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igenlodeLooking up my Russian pie recipes, I note that my cookery book (written and published by an Englishwoman in 1989) takes it absolutely for granted that the Ukraine is at the heart of Russia, e.g. "The Russian tradition in bread is said to be at its strongest in the Ukraine, the country's proverbial breadbasket"...
I have been singing 19th-century русские романсы from an old book I picked up somewhere, and had a lot of trouble deducing from the Internet that the 'A Tolstoi' who was credited with the lyrics was in fact neither the famous Tolstoy of "War and Peace", nor the Alexei Nikolaievich Tolstoy who wrote "Aelita", nor even Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, who wrote ballads and historical drama in the mid-nineteenth century (and all of whom were distantly related; here's an interesting vampire story that the latter wrote -- in French -- in 1839, long before "Dracula": The Family of the Vourdalak). Due to the fact that Russian song credits are given in the genitive, with the words or music being 'of the author', I eventually realised that the lyricist is actually implied to have been a woman, "A. Tolstaya".
Apparently the composer 'M. Tolstovo' in this case was Mikhail Lvovich Tolstoy, who was the son of the famous Lev Tolstoy. https://notado.ru/notyi-dlya-fortepiano/my-vyshli-v-sad-noty-dlya-fortepiano.html
Which suggests that the poet may have been his sister Alexandra. This site, however, credits it to "Tatyana Konstantinovna Tolstaya", about whom I can discover nothing save that she did write romances.
https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=141650&Transliterate=GOST https://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Tolstaya/6683
I think that's probably a confusion of names, however, since the sheet music says clearly A and M Tolstoy in collaboration, rather than a single T. And there were clearly far too many assorted Tolstoys running around Russia!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzPx32ufDo
Whoever did write it, this is a simple and beautiful lyric:
Мы вышли в сад; чуть слышно трепетали
Последние листы на липовых ветвях,
И вечер голубой, исполненный печали,
Бледнея, догорал в задумчивых лучах…
(We went into the garden; the last leaves of the linden rustled, barely audible,
And the deep blue dusk, full of sadness, growing dim, burned out in pensive rays...)
И плакали кругом печальные березы,
Вставала за горой туманная луна…
Мы молча шли… И накипали слезы,
И дивной нежности душа была полна…
(And all around the mournful birch-trees wept,
the misty moon rose behind the mountain...
We walked in silence... And tears welled up, and a wonderful tenderness filled the soul...)
Казалось, эта ночь таила столько ласки,
Чтоб тихо отогнать уснувшие мечты…
Но все прошло, как в дивной чудной сказке,
И далека та ночь, и так далек и ты…
(That night concealed so many caresses, it seemed,
as to quietly drive away dreams that were falling asleep(?)
But everything ended, as if in a strange wondrous story,
And that night is far away, and you are so far from me...)
(Extremely rough and sometimes questionable translation, I'm afraid, but the general mood of the song is clearly a very Russian one of beautiful sadness of the soul ;-p)
I have been singing 19th-century русские романсы from an old book I picked up somewhere, and had a lot of trouble deducing from the Internet that the 'A Tolstoi' who was credited with the lyrics was in fact neither the famous Tolstoy of "War and Peace", nor the Alexei Nikolaievich Tolstoy who wrote "Aelita", nor even Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, who wrote ballads and historical drama in the mid-nineteenth century (and all of whom were distantly related; here's an interesting vampire story that the latter wrote -- in French -- in 1839, long before "Dracula": The Family of the Vourdalak). Due to the fact that Russian song credits are given in the genitive, with the words or music being 'of the author', I eventually realised that the lyricist is actually implied to have been a woman, "A. Tolstaya".
Apparently the composer 'M. Tolstovo' in this case was Mikhail Lvovich Tolstoy, who was the son of the famous Lev Tolstoy. https://notado.ru/notyi-dlya-fortepiano/my-vyshli-v-sad-noty-dlya-fortepiano.html
Which suggests that the poet may have been his sister Alexandra. This site, however, credits it to "Tatyana Konstantinovna Tolstaya", about whom I can discover nothing save that she did write romances.
https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=141650&Transliterate=GOST https://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Tolstaya/6683
I think that's probably a confusion of names, however, since the sheet music says clearly A and M Tolstoy in collaboration, rather than a single T. And there were clearly far too many assorted Tolstoys running around Russia!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzPx32ufDo
Whoever did write it, this is a simple and beautiful lyric:
Мы вышли в сад; чуть слышно трепетали
Последние листы на липовых ветвях,
И вечер голубой, исполненный печали,
Бледнея, догорал в задумчивых лучах…
(We went into the garden; the last leaves of the linden rustled, barely audible,
And the deep blue dusk, full of sadness, growing dim, burned out in pensive rays...)
И плакали кругом печальные березы,
Вставала за горой туманная луна…
Мы молча шли… И накипали слезы,
И дивной нежности душа была полна…
(And all around the mournful birch-trees wept,
the misty moon rose behind the mountain...
We walked in silence... And tears welled up, and a wonderful tenderness filled the soul...)
Казалось, эта ночь таила столько ласки,
Чтоб тихо отогнать уснувшие мечты…
Но все прошло, как в дивной чудной сказке,
И далека та ночь, и так далек и ты…
(That night concealed so many caresses, it seemed,
as to quietly drive away dreams that were falling asleep(?)
But everything ended, as if in a strange wondrous story,
And that night is far away, and you are so far from me...)
(Extremely rough and sometimes questionable translation, I'm afraid, but the general mood of the song is clearly a very Russian one of beautiful sadness of the soul ;-p)
no subject
Date: 2022-05-31 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-31 10:28 pm (UTC)And the dreams are the ones that come as she is on the point of falling asleep? I'm glad I don't have to do an actual translation of this!
no subject
Date: 2022-06-05 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-06-07 05:47 pm (UTC)