Cossack Lullaby
"The Cossack Lullaby"(Russian: Казачья колыбельная песня) is a cradle song that Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov wrote in 1838 during his exile in Caucasus.
Background
In 1837, Alexandr Pushkin had a duel with Georges d'Anthes and two days later died. Mikhail Lermontov, who had adored Pushkin, wrote a poem entitled the Death of the Poet and lamented that he fell as a victim of the aristocracy surrounding the Czar. He was immediately exiled to Caucasus.[1][2]
While in Caucasus, he heard an old Terek Cossack woman sing a cradle song, which he transcribed as the Cossack Lullaby. At that time, the Terek Cossacks defended Russia's southern border against the Ingush and Chechens. Lermontov is said to have actually put the song in music in Voronezh on his way to Saint Petersburg.[3] The song was later sent to Saint Petersburg and Moscow and became popular.
Words and translation
The song has six stanzas, of which two are described below with a direct English translation.[4]
Original words (in Russian) | Direct translation |
---|---|
1. Спи, младенец мой прекрасный, |
Sleep, baby, my dearest, |
2. По камням струится Терек, |
Over the rocky bed flows the Terek River, |
See also
References
- ↑ Смерть поэта/Death of the Poet, with link to its reading
- ↑ The Bicentennial of Mikhail Lermontov's Birth (in Japanese)
- ↑ Лермонтов Михаил Юрьевич 1814 - 1841 (Литературная карта Воронежской области) (in Russian); an English summary in Mikhail Lermontov plaque, Voronezh.
- ↑ Казачья Колыбельная Песня / Cossack Lullaby