Dark Eyes (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dark Eyes (Russian: Очи чёрные, Ochi chyornye; English translation: Black Eyes; French translation: Les yeux noirs) is a Russian song.
The lyrics of the song were written by a Ukrainian poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka (Ukrainian: Євген Павлович Гребінка) (1812-1848). The first publication of the poem was in Literaturnaya gazeta on 17 January 1843.
The words were subsequently set to Florian Hermann's Valse Hommage (in an arrangement by S. Gerdel') and published as a romance on 7 March 1884.
Although often characterised as a Russian gypsy song, the words and music were written respectively by a Ukrainian and a German. Feodor Chaliapin popularised the song abroad in a version amended by himself.
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[edit] Poem (original version by Hrebinka)
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[edit] Lyrics (Chaliapin version)
| Russian (Cyrillic alphabet) | Transliteration (Romanized version) | English translation |
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Очи чёрные, очи жгучие, Очи чёрные, очи пламенны Очи чёрные, очи жгучие, Не встречал бы вас, не страдал бы так, Очи чёрные, очи жгучие, |
Ochi chyornye, ochi zhguchie Ochi chyornye, ochi plamenny Ochi chyornye, ochi zhguchie Ne vstrechal by vas, ne stradal by tak Ochi chyornye, ochi zhguchie |
Dark eyes, burning eyes Dark eyes, flaming eyes Dark eyes, burning eyes Without meeting you, I wouldn't be suffering so Dark eyes, burning eyes |
Translation by Katya from russmus.net ([1]) Link to the song ([2])
[edit] Popular Culture
- The song is performed in a scene of the 2007 David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises by a singer and accordion player Igor Outkine.
- The song gives its name to Nikita Mikhalkov's film Dark Eyes (1987).
- American figure skater Sasha Cohen used this song for her short program at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
- The song featured in The Leningrad Cowboys' Total Balalaika Show (1994), featuring the full 160-member Red Army Choir.
- The Warner Bros. cartoon Falling Hare (1943) used this song in a scene where Bugs Bunny unsuccessfully tries to break down an airplane door (while the airplane was in the air and running) in order to find the Gremlin who has been continuously taunting him.
- The computer adventure game Syberia featured the chorus of the song in the last part of the game and being whistled by a lonesome janitor. The whole song is also in the game.
- Louis Armstrong did a version called "Otchi-Tchor-Ni-Ya", which in his unique New Orleans Creole patois sounded like "Oh Cha Chunya". The words were quite different from the proper translation of the song from Russian to English.
- Wingy Manone, trumpeter, and Edmond Hall, both from New Orleans, recorded a version of Dark Eyes in 1947. Edmond Hall's clarinet-solo is a classic and Wingy Manone sang a humorous nonsense-vocal:
Ochi chornya, Arizonia Hold the phone-ya, California Oh, Caldonia, I'm so alone-ya I wanna own ya. Won't you be mine?
- "Natalie" sung by Julio Iglesias is a version of this song.
- It is mentioned frequently in the movie The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart.
- In W.C. Fields' film Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, Gloria Jean sang this song in a scene where she finally finds her Uncle Bill (played by W.C. Fields) in Russia after he jumped out of the airplane that they were taking to retrieve his bottle of alcohol.
- Django Reinhardt recorded Les yeux noirs 3 times.
[edit] See also
- Dark Eyes (album), a Russian music compilation album that includes Dark Eyes
- [The Red Army Choir] , compilation album that includes Dark Eyes
[edit] External links
- Russian Music on the Net Translation was taken from this site
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjgNbP7cvjQ
- Djangopedia description of song Includes chart. This is for Les yeux noirs, the French translation of the song.
