Sukachev, Garik

My Grandmother Smokes a Pipe (Моя Бабушка Курит Трубку)

My grandmother smokes a pipe,

Blackish-black tobacco.

My grandmother smokes a pipe,

Puffs it with the strength of a sailor.

My grandmother smokes a pipe

And she adores fiery rum,

And we drink it together in happiness

When I drop by my grandmother’s home.

REFRAIN:

Though she doesn’t have anything left over,

In her pocket, there’s just three rubles

But my grandmother smokes a pipe.

Smokes a pipe, my grandmother.

My grandmother smokes a pipe

And drafts plans to conquer ports

And then she takes prisoner another neighbor

And sells her to a brothel for sailors.

She becomes the greatest whore,

She becomes a woman vampire…

Around grandmother’s waist is a blue corset

Around her neck, a satin bow is tied.

REFRAIN

My grandmother smokes a pipe

In the tiny room of her cramped home.

My grandmother smokes a pipe

And through the smoke sees the sea waves foam.

She is the cause of fear for all the pirates

But they also come to revere her

Because grandmother burns and robs their frigates,

But she salvages children and elders.

REFRAIN (2x)


Olga (Ольга)

REFRAIN:

Pound on, foreshadowing fate,

Wake the syllables of a rowan berry phrase

Knock on my door, sprinkle the snow

Through the omen woods, fields where the rivers flow.

Someone has no will to turn lights on,

Someone has no will to say, “no”,

Serpent of fate spreads like a rainbow

Eats her own tail, ice within her gaze,

Fear within her chest, sorrow in her soul

Painful, oh painful, but she’s slithering on

REFRAIN

Oh how I long to just cower on your shoulder,

To find the words, to find the thoughts.

To burrow in my pocket and find some ice

Cool off my brow, cool off my brow.

Little clock’s ticking on, ding-dong

Only a moan rung behind the white-haired mountain,

Little creek trickles down the grass of years

Across you and I, across the two of us.

REFRAIN