Two Fates - Vladimir Vystosky
Vysotsky is something like the Bob Dylan of Russia. If he hadn’t died young perhaps he could have won a Nobel prize. His poetry and delivery are incredible and almost impossible to replicate. I chose this song because it’s both very deep and relatable (maybe not the alcoholism but the general thread) and completely ridiculous by American standards. It’s impossible to imagine a Bob Dylan song with lyrics like this.
Play the video with subtitles ON.
The tone is unstranslatable, so it’s crucial that you connect the correct part of the song to its particular meaning.
Жил я славно в первой трети
Двадцать лет на белом свете
По влечению
Жил бездумно, на пределе
Плыл куда глаза глядели
По течениюДумал: вот она, награда
Ведь ни вёслами не надо
Ни ладонями
Комары, слепни да осы
Донимали кровососы
Да не донялиСлышал, с берега вначале
Мне о помощи кричали
О спасении
Не дождались бедолаги
Я лежал, чумной от браги
В расслабленииКрутанёт ли в повороте
Завернёт в водовороте
Всё исправится
То разуюсь, то обуюсь
На себя в воде любуюсь
Очень нравитсяБерега текут за лодку
Ну а я ласкаю глотку медовухою
После лишнего глоточку
Глядь: плыву не в одиночку
Со старухоюИ пока я удивлялся
Пал туман
И оказался в гиблом месте я
И огромная старуха
Хохотнула прямо в ухо
Злая бестияЯ кричу — не слышу крика
Не вяжу от страха лыка
Вижу плохо я
На ветру меня качает
Кто здесь?
Слышу — отвечает
Я НелёгкаяБрось креститься, причитая
Не спасёт тебя Святая
Богородица
Тех, кто руль да вёсла бросит
Тех Нелёгкая заносит
Так уж водитсяЯ впотьмах ищу дорогу
Медовухи понемногу
только по сту пью
А она не засыпает
Впереди меня ступает
Тяжкой поступьюВот споткнулась о коренья
От большого ожиренья
Гнусно охая
У неё одышка даже
А заносит ведь туда же
Тварь НелёгкаяВдруг навстречу нам живая
Хромоногая, кривая
Морда хитрая
Ты, — кричит
Стоишь над бездной
Я спасу тебя, болезный
Слёзы вытру яЯ спросил: Ты кто такая?
А она мне
Я Кривая, воз, мол, вывезу
И хотя я кривобока
Криворука, кривоока
Я, мол, вывезуЯ воскликнул, наливая
Вывози меня, Кривая
Я на привязи!
Я тебе и жбан поставлю
Кривизну твою исправлю
Только вывези!И ты, Нелёгкая маманя
На-ка истину в стакане
Больно нервная
Ты забудь меня на время,Ты же толстая —в гареме
Будешь перваяИ упали две старухи
У бутыли медовухи
В пьянь-истерику
Я пока за кочки прячусь
И тихонько задом пячусь
Прямо к берегуЛихо выгреб на стремнину
В два гребка — на середину!
Ох, пройдоха я!
Чтоб вы сдохли, выпивая
Две судьбы мои
Кривая да Нелёгкая!
0:12 Lived a fine life for the first third
20 years in the world
Compelled by the flow
Living thoughtlessly but having plenty to do (implying usefulness)
Floated where my gaze would take me
With the current
0:40 I thought: Here’s the prize
No need to work the oars or rudder
Mosquitos and horseflies annoyed me, the bloodsuckers, but it was only skin deep
1:07 I heard yells from the shore
Something about help and salvation
They waited but I never came
I was laying in a stupor from the mash, completely unplugged
1:32 Momentary loss of balance on a tight corner
Spinning aimless in the rapids
These things resolve themselves over time
I go barefoot for a while
Or put my shoes on again
Distracted by my fine reflection in the water
2:02 The shores flow past
As I sooth my throat with mead
After one gulp too many
Look! I’m not floating alone
With an old hag!
2:30 All while I stared in surprise
A fog fell, and th-there I was in a wretched place
The huge monstrous hag cackling right in my ear
Evil woman
2:54 Screaming, I can no longer even hear the sound
So afraid I can’t even sew “lik” (“like” is a particular layer between the bark and the tree used as a fiber in pre-industrial Russia, the expression ‘I cannot sew “lik”’ means too drunk to walk basically).
Barely seeing (“seeing” and “sewing“ sound the same in Russian) what’s in front of me
Losing balance in the wind
Who’s here??
I hear — she answers
It’s me, the heavy one (“heavy one” means “evil” in Russian, but the “old hag” is also physically fat/huge, so this is double speak)
3:19 Quite crossing yourself, babbling (this is still the “heavy one” speaking)
The Virgin Mary won’t save you
He who drops the oars and the rudder
The “Heavy one” pulls aside (here he uses a phrase for “pulls aside” that is normally used for boats when a current takes them off course)
That’s just how it is
3:45 (back to the protagonist speaking)
Searching in the darkness for the way
I sip the mead bit by bit
Only drinking 100 at a time (russians talk about drinking in grams, e.g. I drank 300g, meaning 300ml or so of vodka, the beauty of this line is that it also sounds like he might be saying “only with a careful walk” which also makes sense because he’s looking for the road/way)
In the meantime she sways me
Trudges in front
With heavy steps
4:11 she trips on rootS
Panting heavily from her
morbid obesity
Wheezing with apnea
And she’s dragging me along with her
the Heavy beast
4:41 Suddenly there comes another
Lame legged, crooked (Russians often call their fate “crooked”), with a sinister mug
Hey, she yells
You’re standing over an abyss
I’ll save you my sick boy,
I’ll wipe your tears
5:04 Who are you? I asked
She says
I’m the Crooked One, I’ll pull your sled out of here she claims
Though I may be crooked-bodied
Crooked-handed, crooked-eyed
I’ll tow you out of here, she claims
5:35 I exclaimed, pouring
Get me out of here, Crooked One
Y-you have me on a tow chain
I’ll even get you a tall mug
Fix your crookedness I will
Just, just pull me out of here!
6:01 Ay you! Heavy matron
Here, have some truth in a glass
Your nerves are too much
Just forget me for a while
Just think— you’re fat— in the harem
You’ll be the first
(I am not sure what reference he’s making he… maybe there’s a mid 20th century soviet Arab stereotype I’m unaware of)
6:26 And so fell the hags
Over my bottle of mead
Into a drunken hysteria
In the meantime I’m hiding myself behind the hummocks
Quietly backing away
Back to the shore
6:52 Rowed with enthusiasm toward the rapids
Two good strokes I’m in the middle
Surprised with my own cleverness
I hope you rot in drink
My two fates,
The Crooked One and The Heavy One