Something for the weekend. Kalinka, perhaps the best known Russian song. It was written in 1860 by Iran Larionov. It quickly achieved a popularity of epic proportions and has been sung with endless variant lyrics among Russians from that day to this. Here are the original lyrics:
Little snowberry, snowberry, snowberry of mine!
Little raspberry in the garden, my little raspberry!
Ah, under the pine, the green one,
Lay me down to sleep,
Rock-a-bye, baby, rock-a-bye, baby,
Lay me down to sleep.
Little snowberry, snowberry, snowberry of mine!
Little raspberry in the garden, my little raspberry!
Ah, little pine, little green one,
Don’t rustle above me,
Rock-a-bye, baby, rock-a-bye, baby,
Don’t rustle above me.
Little snowberry, snowberry, snowberry of mine!
Little raspberry in the garden, my little raspberry!
Ah, you beauty, pretty maiden,
Take a fancy to me,
Rock-a-bye, baby, rock-a-bye, baby,
Take a fancy to me. Little snowberry, snowberry, snowberry of mine!
Little raspberry in the garden, my little raspberry!
Here is a variant from the movie Taras Bulba (1962) where cossacks in the seventeenth century are anachronistically singing Kalinka as a drinking song:
Of course I cannot pass up the opportunity to post the magnificent “Ride to Dubno” scene from the same film:
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The movie was filmed in Argentina. The Cossacks’ enemies were the Poles. The Cossacks often fought against Poland, and sometimes alongside Poland, before 1793.