Aleksandr Vertinsky
"The Blue Tulip"/"The Sailors"
( translation draft)
The sailors sang of an island
Where the blue tulip grows
An enormous and angry giant
This flower of remarkable height
And I sipped my bitter beer
I smiled from the depths of my soul
So rare to hear beautiful singing
On this godforsaken earth
With a few simple notes the guitar
Filled the gaps between words
It gave me a careless reminder
That music is much like love
That music is much like love...
Some faces blurred around me
The guitar drifted far
The sailors of a bird sang to me
That has pity on wretched ones
Her servant is an old parrot
And her feathers are glittering glass
She opens the gate to sailors
That may enter the Paradise
It's a difficult world for those
That live through songs alone
I'll be a poet no longer
I want to leave for the sea...
I know it doesn't rhyme and I'm still not happy with the second part but I did my best to keep it both singable and accurate.
