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PYAT’ PESEN – SOSED (The Neighbor)

(Solo Voice)

TEXT AND TRANSLATION

Kto b ni byl ty, pechal’nyi moi sosed,

Who are you, my sad neighbor,

Lyublyu tebya, kak druga yunykh let,

I love you, like a lifelong friend,

Tebya, tovarisch moi sluchainyi,

You, my chance acquaintance,

Khotya sud’by kovarnoyu igroi

Although fate’s insidious game

Naveki my razlucheny s toboi

Has separated us forever

Stenoi teper’ — a posle tainoi.

Now by a wall — and later by the unknown.

Kogda zari rumyanyi polusvet

When the rosy twilight

V okno tyur’my proschal’nyi svoi privet

Through the cell window

Mne umiraya posylaet

Sends me its farewells

I, opershis’ na zvuchnoe ruzh’yo,

And, leaning on his sonorous gun,

Nash chasovoi, pro staroe zhit’yo

The guard spends an hour

Mechtaya, stoya zasypaet,

Dreaming of his former life, 

Togda, chelo skloniv k syroi stene,

Then, resting my brow on the damp wall,

Ya slushayu — i v mrachnoi tishine

I listen — and in the gloomy silence

Tvoi napevy razdayutsya.

I hear your songs.

O chom oni — ne znayu; no toskoi

What they’re about — I don’t know; but melancholy

Ispolneny, i zvuki cheredoi,

Drives them, and sounds, in a sequence,

Kak slyozy, tikho l’yutsya, l’yutsya...

Like tears, softly flow, flow...    

I luchshikh let nadezhdy i lyubov’

And the best years of hope and love

V grudi moei vsyo ozhivaet vnov’,

All revive in my breast,

I mysli daleko nesutsya,

And my ideas rush far along,

I polon um zhelanii i strastei,

And my mind is full of desires and passions,

I krov’ kipit — i slyozy iz ochei,

And my blood boils — and tears from my eyes,

Kak zvuki, drug za drugom l’yutsya.

Like sounds, one after another flow. 

– Transliteration and translation by Dawn K. Williams