Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. Serving the Elements.
Commentary to the song “To My Friends”.
The words “I’m agreed that everybody is an island...” are an allusion to John Donne’s words: “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”
The song was written for the film “The Sea Gates” (1974).