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‘A poem in Russian’
Click to listen to blok.mp3 (313Kb)
Native speaker
Accent: standard
Author: Serpent
Date: 1/27/2007

Description of what is on the sound file:
This is a poem by Aleksander Blok. My accent is rather standard as I'm a native speaker from Moscow.

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Transcript of sound file:
Ночь, улица, фонарь, аптека,
Бессмысленный и тусклый свет.
Живи еще хоть четверть века -
Все будет так. Исхода нет.

Умрешь - начнешь опять сначала
И повторится все, как встарь:
Ночь, ледяная рябь канала,
Аптека, улица, фонарь.

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Translation:
--taken from wikipedia--

Plain word-by-word translation to English:

Night, street, lamp, drugstore,
A dull and meaningless light.
Go on and live another quarter century -
Nothing will change. There's no way out.

You'll die - start from the beginning anew,
And all will repeat, just like before:
Night, icy ripples on a canal,
Drugstore, street, lamp.


A more artistic translation by Kathy Sowa:

Dusk, a street, a light, a drugstore,
A world without sense, and dull.
A quarter-century yet to live for --
So it shall be. Without result.

You'll die -- resume from the beginning,
And, as before, it all repeats:
Dusk, the canal's icy ripples,
The drugstore, light, and city street.

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