Оkrasilsya mesyats bagryantsem
In Crimson The Crescent Got Painted; Окрасился месяц багрянцем
The music to this Russian ballade was composed by the Russian pianist, conductor and composer Jacob Prigozhiy (1840-1920), to a poem written by the German poet, writer and scientist Adelbert von Chamisso, and translated by Dmitry Minaev.
The song "In Crimson The Crescent Got Painted" belonged to the so called cruel romances, which originated from the urban and suburban environment, inhabited mostly by the lower and middle strata of the population, such as the artisans, the merchants of modest means, and the peasants, who came there to work. From the different elements of these cultures a new subculture was born, and started to influence the music, the dance, the theatre, the painting, and even the architecture: in one word, the third culture, or the philistine culture. |
With time, that new subculture began to penetrate the traditional cultures, influencing their features. In that way, the cruel romance as a genre became a part of the traditional Russian rural culture. The main source of borrowing and stylization for a cruel romance was the poems of secondary, now forgotten poets. The genre developed on the basis of the traditional Russian ballades, but the cruel romances though, were characterized by the desire for violence, the melodrama and the tragic ending.
In case of the "In Crimson The Crescent Got Painted", however, we can hardly say that the author was a minor poet. Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838), original name Louis Charles Adélaide de Chamisso de Boncourt, was a German scientist of the French origin. He was interested in natural science, especially botany, but also in literature. He wrote several stories and tales, among which "Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte" (The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl), that made him famous. In 1828 he wrote the poem "Nächtliche Fahrt" (Night Journey), a ballade about a girl that takes revenge on her former boyfriend that deceived her.
More than fifty years later the poem was translated into Russian by Dmitriy Minaev (1835-1889), a Russian poet, satirist, journalist, translator and critic, and in 1884 the poem appeared in the Russian magazine "Живописное обозрение" (Picturesque Review). It was that text that caught the attention of Jacob Prigozhiy, who wrote the music to it. |
Lidia Ruslanova performs "Stained Crimson Month"
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Jacob Prigozhiy led several Russian and Gypsy choirs, and composed about 200 songs. Soon after, the song began to live its own life, and became so popular that it was given the status of a folk one: the people have already sung it for more than a century, singing their own forgotten words, and replacing them by other words. On that reason, there are several variants of the text.
In 1910 "Okrasilsya mesyats bagryantsem" entered the top ten of the most popular songs in Russia, and it regained the widespread popularity in the 1940s, when the famous Russian songstress Lidia Ruslanova took it in her repertoire.
In 1910 "Okrasilsya mesyats bagryantsem" entered the top ten of the most popular songs in Russia, and it regained the widespread popularity in the 1940s, when the famous Russian songstress Lidia Ruslanova took it in her repertoire.
The song was performed by Lidya Ruslanova, Zhanna Bichevskaya, M.Turetsky Choir, Nadezhda Kadysheva, Tatyana Chubarova, Eugeny Dyatlov, Nataliya Medvedeva, Olesya Podvorchan.
SCORE FOR ACCORDION
SCORE FOR ACCORDION
Russian text
Окрасился месяц багрянцем, Где волны бушуют у скал. «Поедем, красотка, кататься, Давно я тебя поджидал». «Я еду с тобою охотно, Я волны морские люблю. Дай парусу полную волю, Сама же я сяду к рулю». "Ты правишь в открытое море, Где с бурей не справиться нам. В такую шальную погоду Нельзя доверяться волнам". «Нельзя? Почему ж, дорогой мой? А в прошлой, минувшей судьбе, Ты помнишь, изменщик коварный, Как я доверялась тебе?» «Послушай, мы жизнью рискуем, Безумная, руль поверни! На это сердитое море, На эти ты волны взгляни». А волны бросаются с ревом На их беззащитный челнок. «Прочь весла! От гибели верной Спасти чтоб никто нас не мог! Меня обманул ты однажды, Сегодня тебя провела. Смотри же: вот ножик булатный, Недаром с собою взяла!» И это сказавши, вонзила В грудь ножик булатный ему. Сама с обессиленным сердцем Нырнула в морскую волну. Всю ночь волновалося море, Ревела морская волна; А утром приплыли два трупа И щепки того челнока. |
Transliteration
Okrasilsya mesyats bagryantsem, Gde volny bushuyut u skal. «Poyedem, krasotka, katat'sya, Davno ya tebya podzhidal». «Ya yedu s toboyu okhotno, Ya volny morskiye lyublyu. Day parusu polnuyu volyu, Sama zhe ya syadu k rulyu». "Ty pravish' v otkrytoye more, Gde s burey ne spravit'sya nam. V takuyu shal'nuyu pogodu Nel'zya doveryat'sya volnam". «Nel'zya? Pochemu zh, dorogoy moy? A v proshloy, minuvshey sud'be, Ty pomnish', izmenshchik kovarnyy, Kak ya doveryalas' tebe?» «Poslushay, my zhizn'yu riskuyem, Bezumnaya, rul' poverni! Na eto serditoye more, Na eti ty volny vzglyani». A volny brosayutsya s revom Na ikh bezzashchitnyy chelnok. «Proch' vesla! Ot gibeli vernoy Spasti chtob nikto nas ne mog! Menya obmanul ty odnazhdy, Segodnya tebya provela. Smotri zhe: vot nozhik bulatnyy, Nedarom s soboyu vzyala!» I eto skazavshi, vonzila V grud' nozhik bulatnyy yemu. Sama s obessilennym serdtsem Nyrnula v morskuyu volnu. Vsyu noch' volnovalosya more, Revela morskaya volna; A utrom priplyli dva trupa I shchepki togo chelnoka. |
English text
In crimson the crescent got painted, The cliffs were attacked by the sea. "My beauty, let us sail, like we did, I waited a long time for thee." "I sail with you with pleasure, really, I like the sea waves very much. You let the sail catch the wind freely, And I`ll have the rudder in touch". "Into the high seas you are guiding, We can't withstand there the gale. The weather is dirty and blinding, One can't trust the waves under sail". "Why can`t one? Why not, you my dear? The past fate you must have in view, Recall your betrayal, my tears, And how I trusted in you!" "Look here, the lives we are risking, You fool, turn the rudder at once! Into the wild sea we are drifting, The waves grapple with, take a glance!" The waves proceed to roar and to whack, The shuttle unguided behaves. "The oars off! We move to a shipwreck, And us now nothing more saves! You lied once and you spoiled all my life, Today I tricked you in my turn. Just look: this is a damask steel knife, Not vainly I had to concern!" Just after she said what she fostered, She thrust the knife into his chest. Then her broken heart felt exhausted, She jumped from the shuttle abreast. The sea had been getting rough nightlong, The waves had been roaring a blame; Two corpses came swimming that morning, The pieces of that shuttle came. Translation by accordeonworld.weebly.com |
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Окрасился_месяц_багрянцем ; https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Окрасился_месяц_багрянцем ;
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelbert_von_Chamisso; http://ulpravda.ru/rubrics/kultpokhod/-okrasilsya-mesyats-bagryantsem ; https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Минаев,_Дмитрий_Дмитриевич ;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Окрасился_месяц_багрянцем ; https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Окрасился_месяц_багрянцем ;
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelbert_von_Chamisso; http://ulpravda.ru/rubrics/kultpokhod/-okrasilsya-mesyats-bagryantsem ; https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Минаев,_Дмитрий_Дмитриевич ;