Соловейко (Nightingale)
Contributor
Transient Nostalgia
It’s been 6 months of war in Europe and the Russian invasion of Ukraine created a before and an after; the lives of all Ukrainians were instantaneously changed and their former reality became memories of peace in the presence of war.
Reminded of the ephemerality of peace, borders and homes, the World has been watching as the people of Ukraine unhesitatingly to this day are making impossible decisions and inconceivable acts of resistance. The war is an intergenerational event which has resurfaced earlier war traumas, but its melancholy and longing for peace has reunited its people.
The nightingale is the national bird of Ukraine and is known for its beautiful and melancholic voice. During the invasion the air raid sirens occupy the sky instead of the nightingale’s song. The eerie mechanical song of the sirens is far from the song of the nightingale, yet it still transmits frequencies of similar sadness and urgency in its alarm call. The song symbolizes danger and creates a void in which people on the ground are faced with the decision of leaving their homes or to stay hidden. In the sky, the international air ways are rerouted and the birds unaware of the border lines below fly in any direction away from the bomb shelling, away from danger.
The video consists of found footage from the Russian invasion of Ukraine February 24th–28th 2022 and is set to the sound of three Ukrainian folk songs one of which is called “Соловейко” (Nightingale).
Please find the other lyrics in the video link.
A special thanks to the ones who supported me and helped me translate the lyrics while their family or they themselves were directly influenced by the war:
Maryna Zevako
Orysia Zabeida
Peter Tranelund
Karina Sulim
Misha Davydov
Translated by Orysia Zabeida
Соловейко
Nightingale
Ой у саду на вишеньці
Oh in the cherry orchard
Соловейко щебетав;
The nightingale chirped;
Під вишнею козаченько
Under the cherry tree a young Cossack
Дівчиноньку улещав:
Courting a young girl:
«Не йди, мила, за другого,
“Don’t go, my dear, for another,
Пожди мене, молодого».
wait for me, young man.”
Дівчинонька гірко плаче,
The girl crying bitterly,
Соловейко все те баче,
Nightingale sees them all,
Та й щебече:
And chirps:
Тьох, тьох, тьох!.. (Тричі)
Thump, Thump, Thump!.. (three times)
«Чого ж тужиш, чого плачеш,
“Why do you mourn, why do you weep?
Серце розриваєш,
My heart is breaking,
Чи вже ж мене, молодого,
Don’t you love me, young man,
Не вірно кохаєш?
Don’t you really love me?
Не плач, мила, я вернуся,
Don’t cry, darling, I’ll be back,
Тоді з тобой одружуся».
Then I will marry you.”
Дівчинонька гірко плаче,
The girl crying bitterly,
Соловейко все те баче,
Nightingale sees them all,
Та й щебече:
And chirps:
Тьох, тьох, тьох!.. (Тричі)
Thump, Thump, Thump!.. (three times)
Не вернувся козаченько,
The Kozak did not return,
Помер на чужині,
Died in a foreign land,
Поховали чужі люди,
Buried by strangers,
В чужій домовині.
In someone else’s homeland.
А дівчина, як зачула,
And the girl, as she heard,
До вишеньки прилинула,
Embarrassing the cherry tree,
Тужить, в’яне, гірко плаче,
Longing, weeping bitterly,
Соловейко все те баче,
Nightingale sees them all,
Та й щебече:
And chirps:
Тьох, тьох, тьох!.. (Тричі)
Thump, Thump, Thump!.. (three times)
