Further ballad dump

[igenlode]

More ballad verses (an impressive number for only a week's progress!):

For us, nothing new in this business of hand-to-hand fighting
Though battle was fierce and our enemy's swordplay was slick
And that day it was -- see this scar?-- that some pirate's blade sliced me
But I paid him back on the instant, for debts make me sick!

Our captain was there in the thick of it -- no-one could touch him,
For Luck was his Lady, and each to the other was true.
He duelled with three, when a foe from behind with a musket
Decided to send him a gift from three steps out of view.

(Chorus)
No sword, a bullet, that's the thing... for what a gap three steps can bring!
And so that bullet never reached him as intended.
Indeed that distance now was seen -- a body flung itself between...
It was the boy's life in that moment that was ended.

Farewells we made later to friends and to those who were nearest,
For is it not said: "To the slain -- faith, remembrance, applause"?
In deep draughts of rum we gave tribute to those who'd paid dearest,
For next time the name to remember might prove to be yours.

I'd cared for the boy like a brother -- guilt came to appall me.
To whom could I write? In his sea-chest I found folded flat
An envelope marked: "To be opened if aught should befall me"--
For men in our trade there was nothing unusual in that.

Just one verse and one chorus left for the big reveal...

Comments

[watervole]

I must admit that the chorus doesn't quite work for me, I can just about get the scansion patter - which is a really tricky one - but the last line has a problem for me.

Maybe it's simply because the 'boy' is introduced for the first time, but as 'the' boy, not 'a' boy?

[igenlode]

It's the cabin-boy from the previous chorus (and in fact 'Junge' throughout -- they use the German term).
But the trouble is that "cabin-boy" is practically impossible to fit into the scansion at the best of times, and in particular in that crucial triple off-beat stressed line :-(

No sword, a BULLet,/ that's the THING.../ for what a GAP three/ steps can BRING
And so that BULLet/never REACHED him/as inTENDed.
Indeed that DISTance/ now was SEEN--/ a body FLUNG it/-self beTWEEN
It was the BOY'S life/ in that MOMent/ that was ENDed.

[watervole]

I agree it's a very hard scansion to match to. I'm impressed you've hit it as well as you have. Especially when you're translating rather than composing from scratch.

[igenlode]

Looking back at the original, I think I've actually misrepresented the way that the line splits (although not the overall scansion), at least where this repeat of the chorus is concerned:

https://youtu.be/T1hq0eB1JGc&t=3m44s

The last chorus is more akin to what I've shown above; in this one the singer is pausing after the stressed syllables in the third line. But that would make it even *more* irregular...

[watervole]

I freely admit to being incapable of picking up scansion in Russian!

[igenlode]

Musical phrases are musical phrases... (but I suppose I probably couldn't pick up scansion in Portuguese!)

It makes a big difference in Russian, because as in English the unstressed vowels are little more than a 'schwa'. So the stress pattern has a significant effect on the pronunciation, which is why student texts come with the stressed syllable marked on every single word -- as does the dictionary, including those situations where the stress shifts if the word is put into a different case. (My Soviet dictionary extends exactly the same thing to the *English* words, presumably for the same reason, which makes it slightly weird to read; it really was intended for Russians to translate their own language into English and not vice versa :-D)