by Kino
“Gruppa krovi” (“Blood Type”) is the title song of the Soviet rock band Kino's 1988 album, written and sung by Viktor Tsoi. In our translation the singer has a warm place, a soft armchair and a plaid blanket, but the streets are waiting for the prints of his feet. His blood type and serial number are on his sleeve, and he asks to be wished luck in battle and not to stay in the grass. He has the means to pay, yet he does not want victory at any cost or to put his foot on anyone's chest. He would like simply to stay with the one he loves, but a star high in the sky calls him to the road. In 1999 Nashe Radio ranked it first among the 100 best Russian rock songs of the 20th century, and Metallica played it in Moscow on 21 July 2019.
Koinei's own English translation. The original Russian lyrics are not shown on this page: open the reader to follow them word by word with the audio.
A warm place, but the streets await the prints of our feet
Stardust on our boots
A soft armchair, a plaid blanket
A trigger not pulled in time
A sunny day in blinding dreams
Blood type on my sleeve
My serial number on my sleeve
Wish me luck in battle
Wish for me not to stay in this grass not to stay in this grass
Wish me luck (x2)
There's something to pay with, but I don't want victory at any cost
I don't want to put on anyone a foot on the chest
I'd like to stay with you
Just to stay with you
But a star high in the sky calls me to the road
(repeat the 4 lines from “Blood type on my sleeve”)
Wish me luck
| Word | Say it | Meaning | Type | In the song |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| клетчатый | kletchaty | plaid | adjective | клетчатый: nominative, singular, masculine |
| ослепительный | oslepitelny | dazzling | adjective | ослепительных: prepositional, plural; here “blinding” |
| группа | gruppa | group | noun | группа: nominative, singular, feminine |
| кровь | krov | blood | noun | крови: genitive, singular, feminine |
| рукав | rukav | sleeve | noun | рукаве: prepositional, singular, masculine |
| порядковый | poryadkovy | ordinal | adjective | порядковый: nominative, singular, masculine; here “serial” |
| номер | nomer | number | noun | номер: nominative, singular, masculine |
| пожелать | pozhelat | to wish | verb | пожелай: imperative, singular, perfective; here “wish” |
| удача | udacha | luck | noun | удачи: genitive, singular, feminine |
| остаться | ostatsya | to stay | verb | остаться: infinitive, reflexive, perfective; here “stay” |
| трава | trava | grass | noun | траве: prepositional, singular, feminine |
| хотеть | khotet | to want | verb | хочу: present, 1st person, imperfective; here “want” |
«Группа крови» (Gruppa krovi) “blood type”
Russian links two nouns with the genitive where English puts one noun before another: группа (group) stays in the nominative and кровь (blood) becomes крови, literally “group of blood”. Feminine nouns ending in a soft sign take -и in the genitive, dative and prepositional singular. The same pattern names many everyday things: номер телефона (phone number), чашка чая (a cup of tea).
«Пожелай мне удачи» (Pozhelay mne udachi) “Wish me luck”
Пожелай is the imperative of the perfective пожелать (to wish). The person who receives the wish is in the dative, мне (to me), and the thing wished is in the genitive: удача (luck) becomes удачи. Желать and пожелать take the genitive for the thing wished, which is why greetings are full of genitive endings: желаю счастья, “I wish you happiness”.
«в путь» (v put) “to the road”
В and на take the accusative for direction and the prepositional for location. The star calls him в путь, “to the road”, so путь is accusative, which for masculine things looks like the nominative. The blood type is на рукаве, “on the sleeve”: рукав takes the prepositional ending -е because the phrase says where something is. Compare в траве, “in the grass”.
«хотел бы остаться» (khotel by ostatsya) “would like to stay”
Russian forms the conditional with the past tense plus the particle бы, so хотел бы means “would like”. There is no separate tense for it, and the verb still shows gender: a woman would say хотела бы. Остаться (to stay) is a perfective infinitive, one completed act. A sentence with хотел бы sounds softer and more polite than one with хочу (I want).
Translation, word notes and commentary by Koinei. Rights holders: see Copyright and takedown requests.