Последний из нас [Posledniy iz nas] [English translation]

I remember the smell of childhood - bleach and the fuel of railroad ties.

We played on construction sites, the union of republics fell.

Article 1211 and Commissioner Cattani,2

Now the good Panin3 is a dead Panin.

The show 'Brigade' was our everything, but no offense, brothers:

The best Watson was the old Watson.4

Youth was soaked in vinegar5 in the dens6.

Yeltsin's gang is on trial, that little Jew!7

The one who's "home alone" is drunk8 and the "dirty dancer" no longer dances...9

Your time's up, so why are you whining, pops?

Ask for brains from Goodwin10 or Google it -

There will be famine, there will be crisis, there will be embers.

You're just a boy with a beard, an SMS from Vanga:11

Go home to the taiga; there will be tanks here.12

Brothers no longer have each other's backs, just like in that book,13

And if there is a brow, there will be bruises.

Chorus

We are the God-bearing people,14 we are the victorious people.15

We'll slash at each other, and you'll see,

How we slash at each other for happiness for all,

And the last of us will slash his wrists.

I'm the last of us, you're the last of us,

Who's the last of us... to slash his wrists?

What flag has been thrust into your fist now?

For the idea, for nothing, or for a dime?

The tactic is to fight with shadows in the city courtyards,

Mass dancing on a razor edge.

Our commander ordered us to be happy.

We're constantly destroying, creating a new world.

Everything will be well and definitely better than it is now,

A heaven on seven hills16, but without us.

I believe in miracles but I don't expect a happy ending -

Our souls require love, and our hearts lead.17

Either the grandfather is a kulak or the brother a Cossack;

Either the son is a bandit or the grandson steals.

We need an enemy to be united as a whole;

We need a flag in this battle - a placebo effect.

Fly, fly, petal18, or as in Yaroslavna's lament,19

It's the same old thing...

We are the God-bearing people, we are the victorious people.

We'll slash at each other, and you'll see,

How we slash at each other for happiness for all,

And the last of us... will slash his wrists.

We are the God-bearing people, we are the victorious people.

We'll slash at each other, and you'll see,

How we slash at each other for happiness for all,

And the last of us... will slash his wrists.

I'm the last of us, you're the last of us,

Who's the last of us to slash his wrists?

I'm the last of us, you're the last of us,

Who's the last of us...

1. An article in the 1960 Criminal Code of the RSFSR that made 'sodomy' punishable with up to 5 years in prison.2. The protagonist in the Italian TV show La Piovra.3. Andrey Panin, actor who was cast in, among others, the show Brigade and an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. He died in 2013.4. Panin played Dr Watson in the new adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, a show that received mixed reviews. In the earlier adaptation, Watson had been played by Vitaliy Solomon.5. Vinegar is sometimes used as an acidifier when dissolving crystal/powder narcotics for injection.6. The original блатхата (blatkhata) refers to a place where people gather, usually to engage in illicit activities. The word seems to me to have more connotations of illegality and gopnik culture than the English 'den' and its synonyms do.7. Boris Yeltsin, first president of Russia after the collapse of the USSR, was alleged by some to have Jewish roots. He also had several Jews in his administration, which also made him a target for anti-Semitism.8. Macaulay Culkin, who played the main character in Home Alone, had alcohol and drug abuse problems.9. Patrick Swayze, the lead actor in Dirty Dancing, died in 2009 at the age of 57.10. A Russian 'version' of The Wizard of Oz by Aleksandr Volkov has the Scarecrow replaced by a character called James Goodwin.11. Baba Vanga (1911-1996), a Bulgarian mystic who some claim foretold the collapse of the Soviet Union.12. Potentially a reference to Black October/the 1993 constitutional crisis where tanks were on Moscow streets and fired upon the government building.13. Cain and Abel in the Bible.14. 'People', народ, in the sense of a nation, an ethnicity.15. 'Victory' is a recurrent theme in the modern Russian psyche/culture, most likely referring to the successful defence of the motherland against the invading Germans in WWII.16. Moscow, like Ancient Rome, is said to have been founded on seven hills.17. The metal lead (as in but our hearts need lead), not the verb.18. This comes from the fairy tale Цветик-семицветик (tsvetik-syemitsvetik, the seven-coloured flower) by Valentin Katayev in which the main character receives a magical flower with seven petals, each of a different colour. Each is capable of granting her a wish, and for that to happen she needs to tear one off and cast a spell that begins with "Fly, fly, petal."19. Yaroslavna's lament is a section from the Old East Slavic epic poem Слово о полку Игореве (Tales from Igor's Campaign), where only through her devotedness can her husband Igor remain on the battlefield.