Tyomnaya noch'/ Темная ночь/ Dark is the night
Music: Nikita Bogoslovsky
Lyrics: Vladimir Agatov
This beautiful Russian song (1942) became famous in the wonderful interpretation of Mark Bernes in the Soviet war film "The two soldiers" (Два бойца) (1943).
The song was not appreciated by the Soviet regime, because it was judged too sentimental, unpatriotic, not very Bolshevik. Despite this, it became very popular in Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Is_the_Night_(Soviet_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bernes
Mark Bernes
International version
ВИКА ДАЙНЕКО
Темная ночь, только пули свистят по степи
Только ветер гудит в проводах, тускло звезды мерцают.
В темную ночь ты, любимая, знаю, не спишь
И у детской кроватки тайком ты слезу утираешь.
Как я люблю глубину твоих ласковых глаз,
Как я хочу к ним прижаться сейчас губами,
Темная ночь разделяет, любимая, нас
И тревожная черная степь пролегла между нами.
Верю в тебя, в дорогую подругу мою,
Эта вера от пули меня темной ночью хранила.
Радостно мне, я спокоен в смертельном бою -
Знаю встретишь с любовью меня, что б со мной ни случилось.
Смерть не страшна, с ней не раз мы встречались в степи,
Вот и теперь надо мною она кружится.
Ты меня ждешь и у детской кроватки не спишь,
И поэтому знаю: со мной ничего не случится.
Tyomnaya noch', tol'ko puli svistyat po stepi,
Tol'ko veter gudit v provodakh, tusklo zvyozdy mertsayut...
V tyomnuyu noch' ty, lyubimaya, znayu, ne spish',
I u detskoy krovatki taykom ty slezu utiraesh'.
Kak ya lyublyu glubinu tvoikh laskovykh glaz,
Kak ya khochu k nim prizhat'sya khot' raz gubami!
Tyomnaya noch' razdelyaet, lyubimaya, nas,
I trevozhnaya, chyornaya step' prolegla mezhdu nami.
Veryu v tebya, v doroguyu podrugu moyu.
Eta vera ot puli menya tyomnoy noch'yu khranila...
Radostno mne, ya spokoen v smertel'nom boyu:
Znayu, vstretish' s lyubov'yu menya, chto b so mnoy ni sluchilos'.
Smert' ne strashna, s ney vstrechalis' ne raz my v stepi...
Vot i teper' nado mnoyu ona kruzhitsya,
Ty menya zhdyosh' i u detskoy krovatki ne spish',
I poetomu znayu, so mnoy nichego ne sluchitsya!
Dark night, only bullets are whistling in the steppe,
Only the wind is wailing through the telephone wires, stars are faintly flickering ...
In the dark night, my love, I know you are not sleeping,
And, near a child's crib, you secretly wipe away a tear.
How I love the depths of your gentle eyes,
How I long to press my lips to them!
This dark night separates us, my love,
And the dark, troubled steppe has come to lie between us.
I have faith in you, in you, my sweetheart.
That faith has shielded me from bullets in this dark night ...
I am glad, I am calm in deadly battle:
I know you will meet me with love, no matter what happens.
Death is not terrible, we've met with it more than once in the steppe ...
And here it looms over me once again,
You await my return, sitting sleepless near a cradle,
And so I know that nothing will happen to me!
"Buia è la notte" - "Темная ночь"
Dal film "Due soldati" del 1943
Buia è la notte, solo le pallottole fischiano nella steppa,
Solo il vento ronza nei cavi, pallide tremolano le stelle...
Nella notte buia, tu, mia amata, so che non dormi,
E accanto al letto del bambino, di nascosto asciughi una lacrima.
Come amo la profondità dei tuoi occhi teneri,
Come voglio ora stringere su di essi le mie labbra!
Buia è la notte, ci separa, mia amata,
E la steppa inquietante e nera si estende tra di noi.
Credo in te, cara amica mia.
Una fede che dalle pallottole in questa notte buia mi ha difeso...
Sono contento, sono calmo nella battaglia mortale:
So che mi incontrerai con amore, qualunque cosa mi succeda.
La morte non fa paura, l’abbiamo incrociata molte volte nella steppa...
Ecco, anche adesso, sopra di me volteggia,
Tu mi aspetti, e vegli accanto al letto del bambino,
E per questo so che non mi accadrà nulla.
Canta Mark Bernes
Materiale fornito da Olga Tarovik
Collaborazione di Elena Kuzmina
Note:
As this note of en.wikipedia says, the song was not appreciated by the Soviet regime, because it was judged too sentimental, unpatriotic, not very Bolshevik. Despite this, it became very popular in Russia.
The official experts were keen to accuse Bogoslovsky of propagating "Philistine" sentimental tunes.[3] Though ostracized by the authorities, the song became a symbol of the war years for millions of Soviet people.[3]
Dark Is the Night has been described as "a gentle lyrical song imbued with a feeling of homesickness and expressing devotion to one's beloved" which helped "reveal the personal side of army life, indiscernable in the roar of warfare".[3] It contrasted sharply with the prevalent type of war song, which was either a field marching song or a civil patriotic one.[3]
On the contrary, for example today in Poland the same song is accused of being unbearably too Bolshevik so as to stop its performance during a concert in Gdansk, as can be seen from this note:
Musician Peter Kosewsky was invited to hold an artistic action in the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, which eventually brought the people to tears.
- I thought that the art of us, the Poles, can somehow unite, and not share, that, listening to sentimental melodies of the war period, we will reflect on what the war was, what we can do to never repeat this terrible a story. That we will meet in a museum - a place of culture, and we, musicians, will make this evening special. “You can’t even imagine how wrong I was,” he said on Facebook.
The scandal struck during the execution of the favorite song of the war years, "The Dark Night". Museum director Karol Nawrotsky demanded to stop singing, calling it “Bolshevik” and forbidden to be performed. Double absurdity in the fact that she sounded in such a place! The musicians were outraged and then they just put out.
- He ordered us to pack up and leave the museum. We were shocked by such a vulgar behavior in a cultural institution. They brought us to tears. Sadness, powerlessness and fear ..., ”concluded Kosewsky.