Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)

Subject: KATYUSHA
From: IamNoMan
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 02:54 PM

KATYUSHA


Lyrics: M. Isakovsky, 1938; Music: M. Blanter; Translation: T.Coughlin

[Em]                         [B7]
Apple trees and pear trees in flower.
[B7]                         [Em]
Morning mist is rising in the sun.
[Em]                [Am]          [Em7]
Young Katyusha goes walking by the river,                
[C]   [Em7]      [Em]      [Gmaj7] [Em]
On the bank, down where the water runs.
        
Chorus: (Repeats the last two lines of the verse)

[Em]                      [B7]
By the river, she sings, a love song,
[B7]                      [Em]
To her hero, fighting far away.
[Em]             [Am]            [Em7]
To her lover, the one she dearly longs for,
[C]       [Em7]       [Em]      [Gmaj7] [Em]
She reads the letters, he writes every   day.

Chorus

[Em]                               [B7]
Oh, my song, the song of a maiden's true love,
[B7]                         [Em]   
Fly over the river. Into the sun.
[Em]             [Am]                   [Em7]
Fly to my lover, who's fighting for our country,
[C]       [Em7]    [Em]      [Gmaj7]   [Em]
Faithful Katyusha, sends him sweet hel-lo.

Chorus

[Em]                         [B7]
Let him think of an ordinary, girl,
[B7]                            [Em]
Sweetly singing, like a morning dove,
[Em]             [Am]          [Em7]
To my lover, who preserves our homeland,
[C]      [Em7]    [Em]    [Gmaj7]   [Em]
Faithful Katyusha will pre-serve our love.

Chorus

[Em]                         [B7]
Apple trees and pear trees in flower.
[B7]                         [Em]
Morning mist is rising in the sun.
[Em]                [Am]          [Em7]
Young Katyusha goes walking by the river,                
[C]   [Em7]      [Em]      [Gmaj7] [Em]
On the bank, down where the water runs.

Chorus x2

This is a translation of a Russian Folksong from the Interwar years.
Everyone in the lands of the former USSR knows it and joins in. Other translated versions exist but are some what muddled. This translation is Babushka approved. -TPC

PS: The Chord arrangement did.nt parse well. Help Dick!

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: IamNoMan
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 10:09 PM

I wasn't happy with the parsing of Katyusha in my first post. I see there is some interest in Phonetic Russian Translations. Here is Katyusha in Russian:

KATIUSHA

[Em]Rastsbetalli yavloni i [B7]grushi,
[B7]Papili tumany nad re[Em]koy.
[Em]Beekhodila na [Am]vereg Katy[Em7]usha,
[C]Na be[Em7]so ve[Em]reg na [Gmaj7]kru[Em]toy.

Chorus (repeat the last two lines of the preceding verse)

Em]Beekhodila, pesnyu zavo [B7]dilla
[B7]Pra stepno-va siza-va ha Em]la,
Pra ta go, katoro-la luvila,
Pra ta go, ch'i pis'ma veregla.

Chorus

Oy ty, pyesnya, pyesenka debich'ya,
[B7]Ty leti za jasnym soln'czem sled.
E voytsu na dal'nem pogranich e
O Katyushi peredai pribyet.

Chorus

Em]Pust' on spomni devush'ku prostu'yu,
[B7]Pust' ushlyshit, she kak o na payot,
Pust' on zemlu verezhyot rodnuyu,
A lyu-vob' Katyusha sverezhyot.

Chorus

[Em]Rastsbetalli yavloni i [B7]grushi,
[B7]Papili tumany nad re[Em]koy.
[Em]Beekhodila na [Am]vereg Katy[Em7]usha,
[C]Na be[Em7]so ve[Em]reg na [Gmaj7]kru[Em]toy.

Chorus

TPC

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 03:35 AM

What a gorgeous song. I hope he comes back safe and doesn't kill people.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 07:06 AM

Katyusha

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 03:01 PM

Nice version of Katyusha. Has an almost Turkish feel to it. My favorite is this one. KATYUSHA - Sisters Tolmachevy

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 03:38 PM

If you liked that, here's something similar from the same band PARTISAN SONG

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 06:14 PM

I note immediately in the phonetic version that B's and V's are confused. Also some other words plainly wrong (like hala for orla [arla in phonetic form]). [sigh]

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 06:41 PM

Artful: The B's and V's are deliberately switched to "standard" American pronunciation. I would be surprised if any of the words are spelled correctly. I don't doubt that the words are wrong in my phonetic Romanized version.(That is why the Red Army Choir link is provided).

As for my English translation if you feel the sentiment is wrong please let me know. I tried assiduously to get the meter, flavor and imagery right for a folksong singable in English. Idioms like "the Grey wolf of the steppes"="Hero" don't keep the meter of the song or translate well to the average folkies ear.

I do not speak or read Russian, Bulgarian or Ukrainian, and Cyrillic is Greek to me. Nor am I a trained Philologist. I do have a good ear and know a good song when I hear one. In this case The translation of Katyusha appears to be a good singable, understandable song. If you can improve upon it I welcome your input.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Jason Xion Wang
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 12:18 AM

Gosh, this song is sung throughout China, yet I didn't even know its name. I've known its melody since 5 or 6 or even younger.

Apart from this song, "Moscow Nights" (the song covered by the Chad Mitchell Trio at the Bitter End) is also very popular here in China, along with a song called "Вот мчится тройка почтовая" which I think should be known as "Here's the Mail Troika Rushing" in English. It's my father's favorite song, but I don't think anybody in English speaking world has ever sung it.

Here's the Mail Troika Rushing

Jason

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: IamNoMan
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 12:26 AM

Hey Jason The tune to "Here's the Mail Troika Rushing" Sounds suspiciously close to Farewell to Slavianka - Vasily Agapkin 1913. It makes me wonder what song came first. If you have the lyrics in Cyrillic or A Roman alphabet transliteration post it here or PM.

On a slightly different subject: Do you know if there is an English Translation of Wu Ch'eng-En's Novel Variously known as "Monkey" "Tripitaka's Journey" or "Journey to the West" The only one I'am aware of isArthur Waley's 1942 Translation "Monkey" Waley only translated about half ogf the book. I can't believe the Government Printing office hasn't translated such a famous and popular work.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Jason Xion Wang
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 02:49 AM

Oh, there is one more version here - translated by W. J. F. Jenner.

Jason

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Jason Xion Wang
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 02:58 AM

Strange indeed - I should have replied twice but the first reply seem to have disappeared... There is another translation by Anthony Yu here. Both are good translations according to reviews.

Jason

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 09:41 AM

IAmNoMan, regardless of what you intended, your B's and V's are switched from how they are pronounced phonetically. The Cyrllic letter resembling uppercase B is pronounced like V; the one that looks like a lowercase b with a tail overhead (squared in uppercase, rounded in lowercase) is pronounced like B. The first line, for instance, should be rendered phonetically as "Rastsvetali yablony i grushi". (We'll ignore the problem of rendering vowel sounds and palatalization for English-speakers; one reason I hate phonetic approximations is because singers using them always butcher the language.)


Jason, I also tried responding a few times before, but Mudcat hung attempting to process my message, possibly because it contained encoded Cyrillic. I tried to link a couple other rushin' troika songs, but ah well.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 06:29 PM

During W.W. II, when "Katyusha" was the most popular girl-back-home song in the USSR, the name was used as a nickname for truck-mounted clusters of rocket launchers, and it is still in some use with that meaning. Plenty of information & pictures in Wikipedia.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: GUEST,Brian Grayson
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 10:07 PM

Расцветали яблони и груши,
Поплыли туманы над рекой.
Выходила на берег Катюша,
На высокий берег на крутой.
Enough! Here are the Russian lyrics:
Выходила, песню заводила
Про степного, сизого орла,
Про того, которого любила,
Про того, чьи письма берегла.

Ой ты, песня, песенка девичья,
Ты лети за ясным солнцем вслед.
И бойцу на дальнем пограничье
От Катюши передай привет.

Пусть он вспомнит девушку простую
И услышит, как она поёт,
Пусть он землю бережёт родную,
А любовь Катюша сбережёт.

and a phonetic transliteration (NB: 'sch' = 'sh' ; 'j' = 'y').

Raszvetali jabloni i gruschi,
Poplyli tumany nad rekoj.
Vychodila na bereg Katjuscha,
Na Vyssoki bereg na krutoj.

Vychodila, pesnju savodila
Pro stepnovo, sisovo orla,
Pro tovo, kotorovo ljubila,
Pro tovo, tschji pisma beregla.

Oi ty, pesnja, pessenka devitschja,
Ty leti sa jasnym solnzem vsled.
I boizu na dalnem pogranitschje
Ot Katjuschi peredai privet.

Pust on vspomnit devuschku prostuju
I uslyschit, kak ona pojot,
Pust on semlju bereschjot rodnuju,
A ljubov Katjushha sbereschjot.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 09:06 AM

Better, but still numerous transcription errors, such as devoicing all the Z's and ZH's and using Z for TS. (One might also wish to see vowel reduction reflected, if this is supposed to be phonetic, but many Russian singers use less reduction when singing than in speaking.) It's also quite confusing to English speakers to see "ch" where we'd normally see "kh", and "sch" and "tsch" where we'd normally use "sh" and "ch"; I'm guessing the original source was German or Czech.

With corrections and the suggested substitutions, the result is essentially a transliteration, save only for the genetive change of "ogo" to "ovo" and the omission of j after i/y. Note that "e" should be pronounced like "yeah" throughout (or, when unstressed, reduced to "yih" as in "yip"), and voiced vowels at the ends of words are normally devoiced (vsled would be pronounced vslyet). I've ignored minor palatalization differences between written and spoken forms.


Katjusha
   Lyric by Mikhail Isakovski
   Music by Matvej Blanter, 1938

Rastsvetali jabloni i grushi,
Poplyli tumany nad rekoj.
Vykhodila na bereg Katjusha,
Na vysoki bereg na krutoj.

Vykhodila, pesnju zavodila
Pro stepnovo, sizovo orla,
Pro tovo, kotorovo ljubila,
Pro tovo, ch'i pis'ma beregla.

Oj ty, pesnja, pesenka devich'ja,
Ty leti za jasnym solntsem vsled.
I bojtsu na dal'nem pogranich'e
Ot Katjushi peredaj privet.

Pust' on vspomnit' devushku prostuju
I uslyshit, kak ona pojot,
Pust' on zemlju berezhjot rodnuju,
A ljubov' Katjusha zberezhjot.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Katyusha (Russian)
From: IamNoMan
Date: 19 Nov 14 - 11:06 PM

Jason thank you for the links to Journey to the west.

@Brian Grayson and Artful Codjer: I acknowledge your corrections and clarifications, (at least insofar as I understand the clarifications). As I went over your transliterations I listened to the Red Army Choir's version of the song. Allowing for variances in how you'all spell various sounds and how I hear/spell sounds I find cases where none of our transliterations sound like what I'm hearing. When I listen to different versions of this song in Russian, perhaps sometimes in Ukrainian, (IDK) I hear many variations as well. Just how much of what I'm hearing is just inflection by the singer makes me wonder. I have similar feelings when I hear Brits and Yanks sing English songs in either language.

I guess what I'm saying here are these transliterations good enough for Folk Music. It has been my experience when I sing foreign language songs, for foreign nationals are smiling and singing along even as they wince at the barbarous way I am pronouncing their language. Thanks Guys.