A Star Called Sun

Last week I wrote about a band called Brazzaville and how David Brown wrote an English version of a famous Russian song "A Star Called Sun" (Звезда по имени Солнце). Since then, a lot of people got to this site by searching for the song in Google, so I figured I'll post a bit of an update. While David can not release the song on the Internets until he sorts everything out with Victor Tsoy's estate and record label, I figured I'll post the lyrics up here since a few Russian radio stations have already started spinning it and people might be interested. [I'll see if I can pull some strings and get a Russian translation sometime soon. Ahem... Vlad... want a small project to work on?]

Near a star, called sun,
It was there that my mom came undone
Sounds of a summer parade
90.5 in the shade

She drifted off on the Fourth of July
A holiday look in her eyes
Said goodbye to a lifetime of pain
she died in the midsummer rain

She said: There's one million stars for every little grain of sand... down there

She floated up like a rocket in space
The misery gone from her face
Flying through the comets and stars
Out past the canyons on Mars

She saw the future and she saw the past
She said "Don't worry, it's not meant to last"
"Everything's always Okay"
"Even the worst of your days"

There's one million stars for every little grain of sand... down there

So now she's there when I look at the sky
Or when I drink whiskey or wine
Or when I feel frightened at night
Or days when I'm sick of my life

She says "Son it will all be allright"
"Everything is already fine"
"If only you knew what I've seen"
"You'll never feel frightened again"

There's one million stars for every little grain of sand... down there

A beautiful song. Although those of you who know the Russian version will notice that the Brazzaville lyrics are not a translation of the original, but rather a re-write around a similar theme. Here's how David explained it:

Although his lyrics were beautiful, I felt that they would lose a lot in the translation when trying to fit them to the music so I wrote a song about my mother’s death while preserving the theme of stars and the the sun. The refrain of my version is “There’s one million stars, for every little grain of sand down there”. That was a concept that had been obsessing me ever since I heard about it on the BBC. I was happy that I was finally able to work it into a song.

Which got me thinking about doing a proper translation of the original lyrics. I've come across a few translations before, which were either too silly sounding (like someone translated them with a bloody Russian-English dictionary) or too literal - breaking up the rhythm of the whole song and often mistranslating the metaphors and similitudes in such a way that no English-speaking person would understand. Well... I figured I could do better than that. I took some liberties with the exact meanings of the phrases and instead concentrated on translating the gist of it, while keeping the rhythm and all the rhyming schemes intact so that if you want to play this for an English speaking audience you can! And without it sounding like an awkward translation from another language that it is.

I even included the guitar chords for the song so that you can play along (the same chords will work for the Brazzaville lyrics above). If you want to hear the original Russian version of the song, click here (via RussianDVD.com)

Anyway, here's my translation:

Am
The white snow, and gray ice
C
on the patchwork of crackling earth
Dm
like a tapestry laid upon it
G
of a city, in the noose of the roads

And above it, the clouds float by
Blocking out the brilliant light
And above it, the yellow smoke
From two thousand years of blight

Dm - Am
That it spent underneath a bright star - called Sun

And two thousand years of war
A war with no reason or goal
A war that's meant for the young
A cure against growing old

A bloody red ground undeneath
In an hour, seeps out of sight
And in two, there's flowers and grass
In three, it's well and alive

As it's warmed by the light of a star - called Sun

And we know that's just how it is:
That Fate looks kindly upon
One who lives under different rules,
and who doesn't live to die old.

He forgot the word 'yes' and word 'no'
He forgot their ranks and their names
And he's willing to reach for the stars
And believe he's just dreaming of flames

'till he fades... burned by a star - called Sun