Uploaded March 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
At her best, Ada Yukasheva (Ада Якушева, 1934 - 2012), Yuri Vizbor's first wife, was a great Soviet bard with novel ideas. Although lacking the dynamism and range of her better-known contemporaries, she excelled at both love songs and meditations on nature.
This performance of "Song About Moscow" must have been recorded well before her death in 2012, as it looks similar to her performances in the 1980s and 1990s. It remains one of her best-known compositions, taking an ostensibly sad event -- the bombing of Moscow in World War II -- and turning it into a reason for artistic creation, memory, and more.
Watch our translated playlist of the best Soviet bard music, which features more songs by Ada Yakusheva: youtube.com/watch?v=YqmUe_MeXGU
Read our in-depth examination of Russian bard music: automachination.com/russian-bard-soviet-poet-century-tradition
If you found this video useful, support us on our Patreon page and get patron-only content: patreon.com/automachination
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3wLpqEV
Google Podcasts: bit.ly/3dSQXxJ
Amazon Music: amzn.to/2SVJIxB
Podbean: bit.ly/3yzLuUo
iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L
Read more from the automachination universe: automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/automachination
Tags: #russia, #russian, #lyrics, #songwriter, #song
Russian & English lyrics:
Песенка о Москве
В институте под сводами лестниц
Одержимые жаждой творить
Написать захотели мы песню
И на память Москве подарить:
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Написать бы о том, как по крышам
Скачут светлые капли дождя?
Или, может быть, лучше напишем
Как весною бульвары галдят?
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Как шоссе убегает куда-то,
Как рассвет над Москвою стоит,
Как в кривых переулках Арбата
Прячет солнце закаты свои.
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Долго мерзли в холодном подвале
Зажигала Москва фонари
Все затихло, а мы увидали
Что нам нечего, вроде, дарить.
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Song About Moscow
At school under the arches of stairs
Taken by the desire to create
We wanted to write a song
And gift to the memory of Moscow.
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
Should we write how, on the roofs,
Jump big drops of rain
Or, maybe, we should write
How the boulevards hum in spring?
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
How the highway runs away somewhere
Or how Pushkin stands over the square
Or how in the street of the Arbat
The sun hides its sunsets?
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
Long freezing in a cold basement
Moscow lit up its lamps
Everything quieted and we saw
That we had nothing to gift.
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
At her best, Ada Yukasheva (Ада Якушева, 1934 - 2012), Yuri Vizbor's first wife, was a great Soviet bard with novel ideas. Although lacking the dynamism and range of her better-known contemporaries, she excelled at both love songs and meditations on nature.
This performance of "Song About Moscow" must have been recorded well before her death in 2012, as it looks similar to her performances in the 1980s and 1990s. It remains one of her best-known compositions, taking an ostensibly sad event -- the bombing of Moscow in World War II -- and turning it into a reason for artistic creation, memory, and more.
Watch our translated playlist of the best Soviet bard music, which features more songs by Ada Yakusheva: youtube.com/watch?v=YqmUe_MeXGU
Read our in-depth examination of Russian bard music: automachination.com/russian-bard-soviet-poet-century-tradition
If you found this video useful, support us on our Patreon page and get patron-only content: patreon.com/automachination
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3wLpqEV
Google Podcasts: bit.ly/3dSQXxJ
Amazon Music: amzn.to/2SVJIxB
Podbean: bit.ly/3yzLuUo
iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L
Read more from the automachination universe: automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/automachination
Tags: #russia, #russian, #lyrics, #songwriter, #song
Russian & English lyrics:
Песенка о Москве
В институте под сводами лестниц
Одержимые жаждой творить
Написать захотели мы песню
И на память Москве подарить:
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Написать бы о том, как по крышам
Скачут светлые капли дождя?
Или, может быть, лучше напишем
Как весною бульвары галдят?
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Как шоссе убегает куда-то,
Как рассвет над Москвою стоит,
Как в кривых переулках Арбата
Прячет солнце закаты свои.
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Долго мерзли в холодном подвале
Зажигала Москва фонари
Все затихло, а мы увидали
Что нам нечего, вроде, дарить.
Город светлый, город чудный!
Или все тебе спето давно?
Или новое выдумать трудно
Или просто нам мало дано?
Song About Moscow
At school under the arches of stairs
Taken by the desire to create
We wanted to write a song
And gift to the memory of Moscow.
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
Should we write how, on the roofs,
Jump big drops of rain
Or, maybe, we should write
How the boulevards hum in spring?
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
How the highway runs away somewhere
Or how Pushkin stands over the square
Or how in the street of the Arbat
The sun hides its sunsets?
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
Long freezing in a cold basement
Moscow lit up its lamps
Everything quieted and we saw
That we had nothing to gift.
The city is light, the city is marvelous
Or is it that everything has been sung long ago?
Or that it is hard to think of something new
Or just that we weren't given enough?
