Zemfira Lyrics

[wretched-girl.livejournal.com]

These are lyrics to the Zemfira song "Скандал." Can someone please translate them for me?

Verse1:

Алле? Я девочка-скандал, девочка-воздyх.

Мое сanсel sсoundrel нaш с тобою birthday

А мне девочке-звезде закричали сестры

"Надо выше нос", - что такие же звезды

Свесив болтали ботинками,

Взвесив болтаем картинками

Он мне сказал "Не полyчится".

Если мне хочется - сбyдется.

Verse2:
Алле? Я девочка с yма, девочка-вольно
Себя сделав сама, сделала больно
Меня, девочкy звездy, ненавидят ветры
Перед собой на метры
Смерив возможность oтрезками
Я yхожy королевскими
Кто мне сказал "не полyчится",
Если мне хочется - сбyдется.

Verse3:
Алле? Я девочка - пожар, девочка - брызги
Внyтри прячy радар ловящий мысли
Со мной девочкой-звездой никомy возможно
Выпyстить себя по следам по ложным
Ставлю сто фишек на черное
Ставших y края - yпорная
Кто мне сказал "не полyчится"
Если мне хочется - сбyдется.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

It does not make any sense whatsoever in Russian.

[nickolette.livejournal.com]

It does make sense!!!
In her songs – images, feelings “at tips of fingers”

Here some proves in Russian:

Verse1:

Аллё! Я девочка-скандал, девочка-воздyх.

В моем кензо сандал, нaш с тобой birthday

По мне, девочке-звезде не скучали сестры

Много выше, но всё такие же звезды

Свесив, болтали ботинками,

Взвесив, болтали корзинками

Кто мне сказал "Не получится"?

Если мне хочется – сбудется!

Verse2:
Алле? Я девочка сyма, девочка-вольно
Себя, сделав сама, сделала больно
Меня, девочкy звездy, ненавидят ветры
Я рвала же ветры собой на метры
Смерив возможность oтрезками
Я yхожy королевскими
Кто мне сказал "не полyчится",
Если мне хочется - сбyдется.

Verse3:
Алле! Я девочка - пожар, девочка - брызги
Внyтри прячy радар ловящий мысли
Со мной девочкой-звездой никомy возможно
И пустив тебя по следам по ложным
Ставлю сто фишек на черное
Вставши y края - yпорная
Кто мне сказал "не полyчится"
Если мне хочется - сбyдется.

Verse4
…

[oryx_and_crake]

Well, that's a little bit better, but not much

E.g. what would "Смерив возможность oтрезками Я yхожy королевскими" mean? You have lost me here.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_teemon_/]

"I have measured my possibilities with you, and i am leaving you striding like a queen."

Like that.

[oryx_and_crake]

That's not what the song says. This is just your interpretation (and not really close to the original).

[http://users.livejournal.com/_teemon_/]

Maybe. Actually no one knows what does she mean anyway.

BTW, I live in a city, where Zema is from. :-p

[oryx_and_crake]

::Actually no one knows what does she mean anyway.

Exactly my words :-)


Which city? I don't know that much about Zemfira.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_teemon_/]

Ufa, Russia. Zema is from poor district of Chernikovka. She was singing songs in a local cafe and one day she managed to pass her records to Mumi-Troll when he had a concert here.

Nice texts, nice music.

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

I'm not Zemfira fan, but I'm just curious, in your opinion what would "скрипка и немножко нервно" mean? :)

[oryx_and_crake]

This is a title of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem written in 1914.


СКРИПКА И НЕМНОЖКО НЕРВНО

Скрипка издергалась, упрашивая,
и вдруг разревелась
так по-детски,
что барабан не выдержал:
"Хорошо, хорошо, хорошо!"
А сам устал,
не дослушал скрипкиной речи,
шмыгнул на горящий Кузнецкий
и ушел.
Оркестр чужо смотрел, как
выплакивалась скрипка
без слов,
без такта,
и только где-то
глупая тарелка
вылязгивала:
"Что это?"
"Как это?"
А когда геликон -
меднорожий,
потный,
крикнул:
"Дура,
плакса,
вытри!" -
я встал,
шатаясь, полез через ноты,
сгибающиеся под ужасом пюпитры,
зачем-то крикнул:
"Боже!",
бросился на деревянную шею:
"Знаете что, скрипка?
Мы ужасно похожи:
я вот тоже
ору -
а доказать ничего не умею!"
Музыканты смеются:
"Влип как!
Пришел к деревянной невесте!
Голова!"
А мне - наплевать!
Я - хороший.
"Знаете что, скрипка?
Давайте -
будем жить вместе!
А?"

http://www.litera.ru/stixiya/authors/mayakovskij/skripka-izdergalas-uprashivaya.html

[oryx_and_crake]

Please note that in Mayakovsky's poem all sentences are well-formed and make perfect sense.

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

My question was specifically about the two quoted phrases. Quod licet Jovi...? :)

Where do you draw the line? Seriously.

[oryx_and_crake]

Well, if you really don't see the difference between the two, I probably will not be able to explain it to you. But I'll try anyway. Mayakovsky's poem is exactly that: a poem. It has rhythm, rhyme and sense (a little bit surrealistic, but what the heck, it's poetry, not a book on math or something). As to the title, it looks perfectly good to me, too. (A title does not have to be a complete sentence, in case you don't know.) It names the subject and the mood of the poem. (Compare: шел дождь и два студента is a phrase, however a jocular one, прыгал зеленое королевскими is not.) As to Zemfira's lyrics, the phrase was taken from the text and it has to be a complete sentence making at least some sense which is not and which it does not. Dixi.

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

You keep shifting the subject from the two specific phrases ("Смерив возможность oтрезками Я yхожy королевскими" and "Скрипка и немножко нервно") to that of Russian Poetry.

I've been trying to formulate my arguments as to why it's wrong to dismiss Zemfira lyrics as being "incorrect Russian" if we are to stay within the limits of discussing the language and not Poetry, but I really don't see why would anyone care. I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this thread.

I will try however at least to sketch two of the arguments that I find most interesting.

First, consider "Глокая куздра...". Is it correct Russian? Apparently not, by your strict definition. Still, native Russian speakers can make quite a bit of sense out of it. It was precisely because of that, that Щерба used the phrase to demonstrate the language itself at work. Now, if we can take a correct grammar and fill it with "wrong" words, why not do the reverse? One possible view of this type of lyrics is that it's grammatical "глокая куздра" (original "глокая куздра" being a lexical one).

And I might add that for a "non-language" that you try to make it sound, this type of versification is far to productive in real life to be dismissed so harshly.

I'm a bit uncertain if my second argument will really sound convincing to you, but I can't help but surrender to the sense of irony.

I hope you will not mind my conjecture that you love poetry, you grew up on good poetry, and that it pains you to even look at lyrics like the one we are discussing here. You so apparently don't like it that you are ready to discard it as "non-language". (I'm sorry if I'm exaggerating a bit).

Now, I started to use the net when there was no www. We had usenet over uucp. We had mailing lists and news groups. I grew up on it. It pains me to see these new communication forms like web forums, blogs, lj, etc. They seem so awkward, transient, and oriented to the clip-consciousness of the mtv generation with an attention span of a second grader. It's so tempting to dismiss them as "non-communication", you wouldn't belive it. (Again, I'm sorry if I'm exaggerating a bit).

Just as you keep telling what a "real" poetry and/or Russian language ought to look like, I can put my old fart hat on and start telling what a "real" communication forum ought to look like. But we do use this web-based communication forum as millions of people do use lj and other web-based stuff. Now I just ask you to map this situation back to the language domain, and accept that for millions of people that form of language is not "corrupt", it's something they understand and accept quite well.

[constpd.livejournal.com]

Having measured [my own] possibilities in segments
I'm leaving in royal [walk] (королевскими [шагами])

[oryx_and_crake]

You can add any words you like, but it does not make the original text any better.

[angels-chinese.livejournal.com]

I suspect that it's actually a kind of metaphor from basketball slang. "Королевские" may be for "steps", and "мерить возможность oтрезками" is maybe what basketballers (like Zemfira herself) do trying to understand by what number of steps they can achieve this or that place. And "уходить по-королевски" in Russian is quite acceptable thing :) Of cource it's a matter of interpretation, but it always is - like Shakespeare. "Very like a whale" :)))

[http://users.livejournal.com/_teemon_/]

omg! lol.

[raul22.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's REALLY hard to translate adequately. Zemfira has different lyrics, and this is not the easiest song :)

[constpd.livejournal.com]

A correction of the second line:
“Мое ‘Kenzo Sandal’ нaш с тобою birthday”

[sibir-muzhyk.livejournal.com]

Every Zemfira's song is a stream of consciousness. :-)
No sense, no meaning; rhyme only