by Mark Bernes
“Temnaya noch” (“Dark Night”) is a Soviet song of the Second World War, written by the composer Nikita Bogoslovsky and the poet Vladimir Agatov for the 1943 film Two Soldiers. In the film Mark Bernes plays a soldier who sings it at night, remembering his wife and baby. In our translation bullets whistle, the wind hums on the wires and the stars twinkle dimly. He knows the woman he loves is awake by their child's crib, secretly wiping away a tear, and he longs to kiss her gentle eyes. The anxious black steppe lies between them, but he believes in her, and that faith has kept him safe from bullets. Death is not frightening: he has faced it many times, and even now it circles above him. Because she is waiting, he knows nothing will happen to him. It became one of the best-loved songs of the war years.
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.
Dark is the night, only bullets whistle across the steppe
Only the wind hums on the wires, the stars twinkle dimly
On a dark night
I know you're not asleep, my Love
And secretly by the child's crib, you wipe away a tear
How I love the depth of your gentle eyes
How I want to touch them now with my lips
The dark night separates us, my Love
And the anxious black steppe lay between us
I do believe in you, in my dear friend
This faith, from a bullet, saved me this dark night
I am joyful and calm in this deadly fight
I know, you'll meet me with love, whatever happens to me
Death is not scary, we've met her more than once on the steppe
Even now she circles over me
You're waiting for me, and by the child's crib cannot sleep
And so I know nothing will happen to me
That's why I know nothing will happen to me
| Word | Say it | Meaning | Type | In the song |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| тёмный | tyomny | dark | adjective | тёмная: nominative, singular, feminine |
| ночь | noch | night | noun | ночь: nominative, singular, feminine |
| пуля | pulya | bullet | noun | пули: nominative, plural, feminine; here “bullets” |
| степь | step | steppe | noun | степи: dative, singular, feminine |
| любимый | lyubimy | beloved | adjective | любимая: nominative, singular, feminine |
| знать | znat | to know | verb | знаю: present, 1st person, imperfective; here “know” |
| спать | spat | to sleep | verb | спишь: present, 2nd person, imperfective; here “sleep” |
| детский | detskiy | child's | adjective | детской: genitive, singular, feminine |
| кроватка | krovatka | crib | noun | кроватки: genitive, singular, feminine |
| случиться | sluchitsya | to happen | verb | случилось: past, neuter, reflexive; here “happened” |
| встречаться | vstrechatsya | to meet | verb | встречались: past, plural, reflexive; here “met” |
| поэтому | poetomu | therefore | adverb | поэтому |
«тёмной ночью» (tyomnoy nochyu) “in the dark night”
Ночью is the instrumental of ночь (night), and тёмной (dark) agrees with it. Russian uses the bare instrumental for parts of the day and for seasons: утром (in the morning), днём (in the daytime), вечером (in the evening), зимой (in winter). The song also says в тёмную ночь, with в and the accusative, which points to one particular night.
«Верю в тебя» (Veryu v tebya) “I believe in you”
Верить в with the accusative means “to believe in” someone or something: тебя is the accusative of ты, and the next line continues in the same case with “my dear friend”. Without the preposition, верить takes the dative and means “to believe what someone says”: я верю тебе, “I believe you”. The noun вера (faith) comes from the same root.
«Смерть нестрашна» (Smert nestrashna) “death is not frightening”
Нестрашна is the short form of нестрашный (not frightening). Short adjectives stand after the subject as the predicate, and Russian drops “is” in the present tense. They change only for gender and number: the masculine has no ending, as in я спокоен, “I am calm”, from спокойный; the feminine adds -а; the plural adds -ы or -и. Long forms are the ones used before a noun.
«ничего не случится» (nichego ne sluchitsya) “nothing will happen”
Russian needs не together with negative words, so ничего (nothing) comes with не, literally “nothing not will happen”. Случится is a form of the perfective случиться (to happen). Perfective verbs have no present tense, so their present-type endings refer to the future. The person it happens to follows with с (with) and the instrumental case, “with me”; before some pronouns that begin with two consonants, с is spelled со.
Translation, word notes and commentary by Koinei. Rights holders: see Copyright and takedown requests.