This musical setting of a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko cites the 1941 mass murder of Jews by Nazis at Babi Yar, which is near Kiev. Yevtushenko and Shostakovich dramatize all forms of anti-Semitism, including the Dreyfus Affair and the story of Anne Frank.
[Chorus]
Nad Babim Yarom pamyatnikov nyet
Krutoi obryv, kak gruboye nadgrobye
Mne strashno
Mne sevodnya stolko let
Kak samomu yevreiskomu narodu
[BASS]
Mne kazhetsya seichas - ya iudei
Vot ya bredu po drevnemu Egiptu
A vot ya, na kreste raspyati, gibnu
I do sikh por na mne - sledy gvozdei
Mne kazhestya, shot Dreifus - eto ya
Meshchanstvo - moi donoschik i sudya
Ya za reshotkoi. Ya popal v koltso
Zatravlennyi, oplyovannyi, obolgannyi
I admochki s bryusselskimi oborkami
Vizzha, zontami tychut mne v litso
Mne kahzetsya, ya - malchik v Belostoke
[Chorus]
Krov lyotsya, rastekayas po polam
Beschinstvuyut vozhdi traktimoi stoiki
I pakhnut vodkoi s lukom popolam
[BASS]
Ya sapogom otbroshennyi, bessilnyi
Naprasno ya pogromshchikov moyu
[Chorus]
Pod gogot: "Bei zhidov, spasai Rossiyu!"
Labaznik izbiyavet mat moyu
[BASS]
O russki moi narod, ya znayu ty
Po sushchnosti internazionalen
No chasto te, chi ruki nechisty
Tvoim chiteishim imenem bryatsali
Ya znayu dobrotu moyei zemli
Kak podlo, shto i zhilochkoi ne drognuv
Antisemity narekli sebya
[ENSEMBLE]
"Soyuzom Russkovo Naroda!"
[BASS]
Mne kazhetsya ya - eto Anna Frank
Prozrachnaya, kak vetochka v aprele
I ya lyublyu, i mne ne nado fraz
No nado, shtob drug v druga my smotreli
Kak malo mozhno videt, obonyat!
Nelzya nam listyev
I nelzya nam neba
No mozhno ochen mnogo - eto nezhno
Drug druga v tyomnoi komnate obnyat
[Chorus]
"Syuda idut!"
[BASS]
"Ne bosa, eto guly
Samoy vesny. Ona syuda idyot
Idi ko mne
Dai mne skoreye guby!"
[Chorus]
"Lomayut dver!"
[BASS]
"Nyet, eto ledokhod..."
[Chorus]
Nad Babim Yarom shelest dikikh trav
Derevya smotryat grozno, po-sudeiski
Zdes molcha vsyo krichit, i, shapku snyav
Ya chuvstvuyu, kak medlenno sedeyu
[BASS]
I sam ya, kak sploshnoi bezzvuchnyi krik
Nad tysyachami tysyach pogrebyonnykh
Ya - kazhdyi zdes rasstrelyanni starik
Ya - kazhdyi zdes rasstrelyanni rebyonok
Nichto vo mne pro eto ne zabudet
[Chorus]
"Internatsional" pust progremit
Kogda naveki pokhoronen budet
Posledni na zemle antisemit
[BASS]
Yevreiskoi krovi nyet v krovi moyei
No nenavisten zloboi zaskoruzloi
Ya vsem antisemitam, kak yevrei
[ENSEMBLE]
I potomu ya - nastoyashchi russki!
Babi Yar was written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko & Дмитрий Шостакович (Dmitri Shostakovich).
Дмитрий Шостакович (Dmitri Shostakovich) released Babi Yar on Tue Dec 18 1962.