This French song was translated into Russian in 1936 by the poet Alexander Bezymensky and performed by a popular singer Leonid Utesov with his daughter Edit Utesova. It instantly became a hit. While most of Russians know this song, few know, that it was translated from French.
Youtube has the line-by-line translation into English. However, I prefer a less precise, but rhyming translation *from Russian* made, as I understand, by talented anonymous. Here is the source of it: http://info.study.ru/index.cgi?open=1080292421_52063#67198 . (If you know who did this translation, I'll gladly give this person a credit!)
The Russian and the French versions are very close, bue the English one deviates from them a little. So if you want a precise translation, check Youtube for the French version.
Nevertheless, this English one is singable! And I've done my best to combine it with the song in Russian.
Enjoy!
Here is the original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vENhhBGCnko .
In my opinion, the russian version is'nt worse than the french one; it's somehow more lively! And the two versions are truly very close (I'm bilingual french and russian, so sorry for my english :) )
Anyway, thank you for the translation, it's well-done!
ankalou 1 year ago
The translation into Russian was made by the poet
Alexander Bezymensky. It is indeed a very reasonable translation that's quite close to the original. The old man talking at the end is Leonid Utesov at the end of his life.
His daughter, sadly, died well before him.
zavedomo 2 years ago 3