Here’s a trivia question for you. What Russian song has been translated into at least 15 languages with the English-language version getting to #1 spot in the UK Singles Chart? What is this song that has been covered by such artists as Bing Crosby and Dolly Parton and its melody was sampled by 50Cent?

Of course, it’s Дорогой длинною (Along the long road) known in the West as Those Were the Days.

The modern day version, the lyrics to which follow, are somewhat different from the original one popularized by Тамара Церетели and Александр Вертинский almost a century ago. You will also notice that the English text of Those Were the Days has nothing to do with the original Russian version.

Since the song is still popular and the tune is so catchy, let’s learn the Russian words to it. First, a few key words you need to know:

Тройка – in its most general meaning, тройка means a set of three. There are quite a few times you might come across this word in the famous works of Russian literature. One example is the famous line “Тройка… Семёрка… Туз…” (A three… a seven… an ace…) from Пиковая Дама (The Queen of Spades) by none other than Alexander Pushkin (he is everywhere!) Here тройка is just a three card from a card deck. Another famous тройка is, of course, птица-тройка from Nikolai Gogol’s Мёртвые души (The Dead Souls). In this case тройка is a carriage drawn by a team of three horses. The third example would be infamous bureaucratic triumvirate from Сказка о тройке (Tale of the Troika) by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. The iconic image of the three horses also appears on the Moscow’s Тройка card that is similar to MetroCard.

Бубенцы – jingle bells. If you want to listen to the Russian-language version of the classic Jingle Bells song, search for Бубенцы. A troika is incomplete without these bells.

Душа – soul. It is one of the must-know words if you want to get past the superficiality of 7-day “Highlights of Russia”-type tours. Fortunately, there is an old post on this blog that can help you understand both this word’s cultural importance and the nuances of grammar.

Тоска – a feeling of a melancholic yearning heavily spiked with regret and hopelessness. The feeling seems to be the hallmark of virtually every major work of Russian literature. Do not confuse тоска with another very Russian emotion, ностальгия (nostalgia) which is similar, except for the hopelessness part.

Семиструнная – literally it means seven-stringed. Семиструнная гитара is also known as русская гитара (Russian guitar), but also цыганская гитара (Gypsy guitar). It was much more popular than the classical 6-string guitar until the beginning of the 20th century.

Задаром – for free. You will not see this word on any giveaway or promotional items. A more proper word даром (free of charge, as a gift) or в подарок (as a gift) would be used. But you might hear it in a conversation as in да мне это и задаром не надо (I don’t need this even if it were free). However, in this song, задаром is synonymous with напрасно (in vain). Note that понапрасну, a form of напрасно, appears in the very next line.

Жечь – to burn. Again with the classical literature here – you might come across a phrase прожигать жизнь (to waste one’s life; lit: to burn through life). Прожигать is to burn through. One can прожечь жизнь by leading an aimless, ungrounded, or chaotic life. It is also something that is associated with youth, particularly with бурная юность (tumultuous youth) and young men.

And here’s the interesting grammatical tidbit about the song. By switching from first person singular to first person plural pronouns, the song successfully avoids identifying the singer as either a man or a woman and thus can be performed by either.  And now, the song along with its almost literal translation (I did take some liberties with it, but tried to stay as close to the Russian text as possible):

Ехали на тройке с бубенцами,

(They were riding troika with bells jingling,)

А вдали мелькали огоньки.

(Far away were glimmering the lights)

Эх, когда бы мне теперь за вами,

(How I wish that I could simply follow,)

Душу бы развеять от тоски…

(To lift the heavy sadness from my life…)

Дорогой длинною, да ночью лунною,

(Along this long-long road and by the moonlit night,)

Да с песней той, что в даль летит звеня.

(And with the song so crisp that it takes flight)

И с той старинною, да с семиструнною,

(And with that ancient one, the seven-string guitar,)

Что по ночам так мучила меня.

(That I obsessed with every single night.)

Да, выходит пели мы задаром.

(It turns out that our songs did not last)

Понапрасну ночь за ночью жгли.

(And we burned through our nights in vain)

Если мы покончили со старым,

(If we lay to rest all that is our past,)

Так и ночи эти отошли.

(Then those nights would also go away.)

Дорогой длинною, да ночью лунною,

Да с песней той, что в даль летит звеня.

И с той старинною, да с семиструнною,

Что по ночам так мучила меня.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpFaeR2wht0

Now that you’ve practiced, try singing it karaoke-style with Нани Брегвадзе.

And please, do suggest better ways of translating this wonderful song!