LOBACHEVSKY - Tom Lehrer

In one word... BRILLIANT

What is first Russian phrase in song? Ne ponnyatno.
I could barely make out "plochaya dyela" at the end.

I could understand second one,

"Ya idu kuda Tsar sam idyot pieshkom"

(I go where the Czar himself goes by foot) (i.e. to the toilet)

"Жил-был король когда-то, при нем блоха жила"

that's the first one.

Metro Goldwyn Moscow, lol.
xD

> (exert from a russian song)

"Blokha" - famous aria from Modest Musorgskiy's opera "Faust" (based on Goethe's roman of the same name), which was brilliantly performed by Fyodor Shalyapin.

> (metaphor for dying)

:))))
not for dying :) but for... hmmm... going to lavatory.

Haha, yes, someone noted that. I guess I've only heard it in a context in which both ways would be logical. In retrospect I think I've read the phrase in one of Lev Kassil's works but never gave it second thought. As for aria, thanks for the information. I've heard the song before but never knew where it came from.

With the name of Alexandrovsk you show Belorussskiy vokzal in Moscow, that was called before Alexandrovkiy (after czar Alexander) and has nothing common with any town called Alexandrovsk:) funny mistake:)

lol I know, I have made mistakes and was told in the beginninglol:) thanks for telling me though:))

Also Ilinsk (maybe) and Novorossiysk