Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. A Sad Love Song.
Commentary to the song “Catherine”.
This song has much in common with Gabdulla Tukay’s poem “To a Disgraced Tatar Girl” (1909).
It was another time, when decency was considered a virtue among all nations, when Muslim and Christian, Jewish and Buddhist women dressed modestly and covered their heads. Today, for example, one can see a modestly dressed and head-covered Christian woman — if she is not from the Old Believers — only in church and in the remarkable animated films “The Three Bogatyrs”, “Prince Ivan and the Gray Wolf” and “Masha and the Bear”.
And it is pertinent to recall here Plinius Minor’s words: “Quod dubitas, ne feceris.” (“Do not do what you are in doubt of.”)
The presented text is partly adapted from Olga Mona’s translation.