A
Russian Bard song by
Yuriy Vizbor (Юрий Визбор), which is a very good demonstration of his style when singing about war. As most songs of this genre, it is performed by a single singer playing an acoustic guitar (Vizbor himself always played the Russian
seven string guitar.) Written in 1963, when the genre was still young. I am not going to be analyzing this song English-class style, it speaks for itself and is very straight forward.
My translation:
Report
Premission to come in, my general, sir?
Your troops I examined, how ready they were,
How well their bags are packed, I noticed at once,
How well they were shaved, how polished the guns.
They are as ready as can be for a night sneak attack,
For a fight in the desert, for rain in the dark,
They are ready for high roofs, and for cellers as well.
They are willing indeed, my general, sir.
They can hit the earth even from space,
They can make a skeleton of a city, leaving no trace
But there is another report you need to hear,
My general, sir, they all think, it is clear.
Every one of them thinks about girls in white flowers,
Every one of them thinks about sparkling spring gardens,
And how to hell's flames, they wish you'd transfer
Premission to leave, my general, sir?
Original lyrics in Russian unicode:
Доклад
Разрешите войти, господин генерал,
Ваших верных солдат я всю ночь проверял,
По уставу ли сложены их рюкзаки,
Как побриты усы, как примкнуты штыки.
Они очень годны для атаки ночной,
Для удара в пустыне и в дождь проливной,
На горящую крышу и в полуподвал,
Они очень годны, господин генерал.
Они могут из космоса бить по земле,
Они могут из города сделать скелет,
Но секретная служба доносит в досье,
Господин генерал, они думают все.
Они думают все о девчонках в цветах,
Они думают все о весенних садах
И о том, как бы вас уложить наповал...
Разрешите идти, господин генерал?
Russian version in english letters:
Doklad
Razreshiti voiti, gospodin general,
Vashikh vernikh soldat ya vsyu noch proveryal,
Po ustavu li slozeni ikh ryugzaki,
Kak pobriti usie, kak primknuti shtiki.
Oni ochin godni dlya ataki nochnoy,
Dlya udara v pustinie i v dozhd prolivnoy,
Na goryashyu krishu i v polupodval,
Oni ochin godni, gospodin general.
Oni mogut iz kosmosa bit po zemle,
Oni mogut iz goroda zdelot skelet,
No sekretnaya sluzhba donosit v dosye,
Gospodin general, oni dumoyut vse.
Oni dumayut vse o devchonkakh v tzvetakh,
Oni dumayut vse o vessennikh sadakh
Ee o tom kak be vas ulozhit napoval...
Razreshiti uiti, gospodin general.
Since Yuriy Vizbor wrote these songs to be sung by the public, approved of the copying of his material, and is no longer alive, I believe that no copyright laws are being violated.
A RAM format version of this song is avaliable for free download from the official bards.ru website: http://www.bards.ru/1Ram/a_Vizbor_Yurij/razreshite_voyti.ram