alexpgp | Making out the words...

Over the years, there have been songs whose words I have been able to make out the first time around, but as a rule, I try to relax and enjoy the overall effect, because I'm as likely to mondegreen the lyrics as anything else.

Back during the early post-Soviet days, there was one particular march that could be heard at Russian state events, an upbeat tune that I had run across back before my university days. It turns out to be the regimental song of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, which was formed by Peter the Great in the late 1600s (the words to the song, I am sure, are much more recent).

During one of my trips to the former Soviet Union over the past few years, I picked up a CD of various regimental songs recorded by the Male Choir at the Valaam Monestary, and one of those songs is that of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. While working a launch campaign at Baikonur, I managed to dope out the first few lines after several hearings (mostly by osmosis), and - with the help of one of the office staff - managed to figure out the rest. The words were recorded in a file that was, um, misplaced, until a few minutes ago.

Herewith, The Song of the Preobrazhensky Regiment:

Знают, турки, нас и шведы, и про нас известен свет.
На сражения, на победы, нас всегда сам царь ведет.
С нами труд он разделяет, перед нами он в боях,
Счастлив всяк из нас считает умереть в его глазах.

Славны были наши деды, помнят их и швед, и лях!
И парил орел победы на полтавских, на полях.

Знамя их полка пленяет, русский штык наш боевой,
Он и нам напоминает, как ходили деды в бой.
Тверд наш штык четырехгранный, голос чести не замолк;
Как пойдем вперед мы славно, грудью первый русский полк!

Государям по присяге верен полк наш был всегда
В поле брани не робея, грудью служит он всегда.
Преображенцы удалые рады тешить мы царя.
И потешные былые славны будут век. Ура!

There's too much to do right now to pause and attempt anything more than a gist translation.

The Turks and Swedes remember us, and we have world reknown.
In battles and in victories, the czar himself leads us.
He shares our work, in battle he leads from the front,
Any of us would be happy to die in his sight.

Our forebears^[1] were glorious: the Swedes and Poles remember them!
As the eagle of victory soared at Poltava, on the battlefields.

The regiment captured their standards, our Russian bayonet is a battle tool,
It also reminds us of how our forebears went into combat.
Our four-edged bayonet is fixed, the voice of honor is not quiet;
As we, the first Russian regiment, march chest-forward gloriously!

Our regiment has ever been true to the oath sworn to our sovereign
Never timid on the battlefield, it ever serves with heart and soul.
Dashing Preobrazhentsy^[2], we are ready to do the czar's bidding.
And our droll past exploits will live gloriously for a century. Hooray!

Russians apparently have a thing about bayonets. One of the widely known aphorisms of the the best-known pre-Soviet Russian military leader - Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov - is "Пуля дура, штык молодец" (The bullet's a dummy, the bayonet's a fine fellow!).

Time to get to work, or something.

Cheers...

[1] Possibly the Russian equivalent of "the Old Corps"; those who went before, or the subject of the soldier's chorus in Bizet's Carmen ("Gloire immortelle de nos aieux...").

[2] The name for members of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

Now I really need to get to work. You can listen to the song here.