Philipp Kirkorov – Cvet nastroenija sinij

Due to my vacation in Shanghai last week, I wasn’t able to write a blog that week. I had a great time and I hope you had a great week too!

This week, I want to look at a pop song since last time it was a newspaper article. So, I went to TopHit.ru and found that there is a new number 1 song as of last week! That song is Цвет настроения синий (Cvet nastroenija sinij) by Филипп Киркоров (Philipp Kirkorov). It’s great to see a new number 1!

Now, Philipp Kirkorov is a very established singer in Russia. According to his Wikipedia page, he is 51 years old. So, to be honest, I was a little surprised to see his name on the charts of pop music today. According to that Wikipedia page, he really began his career in music in the 1990’s and has enjoyed fame since then. I did not know this, but apparently he is from Bulgaria, which was part of the USSR at the time.

The only other song of his that I know is “Roza Chainaya” which came out in 2003. This song has a special place in my heart because, when I used to teach Russian back in 2009, some of my students made a hilarious performance of this song. I just played the song in that YouTube link as I am wrote this blog and am surprised how much of the lyrics I still remember.

New words for me

This song had several new words for me. Please take a look at the lyrics at the usual place I find them. Again, this site is nice since you can see the Russian side by side with English. This particular translator seemed to go pretty literal.

Суета – vanity, fuss, ado, commotion, kerfuffle

Kind of a fun word to know. This word is in the first line: “Она убежала от нелепой суеты” which I translate as “She ran away from absurd vanity”. The woman he is singing about seems like she wanted to be real perhaps.

Понеслась – “Let’s do it”

The lines I am taking from the song happen at the end of the first verse: “Страсть – страсть над ней имеет власть / Всё громче звук и понеслась” which I translate as “Passion – passion has control of her / The sound gets louder and let’s do it.” This is a good line both story-wise and that it takes you into the chorus.

Иней – frost

I’m kind of surprised I did not know this word. I know snow of course but I guess I never learned frost. Here’s the lines from the chorus which has this word in it: “Под песню ‘Синий иней’ / Она так чувствует cебя богиней”. I translate this part as “While listening to the song ‘Blue Frost’ / She feels like she’s a goddess”.

I got curious so I had to find out about the song “Синий иней” and it took me down a surprising path. Apparently, it’s based on a 1979 song by the group “Eruption” called “One Way Ticket”. Take a listen to the original, and here are a couple of versions of the song the Russians made based on it. It’s very disco and quite fun.

Влияние – influence, effect, impact

This is from the first line of the second verse: “Влияние ночи очень трудно предсказать” which I translate as “The effect of the night is difficult to predict”. The next word on this list gives some insight into how it went for the person in the song’s story.

Мурашки – goosebumps, chills

Here is the line: “По телу мурашки, и ей хочется кричать” which I translate as “Goosebumps form on her skin and she wants to scream.” This sounds like it was not a good night.

Предрассудки – preconceptions, prejudices, narrow-mindedness, superstition 

At the end of the song though, she apparently became a star, so this line comes: “Все предрассудки – ерунда!” which I translate as “All preconceptions are garbage!” This is something I can certainly agree with at times.

What about for you? Were there any other words from this song that gave you trouble? Did you already know any of the ones above?

Review of the song and music video

To be honest, the music is ok. It seems like he’s still doing the same style of music he did back in 2003. It’s fairly typical Russian pop music of the era. It’s fun. It’s electronic based music.

What I really think made this song reach number 1 on the TopHit.ru chart is the music video which is on YouTube. The music video definitely has nothing to do with the subject matter of the song unless I am completely mistaken. I think it captures the idea of being in a “blue” mood.

Just to be sure, I wanted to see if there was any difference between Russian and American culture in how we think of colors and their associated feelings but honestly I couldn’t find anything specific. I will just go by the imagery in the music video to decide that a blue mood is not happy in Russian culture as well. If I am wrong, please let me know. I am glad to learn.

Throughout the song, Philipp and most everyone he hangs out with have a very blank face and they aren’t very nice to other people. The blank faces while they do these things makes it pretty funny. The supermarket and party scenes where Kirkorov just flips people off were particularly funny bits to me.

If I could complain about anything, I think that the end was kind of dumb. I don’t get why they need these scenes in a music video.

Anyway, it would be cool to know what you think of the song as well. Leave me a message here and I will certainly reply!

Article: Why Russia is Helping Syria

I am a bit late this week with the blog post! This week, I thought it would be interesting to read this article about why Russia is helping Syria. In the US media, we get one story but I think it’s also important to see things from another side. Maybe somewhere in between or all of these sides can give us a fuller truth.

The article is again from Комсомольская правда. I saw the title: Почему Россия Помогает Сирии and had to check it out. This reminds me of a few years ago when I read Russian news about Libya while my government was trying to oust Ghaddafi. I’m not sure what to think about it anymore.

Short summary of the article

The author of the article makes an interesting observation at the beginning: 17 years ago, Bashar Assad received a major honor from the French government: The Legion of Honor, which he recently gave back to them. How did someone so highly thought of in the West become its target?

The article seeks to explain this by talking about how the US invasion of Iraq caused chaos in the region and then the Arab Spring brought more chaos. Assad sought help from Russia in maintaining his power and instantly became a “dictator” through doing so.

The author then seeks to tell us why Russia did get involved and it had to do with the experience of the war in the northern Caucus Mountains during the 1990’s. The Russian government wanted to stop something like that from happening again. He makes it sound like this is a good use of the Russian government’s time and effort mainly due to how he thinks it will increase national pride.

He also references Putin’s resistance to a “unipolar world” in which the USA dictates what happens everywhere. This war is another embodiment of Putin’s desire that Russia is some kind of counterweight to that.

New vocabulary for me from the article

I found quite a bit of new vocabulary in this article. There was a lot of technical terms about war and politics which I don’t have a lot of in my Russian vocabulary banks. As usual, I will write the sentence where the new words appear in the article:

Вторгнуться – to invade, muscle in, barge in, intrude

I could use the context of the sentence to figure this one out, but I wanted to include it: “В 2003 году США вторглись в соседний Ирак.” I translate this sentence as: “The USA invaded Iraq, which borders Syria, in 2003.”

Провозгласить – to proclaim, declare

Захватить – to capture, occupy

The sentence these words appear in is much longer: “Десять лет спустя Ирак стал базой для вторжения в Сирию боевиков, которые провозгласили на захваченных землях так называемое Исламское государство.” I interpret this as saying: “10 years later, Iraq had become the base of operations for warriors to come into Syria. These are the same people who declared the lands they took over as the Islamic State.”

ИГИЛ – ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)

Тушение – putting out, intervention

“Запад же занял двойственную позицию: вроде бы и с ИГИЛ он сражается, но временами эта борьба больше напоминает тушение костра бензином.” I translate this sentence as: “The West had a two-faced position: as they fought ISIS, it also seemed as though the fight was more about oil.”

Изгой – Outlaw, outsider, rogue, pariah

This sentence comes right after the article talks about Assad looking for help from Russia: “Это автоматически превратило его в изгоя и «диктатора» в глазах однополярного мира.” I translate it as: “This automatically made him an outlaw and ‘dictator’ in the eyes of the unipolar world.”

Углеводороды – Energy commodities, fossil fuels

This sentence is referring to a potential pipeline that could go from Qatar to Europe: “Поставкам наших углеводородов на Запад возникала альтернатива.” This sentence, I interpreted as: “An alternative arose to delivering our (Russia’s) energy commodities to the West.”

ВКС РФ (Воздушно-космические силы Россиской Федераций) – Russian Aerospace Forces

Here, the article is talking about how Russia has made the situation better in Syria through its intervention: “Но три года назад, когда началась операция ВКС РФ, под контролем боевиков находилось 85% территории Сирии.” And I translate it as: “But 3 years ago, when the Russian Aerospace Forces operation began, 85% of Syria’s territory was under the control of the rebels.” It went on to say that now they only hold 15%.

Умеренная оппозиция – moderate opposition, soft opposition

“Ситуация очень похожа на войну в Афганистане: официальный Кабул поддерживался Советским Союзом, а США и ряд других стран помогали «умеренной оппозиции».” I think this sentence speaks for itself: “The situation is similar to the war in Afghanistan: the official government in Kabul supported the USSR but the USA and its allies helped the ‘moderate opposition’.”

Башни-близнецы – the twin towers (which were in New York)

This next sentence continues the thought from the previous one: “Под ее маской нередко скрывались террористы (так, один из организаторов атаки на башни-близнецы 11 сентября 2001 года Усама бен Ладен начал карьеру именно там).” I translated this as: “Terrorists often used this mask (an example of one who began his career this way is Osama bin Laden, who helped organize the attack on the twin towers on September 11, 2001).”

Извне – from outside, from without, from the exterior

“Проще говоря, поддержка террористов извне – путь к созданию очередной зоны хаоса, но никак не мира.” I translated this sentence as: “Put more simply, support for the terrorists comes from outside which as lead to zones of chaos, not peace.”

Last thoughts

This article didn’t tell me anything new, to be honest. I was aware of the Qatari oil pipeline possibility and how the US even worked with Osama bin Laden in the 1980’s to fight against the USSR in Afghanistan. I wonder how common this knowledge is though.

What do you think of the views in this article? Were you aware of some of the not so great things the US government has been doing which has helped create this situation?