Zhuravli (The White Cranes). Dmitri Khvorostovsky

This is a beautiful and moving song from the Soviet era in honour of fallen veterans. It is elegiac, and it is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. Dmitri Khvorostovsky sings it with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and The Style of Five accompany him.

This video has photographs of women who served in combat during the Second Great Patriotic War. It is my tribute to their courage and determination. Today, some 92,000 women serve in the Russian forces... a proud tradition continues!

TEXT:
It seems to me that sometimes that soldiers
Who didn't come home from the blood-soaked battlefields,
Weren't laid to rest in the earth,
But turned into white cranes...

That ever since that time long ago
They have been flying, calling,
Maybe that's why we often, and sadly,
Fall silent, staring into the sky!

The tired flock flies and flies up in the sky,
It flies in the fog, as the day dies,
And in this formation there is a space;
Maybe it is a place for me.

The day will come when I will also drift
With the flock of the cranes in the same blue-grey haze,
Calling from the sky, in the language of the birds,
The names of you I have left on earth.

It seems to me sometimes that soldiers
Who didn't come home from the blood-soaked battlefields,
Weren't laid to rest in the earth,
But turned into white cranes...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Classical
• Russian
• Military
• Patriotic
• Vocal
• Baritone
• Hvorostovsky

[rvronsky]

Yes, but please don't forget the first ever to sing this, the incomparable Mark Bernes. To my mind he's the finest interpreter of all of this wonderful song.

[Vostorgina01]

Indeed! I agree emphatically. It is on You-Tube. I posted a link to it on my website. Mr Bernes is one of my faves. I love the way he sang Ya lyublyu tebya zhizn! Another great song!

r. b. Vostorgina

[antoniodigigov]

i love the fothos about our grandmothers,

i love you and your video,

RUSSIA FOREVER

[SadronAphaderuiondur]

Thinking of those who fell back than and those who still fall nowadays in the blood-soaked battlefields, see their faces and think of the void caused by their loss makes me come close to tears. I have no doubts this is the most beautiful war song I've ever heard! And I've heard to many great war songs. But this one brings lirically the sadness of the loss like only a few do.

[sainoglou]

DON'T FORGET THIS WOMEN.

THIS WOMEN ALWAYS IS THE MUMS, THE DAUGHTERS AND THE WIFE OF ALL THE WORLD'S PEOPLE.

LOVE AND RESPECT FROM GREECE.

[nickstout513]

This vid went viral on Oman

[03Srbija]

Boze oprosti, Sloboda Rusima i Srbima.... Bracja za uvjek.. CCCC CCCP

[pericles733]

what a song for such a great sacrifice of the soldiers of the red army. every time we hear the song we must remember that their life was given for the most peaceful society humanity has ever dreamed.

[MrIHateKORN]

the drop in this blew up my speakers.

[HomoCallidus]

translation is rubbish 

[MadPyrotechnicus]

I'm just a humble citizen of Flanders but I seriously cried listening to this song. May our people have the same strength that the Russian's have since the last 2 centuries so that we may be independant!

[ComNorton]

Ёперный театр, ну это же чисто мужская песня! Нафига такой видеоря?. Да, женщины участвовали в той великой войне. Но это не их песня!

[ddthienvuong]

Who can be the 2 people who disliked the song?, I can't think of a reason to dislike it! it's not a propaganda song so I think even a NAZI or capitalist don't have a reason to hate it too.

[ddthienvuong]

may god bless the fallen men of that damned WWII.