Dve Gitari
Two Guitars, Две гитары

  This very popular Russian Gypsy song was composed in the 19th century by the Russian composer Ivan Vasiliev (1810-1870) to the words of a poem, written by Apollon Grigoriev (1822-1864), a Russian poet, literary and theatrical critic. 
In the 19th century in Russia, the Gypsies were regarded in two ways: on the one hand, the men were considered to be horse thieves, and the women fortunetellers. On the other hand, they were romanticized for their carefree lifestyle, their independence, their temperament and, of course, for their musicality. At that time every good restaurant boasted a band of the Gypsy singers and dancers, and almost on daily base noblemen and gentries came to listen to their performances. It is commonly said that a Russian dies twice: the first time for the Motherland, the second one - while listening to Gypsies. The most famous of those bands was the choir of Ivan Vasiliev.  A friend of his, Apollon Grigoriev, attended their performances very often, and he was so impressed by the singing and the guitar accompaniment, that he wrote a poem about it. The song reflected also his unhappy love to Antonina Korsh, whose appearance reminded a Gypsy woman a little,  as well as to the other woman, Leonida Wizard.
He called the poem "Tzyganskaya Vengerka" (Hungarian Gypsy). He had shown the verse to Vasiliev, who wrote the notes to it. Vasiliev used to be a talented musician and arranger. He felt the value of the verse and strengthened it with his music. 
  Gypsy choirs performed an incendiary dance, called "The Hungarian Woman", a Gypsy version of an unknown Hungarian dance. It consisted of two parts, performed in different tempos. The verse reflects this feature also.
 The poem itself was first published in 1857, in the periodical "Syn Otechestva" (Son of the Fatherland) in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. The song was first published by two different publishers, though it is unknown who had been the first. The publisher S. Ya. Yambor from Moscow published a folklore variant of the poem by Apollon Grigoriev. The other Russian edition of the song was published by Euterpe, Saint Petersburg in Russia.
   The songs refers to the 7-string guitar. That is a native Russian guitar, now rarely used. The Moscow Gypsy Ensemble "Roman" plays such guitars. 
 The song lived its own life: performers invented their own words, often rude. 
That is why the song was not widespread in the USSR, as the censorship took care about the citizen`s morality. The situation changed after the famous bard, Vladimir Vysotskiy composed his version and made it well-known. And most known are the words of the refrain.
​Abroad the song was performed mostly in Russian restaurants. The brilliant performance of the Russian Gypsy Aleosha Dmitriévich, served the basis for the famous version of Charles Aznavour, as well as for the version of Vladimir Vysotskiy, who met Dmitriévich in Paris.   
​The other well-known performance of the song is that of Deanna Durbin.
The familiar pizzicato music was not part of the original "Tzyganskaya Vengerka", as it was published in Russia. It was rather an improvisation on the song, which Harry Horlick used as the theme song for his A & P Gypsy Ensemble, on the Atlantic and Pacific radio hour from 1922 to 1937. Horlick says that the balance of the improvisation had been composed by Sasha Makarov, a Russian Czarist refugee, and himself, while being both in Russia.
The improvisations were not published or copyrighted until 9-12-1925, when they were copyrighted under the title "Two guitars" for orchestral score and the following day for piano. The publisher was Carl Fisher in New York. 
The song is performed by accordion players also.
 Yul Brynner and Aleosha Dmitriévich perform the song







Some score versions of the romance
Russian text

Поговори хоть ты со мной,
Подруга семиструнная.
Душа полна такой тоской,
А ночь такая лунная.

Вот там звезда одна горит
Так ярко и мучительно.
Лучами сердце шевелит,
Дразня его язвительно.

Чего от сердца нужно ей,
Ведь знает без того она,
Что к ней тоскою долгих лет
Вся жизнь моя прикована.

 Ах, ты, жизнь, моя жизнь,
К сердцу сердцем ты прижмись,
На тебя, на тебя греха не будет,
А меня, а меня пусть люди судят.

И от зари, и до зари
Тоскую, мучусь, сетую.
Так пой же мне, договори
Ту песню недопетую.

Две гитары зазвенев,
Они жалобно заныли,
С детства памятный напев,
Старый друг, мой ты ли...

Эх, раз да ещё раз,
Да ещё много-много раз.
Эх, раз да ещё раз,
Да ещё много-много раз.

(2х)​
Transliteration

Pogovori hot ty so mnoj
Podruga semistrunnaya
Dusha polna takoj toskoj
A noch takaya lunnaya

Vot tam zvezda odna gorit
Tak yarko i muchitelno
Luchami serdce shevelit
Draznya ego yazvitelno

Chego ot serdca nuzhno ej
Ved znaet bez togo ona
Chto k nej toskoyu dolgih let
Vsya zhizn moya prikovana

Ah ty zhizn moya zhizn
K serdcu serdcem ty prizhmis
Na tebya na tebya grekha ne budet
A menya a menya pust lyudi sudyat

I ot zari i do zari
Toskuyu muchus setuyu
Tak poj zhe mne dogovori
Tu pesnyu nedopetuyu

Dve gitary zazvenev
Oni zhalobno zanyli
S detstva pamyatnyj napev
Staryj drug moj ty li

Ehkh raz da eshchyo raz
Da eshchyo mnogo-mnogo raz
Ehkh raz da eshchyo raz
Da eshchyo mnogo-mnogo raz
English text

At least you will talk to me
O' seven-stringed friend of mine
My soul is overwhelmed by sorrow
At this full moon night
 
There, a star is shining
So brightly and grievously
With its rays it stirs my heart
Mordantly mocking it
 
What does she need of a heart?
On her own she knows
That my life is shackled to her feet
With many years of sorrow
 
O' life, my life
Bring our hearts close together
You, you will be free from sin
And me, let the people judge my fate
 
From dawn to dawn
I grief, distress and mourn
So sing for me, sing it through
That unfinished song
 
Two guitars began to tinkle
And plaintively to whine
A childhood's long lost melody
Are you still that old friend of mine...
 
Eh, do it once, do it twice
And many many times more
Eh, do it once, do it twice
And many many times more​
Sources:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/dve-gitary-две-гитары-two-guitars.html; http://www.talesfromthekeyboard.com/songs-of-exiles/two-guitars;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollon_Grigoryev; ​https://books.google.be/books?id=EVninY59ul0C&pg=PA595&lpg=PA595&dq=two+guitars+russian+traditional&source=bl&ots=XFlTrzvBtJ&sig=ZUyfw9fUDDyhw3NGckRvrbUpvBE&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCmafV1JrTAhUKtBQKHU7dAYM4KBDoAQgfMAE#v=onepage&q=two%20guitars%20russian%20traditional&f=false
http://www.sovsekretno.ru/articles/id/1479/