One of the (many, many) advantages of language-learning is that it introduces you to some memorable songs.

Courtesy of an interesting podcast by Daria, for example, I became aware of a beautiful waltz called On the Hills of Manchuria (sung here by Dimitri Hvorostovsky).

This lovely song was born out of a bloody conflict. It refers to the Battle of Mukden, which took place in 1905, and was the last land battle of the Russo-Japanese War. Casualties on both sides were astronomic (with the Russians losing 89,000 of their 330,000 men, and the Japanese 71,000 of their 270,000). The song -- with music by I.A. Shatrov and lyrics by S. Petrov -- was composed in the same year.

There are various versions. Here are some lines from the one Daria quotes:

The night has come, the twilight laid upon the ground,
Lonely hills are drowning in darkness,
The East is concealed by a dark cloud.

Here, under the ground, our heroes sleep,
The wind is singing a song above them,
And the stars are looking down from heaven...

Sleep soldiers, sleep and rest in peace,
May you dream of the native meadows,
Your fathers' far-away home...


Russia, 1993



That song was completely new to me. Not so Katyusha, presented by another of my favourite Russian teachers, Kristina. I recognized this as soon as I started to listen. But I didn't at all know its story.

It was written in 1938, with music by M. Blanter and lyrics by M. Isakovskiy. According to Nicolas Slonimsky: "It is a sentimental ballad about a village girl who promises her sweetheart to be faithful while he is guarding the border... So popular did the song become that the famous rocket guns, which made their appearance at Stalingrad, were nicknamed Katyusha by the Red Army men, and the name stuck. This is the first instance in music history that a popular song has given a name to a cannon."

It has been in the news again this year, after Russian athletes suggested playing Katyusha instead of the national anthem during the period of Russia's official exclusion from major international competitions. The request was rejected by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. If the national anthem is banned, along with "any anthem linked to Russia", they said, then this also extends to any song associated with Russia, including Katyusha...



Moving on...

For something completely different, check out The Wolf Totem by The Hu (which I came across courtesy of The Vagabond Imperative).

Very atmospheric music, a great sound (some details from Jim Farber here), and very evocative filming, that makes you LONG to return to Mongolia...


Mongolia, 2016





The lyrics sound pretty uncompromising:

If lions come, we'll fight until the end;
If tigers come, we'll fight and battle;
If elephants come, we'll fight in rage;
If humans come, we'll fight and obliterate...
If you come with evil intentions, we'll give you a fight!...
Let's defeat them with the wisdom of our Great Khan, Chinggis!

But according to this compilation, the song's aim "is to give people courage to fight any hardships in their life". It is inspired by the life of Tsogt Taij (a Mongolian prince, who lived from 1581 to 1637), and the poem put into the prince's mouth in the 1945 movie by Byambyn Rinchen (an influential Mongolian writer and scholar).

And it's no bad thing to point to aspects of Mongol history that get overlooked in the Western stereotypes. Jim Farber again: "The Hu’s debut, which the label released last month, took its name from something the Mongol Empire introduced to the world, the first diplomatic passport, which dates from the 1200s. 'People think of the Mongol Empire as just warlords and warriors,' said [band member] Jaya. 'But there are so many positive things the empire brought to the world, like the first postal system, the first international trading on the Silk Road and the diplomatic pass.'" (For a more academic take that still substantially agrees with this, see here.)















And lastly, I Am a Tiny Bird, performed here by Ren Xianqi and fellow-Taiwanese Li Zongsheng (who wrote it). This was one of three songs introduced by Angel from Mandarin HQ, a site I find very useful in my sporadic attempts at learning Chinese.



The song dates from the 1990s, but somehow the lyrics resonate eerily in our current era:

I am just a tiny little bird
I want to fly, but somehow can't fly up high.
Maybe one day I'll sit on the tree top
But end up becoming the target of hunters...
What's the future? Who on earth would know?...
The world is so small,
We're doomed to have nowhere to run...



Its repetitions and simple accompaniment give it great charm, and it's especially poignant for those of us still hoping to fly a bit higher again one day...