Moscow Nights

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For other uses, see Moscow Nights (disambiguation).

Podmoskovnye Vechera (Russian: Подмосковные Вечера, English: "Moscow Nights" or, more correctly, "Evenings near Moscow") is one of the most famous Russian songs outside Russia.

The song was written by two well-established songwriters, Vasili Solovyov-Sedoy and Mikhail Matusovsky, but they couldn't come along as to the title. Solovyov-Sedoy, who hailed from Leningrad, insisted that the song should be named "Leningrad Nights", rather than "Moscow Nights". The song resurfaced in 1955, when it was recorded by Vladimir Troshin, a young actor of the Moscow Art Theatre, for a sports movie. The following year, it became adopted as the theme of the Moscow Youth Festival and spread around the world, gaining particular popularity in China. The only music radio station in the USSR adopted the tune as its theme song in 1964.

During the existence of the Soviet Union, the shortwave radio station Radio Moscow's English-language service played a beautiful instrumental version of "Moscow Nights" before every hour's newscast after informing listeners of frequency changes.

[edit] Lyrics

Russian
Не слышны в саду даже шорохи,
Все здесь замерло до утра.
Если б знали вы, как мне дороги
Подмосковные вечера.

Речка движется и не движется,
Вся из лунного серебра.
Песня слышится и не слышится
В эти тихие вечера.

Что ж ты, милая, смотришь искоса,
Низко голову наклоня?
Трудно высказать и не высказать
Всё, что на сердце у меня.

А рассвет уже все заметнее.
Так, пожалуйста, будь добра,
Не забудь и ты эти летние
Подмосковные вечера.

English
Whispers are not heard in the flowerbed,
Everything has died down till dawn.
If you only knew, how dear to me
Are these tranquil Moscow nights.

As the river moves, and yet unmoving,
All in silver moonlight so bright.
T'is where a song is heard, and yet unheard,
In these silent tranquil nights.

Why do you, dear, look askance, with your head lowered so?
Why do you not speak so, my sweetheart?
It is hard to express, and hard to hold back,
Everything that my heart holds.

But dawn's becoming ever brighter.
So please, just be good dear sweetheart.
Don't you, too forget, these Moscow nights
These summer, Moscow nights.