной,
В тревогах шумной суеты,
Звучал мне долго голос нежный,
И снились милые черты.

Шли годы. Бурь порыв мятежный
Рассеял прежние мечты,
И я забыл твой голос нежный,
Твои небесные черты.

В глуши, во мраке заточенья
Тянулись тихо дни мои,
Без божества, без вдохновенья,
Без слез, без жизни, без любви.

Душе настало пробужденье,
И вот опять явилась ты,
Как мимолетное виденье,
Как гений чистой красоты.

И сердце бьётся в упоенье,
И для него воскресли вновь
И божество, и вдохновенье,
И жизнь, и слезы, и любовь.

-- А. С. Пушкин


To A. P. Kern.

I remember a wonderful moment
As before my eyes you appeared,
Like a vision, fleeting, momentary,
Like a spirit of the purest beauty.

In the torture of hopeless melancholy,
In the bustle of the world's noisy hours,
That voice rang out so tenderly,
I dreamed of that lovely face of yours.

The years flew quickly. The storm's blast
Scattered the dreams of former times,
And I forgot your tender voice,
And the features of your heavenly face.

In remoteness, in gloomy isolation,
My days dragged quietly, nothing was new,
No godlike face, no inspiration,
No tears, no life, no love, no you.

Then to my soul an awakening came,
And there again your face appeared,
Like a vision, fleeting, momentary,
Like a spirit of the purest beauty.

And my heart beat with a rapture new,
And for its sake arose again
A godlike face, an inspiration,
And life, and tears, and love, and you.

-- A. S. Pushkin

Thanks for watching and reading -- don't forget to rate me and also please subscribe if you haven't already.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• kenbank
• sing
• pushkin
• glinka
• tenor
• russian
• folk
• song
• world
• music
• пушкин
• глинка
• помню
• чудное
• мгновенье
• российская
• песня

[sfumato77]

Very nice! Very good Russian, I should say.



[kenbank]

@sfumato77 Thank you! I work hard on my Russian diction.  Thank you for noticing.

[schetin]

That's wonderful! I mean it.

A few remarks, if you don't mind:

'vdohnovenja' will sound better like [vdah -hna`venja, and bozhestva - like [bah-zhis`tva]

ljubov - you don't have to pronounce [ j ] after [ l ]. The English [l] is palatal about enough - you can just say [ lu:-bof' ], the same with [mee-ma`lotnahje]

Music is by M.Glinka, words are by A.Pushkin, it's not a folk song.

[dahsvi`danja]

[kenbank]

@schetin Thank you for your remarks. I don't mind at all. My goal is to pronounce the words as accurately as possible. I understand that this is difficult as our native accents are hard to overcome. Especially troublesome has been the pronounciation of unstressed vowel 'o'. The natural tendency of English speakers is to render it stressed. Dropping the 'j' sound after the 'l' in ljubov is a new one for me.  I think this song form is called a 'romance'. Thanks again.

[etiennegeert]

Not bad at all, but you made a mistake... it's: бьётся (bjotsja) and not вьётся (vjotsja)...

[kenbank]

@etiennegeert Thank you for the correction. I regularly made the mistake between the B  and Б. It is an easy mistake to make for native English speakers because the English B is pronounced like the Russian Б and not like the Russian B which is pronounced like the English V. The good news is that while I not perfect, I make this mistake less often now. Thank you for watching!

[LearnRussianLanguage]

Very good singing! Thank you! Professor Viktor Dimitrievich Huliganov is great! None of my students sing the way you do! I'm jealous! Спасибо! Сегодня Вы - "мое чудное мгновенье"!

[schetin]

@kenbank

There's an easy rule of reading words in Russian. You can do it yourself: the sound of unstressed syllables will differ depending on the order - the 1st pre-stressed (closest to the stressed) syllable has a strong position, the second - is weak (like shwa in English [u]). The word "molo`ko" (milk) will sound [mu-lah`ko] and only [o] will sound the way it is written. Likewise, horo`sho (well) - [hu-rah`sho]; ko`rova (cow) [kah`ro-vah]. The same is for the vowelsfollowind the stressed.

[kniahin]

че за гавно?

[kenbank]

@Positivectrl Thank you. I will!