Alone on the Road (Выхожу один я на дорогу)
A poem by Mikhail Lermontov ( Михаил Лермонтов), written long ago (1841), shortly before his life came to an end. It was set to music by Elizaveta Shashina in 1861 and has since been performed by many.
Poem and Text
The text of Выхожу один я на дорогу can be found on retroportal.ru. You can also find the text with translations on Lyricstranslate – including Dutch translations, in four versions. For an analysis of the poem, watch the video below.
Also, see the analysis of the poem «Выхожу один я на дорогу» by Lermontov on Rustih.ru and Obrazovaka.ru, which also offers a test.
Recitations by Sonya Ovsienko (2018, 2 min) and Artem Volobuev (2015, 1 min), with text in the videos here and here. There is also a clip with just the (English) translation and a Candlelight version.
«Выхожу один я на дорогу» М. Ю. Лермонтов. Анализ стихотворения
(Классное Чтение, 2019, 3 min)
Music and Performances
There are no shortages of versions. See/hear Oleg Pogudin (with guitar), Natalia Muravieva (with film clips), Yuri Gulyaev (with wrinkles), Sergey Zakharov (with a beat, bad idea) or Zinoviy Babiy (better). On YouTube, there are also versions by Boris Shtokolov (with pictures), Valery Shcherbina (in a church), and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (a Russian Marco Bakker). There is a version from the film Жизнь Клима Самгина, and there is Arina Nikintina – perfect if you need something to put you to sleep. There are more and better versions, so here’s R1’s top 3.
In Chorus
There is also a performance by an indoor choir (2013, 4 min).
Anna German
Anna German (1936-1982) was a Polish singer with German and Dutch roots. Born in what is now Uzbekistan, she sang in Russian. Also on YouTube, you can find her versions here and here. Listen on Spotify.
Sergei Lemeshev
The version by opera singer Sergei or Sergey Lemeshev (1902-1977) is simply the best forever.
Listen on Spotify.
Most of the music here is also in an
R1 playlist on YouTube (in order of release).
See also
Best Russian Music and
Russian Song Lyrics.
More
Music
Anyone who wants to present Russian music cannot ignore Zemfira. Popular and mainstream – millions of records sold – but also distinctly idiosyncratic. The music is usually accessible (we categorize it under Pop), but the attitude is rock.
Raw Anti-Putin punk from
Nizhny Novgorod /
Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.
From the green city of
Zelenograd /
Зеленоград. Dreamy indie-folk with a melancholic undertone. Created by
Mikhail Rodionov (1992).
The alarm blares (Ревёт тревога), the road awaits (ждёт дорога). They are many (Их немало), we are few (нас немного). We are in an unjust world (Мы в несправедливом мире) tin wolves in the shooting range (Жестяные волки в тире).
The word offret is Swedish and means ‘sacrifice’; the band Offret is Russian and makes heavy music. The link between the word and the band: a
1986 film in Swedish by the Russian Andrei Tarkovsky.
A band from Saint Petersburg that makes a kind of post-punk/indie-pop. Not for long yet, so not much material yet. However, they already have a few very successful tracks with original music videos. До свиданья, дорогая is the
Russian title for the film
The Goodbye Girl (1977), but it has nothing to do with it.
