Draw a smile for me on my sour face.1
Paint Khabarovsk for me on every crumpled piece of paper.
We spend our hard workdays in one common harness.
We swarm like maggots through the abandoned high rises.
Little holes in the center of the rickety city.
And the details of design, of architectural style,
Aren't manifestations of critique, but a ballet noir.
And the whole country is a continuous interactive art project.
Shove on the metro doors, like on a riot shield.
The bridge burner inside me is shaking.
The city closes up our rabbit holes with a gray snow.
Soon the matches will burn out - but the sunrise is coming slowly.
The many-colored world is dangerous, dangerous!
The bright colors on the wall - we'll paint over them!
Paint them over with gray, gray, gray, gray!
Dangerous! Dangerous!
The bright colors on the wall - we'll paint over them!
Paint them over with gray, gray, gray, gray!2
The blood clot will come off in the gray head3
The gray man lies in a gray coffin.
The gray gradient covered him up and sealed him in concrete.
The gray disk will melt the gray horizon.4
The blood clot will come off in the gray head.
The gray man lies in a gray coffin.
The gray gradient covered him up and sealed him in concrete.
The gray disk will melt the gray horizon.
The brow will furrow, and give a grave look.
Taking down the concrete cheekbones, the unknown soldier
Will cover up the graffiti with gray leather5
The building manager doesn't give a fuck about any of it: he doesn't go on Twitter.
Painters pour over the asphalt, warmed by the cold sun,
And write "salt and mephedrone" nearby with stencils.6
The city closes up our rabbit holes with a gray snow.
Soon the matches will burn out - but the sunrise is coming slowly.
The many-colored world is dangerous, dangerous!
The bright colors on the wall - we'll paint over them!
Paint them over with gray, gray, gray, gray!
Dangerous! Dangerous!
The bright colors on the wall - we'll paint over them!
Paint them over with gray, gray, gray, gray!
Your nudes are a bare nerve
Your nudes are your bulletproof vest
Your nudes are a bare nerve
Your nudes are your bulletproof vest
Your nudes are a bare nerve
Your nudes are your bulletproof vest
You wrote that you're not just some doll -
I'll add: "A cop isn't a person."7
The many-colored world is dangerous, dangerous!
The bright colors on the wall - we'll paint over them!
Paint them over with gray, gray, gray, gray!
Dangerous! Dangerous!
The bright colors on the wall - we'll paint over them!
Paint them over with gray, gray, gray, gray!
1. Sour as in unhappy, dejected.2. I understand the singer's frustrations, Russia can definitely be a very gray place, almost unnaturally so.3. This is a strange one to me, and I'd like to know why they attach that verb to that noun; but the idea behind it is that the blood clot will travel to the brain and block the entry of blood, leading to a stroke. The verb "отрывать" literally means "tearing off", "shearing", "separating".4. I presume "gray disk" here to mean the moon, but hell if I'm sure of that. Just like "gray gradient" in the previous line, the fact that the nouns are identical to their English counterparts makes it hard to attach any other translation to them.5. Technically "gray kirza", kirza being a type of fake leather invented in Russia, mostly used for soldier's boots. Similar to covering with a tarp (or tarpaulin) in English, though it is a distinctively different material.6. These two lines are grammatically hard for me to parse, I don't understand how the infinitive "плесни" and the noun "маляры" are tied together. I could use a Chomskeyan phrase structure diagram to break this beast down. Also, mephedrone is a cheap stimulant sometimes used in Russia, oftentimes cut with salt.
I presume it is similar to methamphetamine, but I've never touched the stuff.7. I wager this is echoing the Russian saying "Курица не птица, а женщина (or баба) не человек" literally "A hen is not a bird, and a woman is not a person." I find women don't like this kind of talk.