Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. A Ballad of Fighting.

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Commentary to “A Ballad of the Free Archers”.

There is a good old saying: “Potior visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio.” (“A dan­ger­ous liberty is preferable to a quiet servitude.”)

And it is pertinent to quote here a clause of the Roman civil law: “Vim vi repellere licet.” (“It is lawful to repel force with force.”)

The ballad was written for the film “The Arrows of Robin Hood”, see commentary to “A Bal­lad of Time”.

Another noble robber, Alim, lived in the author’s homeland Crimea (the presented col­lect­ed sto­ries are in Russian).

The presented translation is adapted from George Tokarev and Eugenia Weinstein’s trans­la­tions.

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