Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. The Criminal Code.
Commentary to the song “Alyoha”.
This song calls to mind Ernest Hemingway’s story “The Killers” and Vasily Shukshin’s film “The Red Snowball Tree” (1974), and it has something in common with Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Bridegroom” (this text is a version):
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Call me not false, beloved, If, from thy scarce-known breast So little time removed, In other arms I rest. For this more ancient bride, Whom coldly I embrace, Was constant at my side Before I saw thy face. Our marriage, often set — By miracle delayed — At last is consummate, And cannot be unmade. Live, then, whom Life shall cure Of harassing Remembrance, And leave us to endure Until our Lord descends. |
The song was written in 1964.