#123 A Russian Folk Song Covered by Us + My Trans-Siberian Journey (2) 🚂 - Boat Tour on the Moscow River 🇷🇺 合唱《莫斯科郊外的晚上》+ 泛舟莫斯科河

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What's up fellow Steemians! In this post I'm moving on with my trans-Siberian journey. First, I'll present a Russian folk song another Steemian and I recorded in Mandarin. Click on the head image to listen on @dsound or listen from IPFS at the end of this post. Can you guess which voice is mine? :) It's loosely translated as "Moscow Evenings/Nights", a Russian song yet better known outside Russia. It is particularly popular in mainland China during the Communist era when cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union were strong.

@aaronli主办的A City a Story活动本周的主题是“宁静”，这让我想起那次泛舟宁静的莫斯科河。这也是我穿越西伯利亚之旅的第一站莫斯科游览的一部分。因为这次足球世界杯举办地的缘故，上个月我开始了“西伯利亚之旅”的连载 刚翻了一下，上一篇发表还是世界杯刚开始的时候，哈哈😅......

先奉上一首宁静舒缓的俄罗斯老歌 -- 我和@winniex合唱的《莫斯科郊外的晚上》（点击题图在@dsound收听或从文末的IPFS直接播放）。

The song was originally created as "Leningrad Nights" in 1955, but transliterated loosely as "Evenings in Moscow Oblast" at the request of the Soviet Ministry of Culture. In 1957, the song won prizes in both the international song contest and in Moscow. After that, it spread around the world. The song was introduced to China, also to the American mainstream audience during the Cold War era. Its covered versions peaked on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S. charts at the height of the folk revival.

这首歌是墙内开花墙外香的典型。原歌其实叫《列宁格勒的晚上》，创作于1955年，在苏维埃文化部的要求下，被大致翻译为《莫斯科的晚上》。1957年，这首歌在国际歌曲比赛和莫斯科的青年学生节上都斩获大奖。接着，在50年代亲苏联老大哥的中国大陆迅速传播开来。后来也逐渐被介绍到冷战时期和苏联关系僵化的美国。一些英美乐队翻唱的版本在60年代的爵士、民歌等音乐榜单上曾居高不下。

This song was adapted by the German band The Scorpions in 2000, and by the Chinese composer Gao Ping in 2003 for the Vocalizing Pianist, "Evenings in Suburban Moscow." The famous Russian singer Vitas also recorded a version with his counter-tenor voice. I could recall his stunning performance at several Chinese music festivals. The lyrics of this song were shown in Cyrillic script, as the vanity card in 2 episodes of The Big Bang Theory in 2017 and 2018.

德国著名的蝎子乐队和中国作曲家高平也分别在2000年和2003年的时候改编过这首歌。还有一位在中国内地家喻户晓的俄罗斯歌手维塔斯，我记得他曾在几个中国的音乐节上用那出名的魅惑高音飙过一个版本。神奇的是，在爆笑美剧《生活大爆炸》最近两年的剧集里，最后的感言卡上竟然也出现了两次这首歌的俄文歌词。

Due to China's connection with former Soviet Union, my uncles' generation learnt Russian language for a few years at school. I still remember some words he taught me. I wish I knew Russian language more than a few survival phrases I learnt during the trans-Siberian trip, so I can check out the original lyrics. But since that won't happen in recent years, here are the English lyrics for your reference: =)

因为当时和苏联的亲近关系，比我父母年长一些的那一代人很多都学过一点俄文。我到现在还记得几个大舅教过我的俄语单词，可惜我的俄语水平仅限于10个左右的单字和词组，还大都是在西伯利亚之旅中临时抱佛脚学的，带着打死也发不出大颤音的悲催~。虽然我很好奇这首歌的俄语究竟在唱些什么，但还是放个能看懂的英文版的歌词算了（中文版的大家估计都很熟就不贴啦）：

Moscow Nights – English Lyrics

Stillness in the grove, not a rustling sound
Softly shines the moon clear and bright.
Dear, if you could know how I treasure so
The most beautiful Moscow night.
Dear, if you could know how I treasure so
The most beautiful Moscow night.

Lazily the brook, like a silvery stream
Ripples gently in the moonlight,
And a song afar fades as in a dream,
In the spell of this summer night.

Dearest, why so sad, why the downcast eyes,
And your lovely head bent so low?
Oh, It’s hard to speak—and yet not to speak
Of the longing my heart does know.

Promise me, my love, as the dawn appears
And the darkness turns into light,
That you’ll cherish, dear, through the passing years
This most beautiful Moscow night.

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Now following my first post of the trans-Siberian journey, here's the boat tour I did with my local hosts on the Moscow River. It was a lovely trip filled with fun!

介绍完《莫斯科郊外的晚上》，现在开始泛舟宁静莫斯科河的旅程~

First, let's check out a picture I took of the route plan. You can see clearly the landmarks along the river, most of which were also captured in my following photos. :)

下面拍的图里有坐船的路线，那些著名建筑和雕塑的名称位置都有标注，我就不一一赘述了好会偷懒😜 旅行tip no.1 - 见到线路图一定要拍下来。

I bought a can of the popular drink across Russia, Kbac(Kvass) - a traditional Slavic and Baltic beverage commonly made from rye/black bread in a process similar to beer making, with very low alcohol content (0.05 - 1.44%). The first time I tried it was in Harbin, northeast China - a city influenced by Russian culture:

我买了罐克瓦斯在船上喝，在俄罗斯的日子里几乎天天喝这个，东欧和波罗的海沿岸国家也很常见，是由裸麦面包发酵制成的，过程和酿造啤酒类似，酒精含量却超低 - 只有0.05 - 1.44%，几乎没有，在这个伏特加之国，对我这种酒量很差的人来说真是个救星。第一次喝是多年前在哈尔滨街头，这座中国东北的名城受到俄国文化影响不小。当时就觉得甜丝丝的味道不错，而且隐约感到比一般的水和果汁更解渴一点儿，所以也算夏季福音吧：

My host's friends checking out the photos taken for them by a photographer in the boat:
同行的一对当地朋友在浏览船上摄影师给他们拍的照片：

Having fun with friends on this beautiful summer day:
开心地和朋友一起享受着宁静美好的夏日时光：

Some landmarks:
一些沿岸的地标：

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Remember this place from the photo above? It was where I shot those dancing scenes by the river. That's another day in Moscow at the golden hour. You can find them here - my first post of the trans-Siberian journey.

还记得上面这张照片里的河滨步道吗？这是我拍摄黄昏时分当地人在莫斯科河边起舞的地方，如果感兴趣，可以看看我的上一篇贴文。

So that's it for today's boat tour, hope you enjoyed the song and the views! See you soon...

希望你们喜欢这首关于莫斯科的宁静老歌和这趟宁静的河上之旅~ 下次见！=)

^{All content by @itchyfeetdonica
图文 by Donica多}

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Thank you for reading. Please tell me what you think in the comments. Until next time! =)

感谢阅读！你的关注/点赞/留言/转发就是对我最好的支持~ :)

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Here are some of my travel shots. Follow me for more adventures around the globe!

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!steemitworldmap 55.729601 lat 37.597143 long Moscow River Boat Tour, Russia d3scr

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► Listen on DSound
► Listen from source (IPFS)