As you have realised I’m a fan of the old Russian songs, romances, film songs, etc.
This time I’ve broken down a great Russian rock song for you – Вечная молодость (Eternal Youth) by the group Чиж & Co.
The song tells the story of a school band in which one is in love with someone else, and that someone else is in love with someone else, etc.
Shall we listen?
Вечная молодость – The Song
Вечная молодость – Lyrics
В каморке, что за актовым залом
Репетировал школьный ансамбль.
Вокально-инструментальный.
Под названием Молодость
Ударник, ритм, соло и бас,
И, конечно, ионика.
Руководитель был учителем пения,
Он умел играть на баяне.
Припев:
Мечта сбывается
И не сбывается.
Любовь приходит к нам
Порой не та.
А всё хорошее
Не забывается.
А всё хорошее
И есть мечта.
Еще была солистка Леночка,
Та, что училась на год старше.
У нее была склонность к завышению.
Она была влюблена в ударника.
Ударнику нравилась Оля,
Та, что играла на ионике
А Оле снился соло-гитарист
И иногда учитель пения.
Припев
Учитель пения, хоть был и женат,
Имел роман с географичкой.
Об этом знала вся школа,
Не исключая младших классов.
Он даже хотел развестись,
Но что-то его держало.
Может быть трое детей,
А, может быть, директор школы.
Ведь тот любил учителя пения,
На переменах они целовались.
Вот такая вот музыка,
Такая, блин, вечная молодость.
Припев
Вечная молодость – Analysis
The first verse is a typical perplexed Russian sentence with the order upside down!
Let’s try to put some order here.
What’s the verb?
Репетировал – was rehearsing
Who was rehearsing?
школьный ансамбль – school ensemble
What sort of ensemble?
Вокально-инструментальный (aнсамбль) под названием Молодость – Vocal-instrumental ensemble called “Youth”
Where was the ensemble rehearsing?
В каморке, что за актовым залом. – In a small room, behind “the concert hall”.
Каморка is this kind of little room normally situated near the main hall (актовый зал) where concerts or big meetings are held. Каморка serves usually for storing musical/sound equipment or doing rehearsals like in our case.
If we asked a Soviet kid what the word каморка brings to mind that would probably be каморка Папы Карло from Buratino, the Russian version of Pinocchio story.
The cartoon and the later film became very popular and каморка Папы Карло a sort of set phrase.
We could probably say that the word каморка remained in use just because of Buratino.
репетировать – to rehearse
Под + Instrumental Case
Под – under takes Instrumental Case.
под названием – under the name/called (название → названием)
под дождём – under the rain (дождь → дождём)
под условием – under the condition (условие → условием)
Вокально-инструментальный ансамбль (ВИА) was an official name for any music bands with vocals.
Ударник, ритм, соло и бас и конечно ионика. – Drummer, rhythm, solo and base and of course, Ionika.
Ионика was a general name for keyboard synthesizers in USSR. Ionikas were made in GDR (East Germany/ Soviet-controlled part of Germany after WWII) but the term could also refer to a Soviet or any other brand.
You can associate Ударник with:
Ударить – to hit, strike (perfective)
(ударю, ударишь, ударит, ударим, ударите, ударят)
Эти новые законы могут ударить по интересам нашей страны. – These new laws can strike the interests of our country.
ударение – accent, stress
ударение слов – word stress
So, the drummer hits his drums (ударные инструменты).
Том Гроссет ударил по барабану за 60 секунд 1208 раз. – Tom Grosset hit the drums 1208 times in 60 seconds.
That’s the world record! (Read here)
Руководитель был учителем пения. – The leader (of the band) was the singing teacher.
What simple words can you recognise in the word руководитель?
рука – hand
водитель – driver
So, the leader takes you by hand and leads you.
водить – to drive
Ты умеешь водить? – Do you know how to drive?
вожу, водишь, водит, водим, водите, водят
хожу, ходишь, ходит, ходим, ходите, ходят
учитель пения – singing teacher
петь – to sing
(пою, поёшь, поёт, поём, поёте, поют)
пение – singing
быть + Instrumental Case
We know that the verb быть doesn’t have Present Tense. However, when it’s used in the past and future and it’s accompanied by a noun, the noun is usually in the Instrumental Case. For example,
Я был профессором. – I was a professor. (профессор → профессором)
Они снова будут студентами. – They will be students again. (студенты → студентами)
For permanent qualities, characteristics we use the Nominative Case. For example,
Пушкин был русский. – Pushkin was Russian. (His Russian nationality was not something temporary; he was always Russian).
BUT
Пушкин был писателем. – Pushkin was a writer. (He was not always a writer, i.e. in the very early years of his life when he was a kid.)
OK, the difference is slight in many cases so, don’t worry about this too much. 🙂
учитель → учителем
преподаватель → преподавателем
руководитель → руководителем
Он умел играть на баяне. – He could play the bayan. (Bayan is a type of accordion)
играть на гитаре – to play the guitar (гитара → гитаре – Prepositional Case)
играть на скрипке – to play the violin (скрипка → скрипке – Prepositional Case)
играть на пианино – to play the piano
You see пианино is not declined as it’s a borrowed, foreign word like метро, кофе, etc. So о doesn’t change to е as it would normally in the Prepositional Case.
BUT
играть в футбол – to play football
играть в теннис – to play tennis
уметь + infinitive – to be able to do something (to have a skill like play the piano, sing, draw etc.)
Ты умеешь рисовать? – Can you draw?
Мечта сбывается и не сбывается. – Dreams will come true and will not come true
сбываться – to happen, to occur (perfective)
бывать – to happen, to occur (imperfective)
Бывает...
The most usual form of the verb бывать that we come across is бывает.
Это часто бывает. – This happens often.
When you are surprised about something and you want to tell your friends that this is impossible to have happened, you can say:
Ребята, такого не бывает! – Guys, this doesn’t happen!
Бывает в жизни иногда, что … – It happens in life sometimes that …
Also, when someone tells you about something unusual that happened and you are not impressed, you can say in a
bored way: Бывает!..
Or if you want to support them, you say: Ничего, бывает! (something like “Bad things sometimes happen, but it’s nothing
terrible, you’ll be OK!”)
And remember the song “Я шагаю по Москве” – “Бывает, все на свете хорошо”!
Любовь приходит к нам порой не та. – Occasionally love that comes to us is not the one we expect.
порой – иногда – occasionally
пора – time
Пора домой! – Time to go home!
Та means “that” and refers to feminine nouns.
Любовь приходит к нам порой не та (любовь is a feminine noun).
Леночка – та, что училась на год старше (Леночка is a feminine noun).
Further down we will see тот which refers to masculine nouns.
А всё хорошее не забывается. – Everything good doesn’t get forgotten.
забываться – to get forgotten (imperfective)
А всё хорошее и есть мечта. – And everything good is actually a dream.
Note: The chorus (мечта сбывается … и есть мечта) is from a popular Soviet song by Yuri Antonov (listen here).
... и есть...
Это и есть то место, о котором я рассказывал. – This is the place I told you about.
Я больше не ищу любовь, ты и есть моя любовь. – I don’t look for love anymore for you are my love.
Еще была солистка Леночка. – There was also a soloist, Lena.
Леночка is a diminutive of Елена – Лена. Another one is Ленок.
You see солистка is not expressed in the Instrumental Case as была here is used as “there was”.
Have a look at another example:
В комнате были карандаши, тетрадки, книжки и т.д. – In the room there was pencils, notebooks, books etc.
In the above example, again everything is in the Nominative Case because были has a meaning of “there was”.
In the Instrumental Case we would have something like this:
Леночка была солисткой в школе. – Lena was a soloist in school.
Та, что училась на год старше. – That one who was studying on the next year (a year older).
Тот учитель, который/что преподавал физику. – That teacher, who taught physics.
Та женщина, которая/что вышла из магазина. – That woman, who went out of the shop.
У меня есть брат – он на год старше меня. – I have a brother; he is a year older than me.
У неё была склонность к завышению. – She had a tendency to sing too high.
завышение – overestimate, overstatement
склонность к завышению – tendency to sing too high – она завышает (поёт выше, чем нужно, слишком высоко).
склонность к заболеванию – tendency to illness (it can also mean a process of getting ill: кажется, я заболеваю… – Looks like I’m getting sick).
склонять кого-то к определенному решению – to persuade someone into a particular solution
Она была влюблена в ударника. – She was in love with the drummer.
влюблён – влюблена – влюблены (short form adjectives).
влюбиться – to fall in love (perfective)
Я влюбился в русский язык. – I fell in love with the Russian language.
Я влюбился в неё. – I fell in love with her.
Я влюбилась в него. – I fell in love with him.
You see after в in the above phrases, the object is expressed in the Accusative Case.
Она влюблена в ударника. (ударник → ударника)
Она влюблена в учителя. (учитель → учителя)
Ударнику нравилась Оля. – The drummer liked Olia.
Association
Мне нравится Оля. – I like Olia. (мне – dative case of Я)
Ударнику нравится Оля. – The drummer likes Olia. (ударнику – dative case of ударник)
Та, что играла на ионике. – That one who was playing the Ionika.
Association
Какая Леночка???
Та, что училась на год старше.
Какая Оля???
Та, что играла на ионике.
А Оле снился соло-гитарист и иногда учитель пения. – But Olia dreamt of the solo-guitarist and sometimes the singing teacher.
сниться – to dream of (imperfective)
Мне снилось, что я был пилотом. – I dreamt that I was a pilot. (Remember Instrumental Case – пилот → пилотом)
Мне снилась моя бабушка. – I dreamt of my grandmother.
Мне снились лошадки. – I dreamt of horses.
Учитель пения, хоть был и женат, имел роман с географичкой. – The singing teacher, although he was married, had an affair with the geography teacher.
The right order is:
Хоть он и был женат, имел роман с географичкой.
иметь роман – to have an affair, romance
географичка – the female person who teaches geography. Sometimes students come up with some short names to refer to their teachers. This term is one of those and it sounds a little bit rude. 🙂
All the below phrases mean: “Although he was married, he had an affair with another woman.”
Хотя он был женат, он имел роман с другой женщиной.
Несмотря на то, что он был женат, имел роман с другой женщиной.
Хоть он и был женат, имел роман с другой женщиной.
Об этом знала вся школа, не исключая младших классов. – The whole school knew about this, including (says “without excluding”) the younger classes.
Ты знаешь об этом? – Do you know about this?
не исключая (+ Genitive Case) – “without excluding”
младших классов – Genitive Case of младшие классы – younger classes
исключать – exclude (imperfective)
Remember ключ – key. So, исключать is like locking someone in, i.e. excluding them.
весь мир – the whole world
все общество – the whole society
If I asked you which grammar case are the above phrases expressed in, what would you say?
Весь мир can either be Nominative or Accusative. Why? Because мир is an inanimate noun – it’s not a person. For example,
Весь мир знает об этом. – The whole world knows about this (world is the subject here).
Могу весь мир я обойти, чтобы найти кого-то. – I could go all around the world to find someone / I could walk all the world (world is the object here).
By the way, the above phrase is from a very very beautiful song from a very very beautiful Soviet film (Служебный роман – Office Romance).
все общество again can be either Nominative or Accusative Case as общество is a neuter noun ending in -о.
Он даже хотел развестись, но что-то его держало. – He even wanted to get divorced but something was holding him back.
The infinitive here is развестись – to get divorced
Мы развелись. – We got divorced.
Я развелся с ней. – I divorced from her.
развести – to divorce (direct verb)
Суд нас развел. – The court gave us a divorce.
развод – divorce
Что-то его держало. – Something was holding him (его – accusative case of он).
держать – to hold
Подержи стаканчик, пожалуйста. – Hold the glass for me please (informal).
Держи себя в руках! – Control yourself/don’t do something silly. (You are angry and you want to hit someone and your friend says to you Держи себя в руках!)
Может быть трое детей, а, может быть, директор школы. – Maybe that was the three kids, or maybe, the school director.
трое детей – three kids
Here we use genitive (детей) because we use трое and not три.
This is a special type of numerals that takes several objects as a group: двое, трое, четверо, пятеро… You can read more about them in Russian here. If you remember, we saw двое in a previous article (Там есть двое, это я и ты. – There are two there, you and me).
Association
директор школы – director of the school (школы – genitive of школа)
учитель пения – singing teacher (пения – genitive of пение)
Ведь тот любил учителя пения. – After all, he loved the singing teacher.
учителя is the object of the verb любил, that’s why it’s in the Accusative Case.
На переменах они целовались. – They kissed each other during the time breaks.
перемена – change, shift, break
перемена погоды – the change of the weather
Note: Перемена is a time break in school, university etc. A time break at work is called перерыв.
Вот такая вот музыка. – Well, that’s the music.
Такая, блин, вечная молодость. – Well, that’s the eternal youth.
Russians use a set of phrases to denote some unexpected/strange situations which you cannot change and you have to accept them as they are. For example,
Вот такая жизнь. – Well, this is life.
Такие дела. – Well, these are the things/that’s the situation.
Такие пироги/пирожки. – These are the pies/pastry (you’ll eat them whether you like them or not).
Блин
Блин is mostly used in situations of failure but also can mean surprise or admiration.
Блин, а теперь что будем делать? – Oh no! And what are we going to do now?
If the doors of the train close in front of you in the tube you say “Блин!” (Shit!)
You open your e-mail box and you see that it is full of spam messages and you say “Блин, достал уже этот спам!” (“Блин, I am fed up with this spam!”)
Блин, какая ты красивая! – OMG, you are so beautiful!
Вечная молодость – More Notes
Ударить по недостаткам – to strike at the weak points
недостаток – disadvantage, shortcoming
недостатки – disadvantages, shortcomings
серьезный недостаток – serious disadvantage
очевидный недостаток – obvious disadvantage
еденственный недостаток – only downside
подарок (gift) → подарки (gifts)
недостаток (drawback) → недостатки (drawbacks)
While I was looking at the official website of the band Чиж & Co, I really liked the super short biography of the leader of the band Сергей Чиграков (Read here).
The biography is the following:
Родился. Пошел. Запел. Учился. Поступил. Закончил. Поступил и закончил. Служил. Работал. Состоял. Женат. Имеет. Нет. Нет. Да. Русский. Играет и поет.
Let’s try to decipher it.
Родился – Was born.
родиться – to be born
Он родился в Америке. – He was born in America.
Пошёл. – Started to walk
пойти – to go (perfective), start to walk, or go to school (начать школу).
Запел – started to sing
запеть – start to sing
The prefix за often gives a meaning of overdoing something. For example,
Мы вчера запелись и затанцевались. – We sang and danced soooo much yesterday!
затанцеваться – to overdance
зацеловать – to overkiss someone
засидеться – to sit down for a long time
задуматься – to think deeply, to be lost in thoughts
Учился – studied (in school)
Поступил – entered (according to a more complete biography this must refer to a music school)
поступить в университет – to get into university (perfective)
(поступлю, поступишь, поступит, поступим, поступите, поступят)
Association
поступить → поступлю (I’ll get into university)
спать → сплю (I sleep)
готовить → готовлю (I cook)
ловить → ловлю (I catch)
Закончил – finished music school
закончить – finish task, work, school, university
We saw this verb in the previous article if you remember along with similar verbs (Read here).
Поступил и закончил. – This must refer to a second Institute he finished in St. Petersburg (again read here).
Служил. – Did the military service.
служить – to serve, go to the army
служить человечеству – serve humanity
служба – work, duty
военная служба – military service
Работал. – worked
Состоял. – This verb can’t stand on its own. However, here, this must be “состоял в рядах” (was/became a member of). A member of what? It could be the ВЛКСМ – The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (usually known as Komsomol) which was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Женат. – Married.
жениться – to get married
Он женился на ней. – He got married to her.
Имеет – This is to do with kids.
Иметь детей – to have kids
Нет. Нет. Да. – He’s got three wives. So, the last да must refer to his current third wife! 🙂
Русский. – Russian
Играет и поёт. – Plays and sings.
I hoped you liked this one! If so, can you please share to your favourite social media platform?
Thanks for reading,
Angelos
PS: My friend Артур Ковин introduced me to this song so I dedicate this article to him.
Dear Angelos,
I’ve attended Russian classes for two years in my city, Larissa, Greece. I feel so glad everytime I get an e-mail from you, but, unfortunately, till now I haven’t found any time to study-it will happen some day! Keep on!
I liked this song so much that I’ll share it in facebook! All the best to you! Nancy
Nancy, thank you so much for your comment! I would suggest that you spend just 10-15 min a day practising the language. You can just listen to a song, watch a film or a short video on YouTube. You can also listen to Russian radio through a mobile app. Lately, I listen to the radio station Эхо Москвы on my phone. This is the site of the station http://echo.msk.ru/ I know it’s hard sometimes but even really short but consistent study sessions can make a difference in the long run. All the best, Angelos
Thanks. I learned a lot!
Chad, I’m so glad to hear that! 😉
What a detailed explanation! I am nonplussed!
But please could you comment the topic that I am studying ultimately : movement verbs with prefixes.
See the sentence :
Любовь приходит к нам порой не та. – Occasionally love that comes to us is not the one we expect.
The form приходить , that is Imperfective , was chosen instead of прийти , because of the idea of coming , arriving is opened , not well defined , occasional as if just a process of action?
Hi Пауло Жан, that’s correct!
Here, the imperfective verb приходить is used to show that something happens again and again, i.e. the love that comes to us is not the one we expect. It’s an ongoing thing, that’s why we express it in the Present Tense.
Also, remember that only Imperfective Verbs have Present Tense.
If we were talking about a single instance in the Future, we would use прийти as you said. For example,
Любовь придёт к тебе. – Love will come to you.
Ops , exactly ! I forgot прийти in present tense would express different idea.
Angelos! Nice work with the comments and everything here! Really good job! Some of the best deciphering online!
Hey Levi, thank you very much! I’m doing my best! I’m gonna hack Russian grammar, stay tuned! Perfective/Imperfective verbs coming soon…you’re the first to know! 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for such detailed analysis. It’s a great way of seeing the connections in language. NOw I understand the song and much more!
What a great thing to hear then, Maria!!! Thank you! Hope you also like the latest videoblogs! 🙂
I am more or less a beginner in Russian and I like Russian song, mostly traditional and folk.
Very often I get lost in following the constructions (cases, cases, tenses prefixes …) or the actual meanings.
You guidance is like a light house in the darkness. I appreciate your meticulous explanations.
Thank you.