WWII Russian song

[Gopblin]

I just found this WWII russian song and for some reason decided to translate it. After spending 10 minutes doing this, I decided to post it somewhere.

The author is unknown (which is not surprising given the text).

It’s cold in the trenches, evil wind is howling,

Their shells are falling short on the plain ahead.

I know I will die and I’ll be buried,

Right on this hill next to the machine-gun.

Right on this hill next to the machine-gun.

And another worker will answer the call and stand here instead,

Near my favorite tree,

And I think he will be wounded and die,

And also sleep in this icy bed.

And also sleep in this icy bed.

And I also know that are not dying in vain –

Other people will be born.

And peaceful life will grow for them out of the seeds

We’re sowing into this red field.

We’re sowing into this red field.

It’s cold in the trenches, evil wind is howling,

Their shells are falling short on the plain ahead.

I know I will die and I’ll be buried,

Right on this hill next to the machine-gun.

Right on this hill next to the machine-gun.

Best wishes,

Daniel.

[David I]

Cheerless, yet depressing.

DavidI

[Gopblin]

One more, one of the most popular Russian short poems about war. Written by a woman, I don't remember the name now:

---

I've only seen hand-to-hand once.

Since then I see it every night.

Those who say that at war you are not scared

Know nothing about war.

---

That's some PTSD...

Sorry for the not-so-beautiful translation but I'm not going to spent hours on it "just because" .

Best wishes,

Daniel.

[David I]

Depressing, yet cheerless.

DavidI

[Bigduke6]

I would call poetry like that accurate. War isn't a boy scout jamboree with small arms, spiffy uniforms, and cool armored vehicles, after all.

[Der Kuenstler]

Yeah - those who were really in the war would probably be mortified that we think it's fun to play games about it.

[stikkypixie]

I remember the one that was read in the "World at war" series. Really moving.

[tecumseh]

Thanks Gopblin for posting that - good to read.

It would be nice if western countries had a day every year to remember what the soviet people did to defeat Hitler.

It would be nice if Russia had a day to remember what the western allies did too.

[John D Salt]

Originally posted by Gopblin:

One more, one of the most popular Russian short poems about war. Written by a woman, I don't remember the name now:

---

I've only seen hand-to-hand once.

Since then I see it every night.

Those who say that at war you are not scared

Know nothing about war.

---

That's some PTSD...

Sorry for the not-so-beautiful translation but I'm not going to spent hours on it "just because"

Can you point us to the original Russian, please?

All the best,

John.

[Gopblin]

I'll try and see if that forum supports Russian...

Я только раз видала рукопашный...

Раз наяву - и тысячу во сне.

Кто говорит, что на войне не страшно,

Тот ничего не знает о войне.

Best wishes,

Daniel.

[Gopblin]

2tecumseh:

I totally agree . History books both in US and Russia give a one-sided picture.

Some more WWII atmosphere:

(these are stories by my classmate's grandpa's - my own army relatives were either executed before WWII or didn't survive it). I only give the general theme of the story since obviously I don't remember this stuff word for word.

1) ...So one winter we were storming a farm-stead on a hill, and the Krauts built an MG bunker there. (for some reason they had no tanks or arty)

Repeated attacks across an open plain. We had to retreat each time. Entire squads were wiped out.

After losing a huge number of men, we were still attacking when the MG went silent. Upon taking the farm, we found out that the gunner went mad...

2) (this one was a driver on a SU) About Kursk? I'll tell you about Kursk. We're driving to the battle, no Germans in sight, then suddenly I hear a WHAM! and my commander's legs fall on me.

3) (this one I saw online) A young leutenant was commanding some light arty in one of the Eastern European city fights. He was pretty miserable because the street in front of them was blocked by German MG's and the tank he requested three days to clear them out still didn't come. Plus he had diarrhea. Not to be embarassed in front of his men, he went pretty far down the street before taking a dump behind remains of a wall, which covered him from the Germans.

The wall falling apart just couple of yards away literally caught him with pants down. He saw a tank rolling over it and at first cheered up thinking it to be the requested T-34, but almost immediately realized it was a Tiger which somehow wandered into the Soviet sector.

Instantly going into shock, the leutenant nonetheless grabbed the Molotov he was issued, lit the matches and threw it right under the turret, as he was taught.

The Tiger crew were either inexperienced or plain scared by this point, and bailed right away. Despite not being a good shot (especially with no pants on), the leutenant handled his PPSH pretty decently this time, and soon the Tiger had five corpses near it.

Decades later he became a kolkhoz chairman, and when he was sitting in john and someone called him, his usual answer would be something like "A Tiger didn't stop me from crapping and neither will the county chairman!".

Best wishes,

Daniel.