White Acacia

White Acacia
Song read by Elise Hugueny-Léger at the gathering held for Oliver, May 2013.
I wanted to read the lyrics – in English – of a popular Russian song. I came across this song a
few months ago, as I was working on a French book entitled My Life as a Russian novel and
on a related film by the same author – both book and film deal with the author’s quest for his
own origins in modern-day Russia. The film features a very moving sequence of a young
woman singing beautifully a Russian song – and this song becomes a haunting motif in the
film.
One evening back in March, as we were driving back from work together, as we often did, I
asked Oliver if he could watch the film sequence and identify the song for me. Within a
couple of hours, he’d got back to me with the title of the song in Russian, the composer, its
lyrics, and a translation in English.
So, when Donald asked me if I wanted to read anything today, I thought about sharing the
lyrics of song, which I would not know if it weren’t for Oliver’s help. It is only as I re-read it
that I realised how powerful and evocative the lyrics were.
It is entitled ‘White acacia’.
Целую ночь соловей нам насвистывал
Город молчал и молчали дома
Белой акации гроздья душистые
acacia
Ночь напролет нас сводили с ума
Белой акации гроздья душистые
acacia
Ночь напролет нас сводили с ума
All night the nightingale warbled to us
The town was silent, as were all the houses
And all night long the clusters of white
Сад весь умыт был весенними ливнями
showers
В темных оврагах стояла вода
The garden was washed clean by the spring
Боже какими мы были наивными
Как же мы молоды были тогда
My God, how naive we were then
How young we were then
Годы промчались седыми нас делая
Где чистота этих веток живых
Только зима да метель эта белая
Напоминают сегодня о них
Только зима да метель эта белая
Напоминают сегодня о них
Years had passed and turned us grey-haired
Where is the purity of these thick boughs
Only the winter and the white snowstorm
Remind us of them today
Only the winter and the white snowstorm
Remind us of them today
В час когда ветер бушует неистовый
С новою силою чувствую я
Белой акации гроздья душистые
Невозвратимы как юность моя
Белой акации гроздья душистые
Неповторимы как юность моя
And when the wind whistles relentlessly
I feel with renewed strength
The sweet clusters of white acacia
As inimitable as my youth
The blossoming clusters of white acacia
As irrecoverable as my youth
Led us out of our minds
And all night long the clusters of white
Led us out of our minds
In the dark ravines water had gathered
Composer: Veniamin Basner
Lyrics: Mikhail Matusovsky
Composed for film “Дни Трубиных” (Days of the Turbins), 1976, film based on play by
Mikhail Bulgakov:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aILhcOxauGM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXEXmxzJxg
Thanks to Claire Whitehead for her help with the translation.