Thread: Zemfira
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Old 04-07-2003, 11:49   #5
la aurora la aurora is offline
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Monkcheese

Yep, I love these songs. But to be frank, I love all of her songs. ‘Sneg’ and ‘Scandal’ are up-tempo songs from her 1st album (‘Raketi’ is something like that also). But, as I said, Zemfira has 3 albums out already (‘zemfira’, ‘PMML [prosti menya moya lyubov’ – forgive me my love]’ and ’14 nedel’ tishini [14 weeks of silence]’) plus some songs that were released as singles only (like ‘brizgi’ or LIVE ballad ‘nebo londona [Sky of London]’ – I adore both of these songs). And some of her songs are different from ones u heard.

Convol
Yesterday was going to send u a mail telling about opening the thgread here (just for u not to miss it). But couldn't connect for some reason. Glad to hear that u found it urself.
It’s just more comfortable for me this way. So I can see what I’ve written already and what not. I always forget after sending e-mail. Hope, u don’t mind.



Some more info on Zemfira :
She was born on the 26th August 1976 in Ufa (quite a big city that’s really far from Moscow). Zemfira was always damn good at studying (she has ‘red diplomas’ for her school, music school and college). Professional musician. ‘Pop-singer, solfeggio and choir teacher, compositor’ – that what’s written in her diploma. Was playing basketball for 10 years. Became a captain of youth national team and was very good at all these circus stunts with the ball as they say. After school wanted to be a writer but then chose music. She got to her music college quite accidentally. Just was walking near it and decided why not to try? She tried. And was taken straight to the 2nd course. From 17 years old and for 4 years was playing keyboard and singing jazz in restaurants of Ufa. Once after the girl refused to sing some ‘blatnaya’ song the drunken guy tried to shoot her. Thanks god the bullet didn’t reach its target. From 1996 she also worked as a sound-engineer on the radio “Europe +” (in Ufa). And after work all night long was making her own songs on her home computer. Then she gave her CD to one of her friends in Moscow and after traveling from one hand to another it finally got to the producer of Mumy Troll Leonid Burlakov. And Zemfira was invited to Moscow to record her first album.

That American journalist was wrong saying that ‘Sneg’ was the song she appeared with. It was just the first song she wrote for her album after some long break (her very first song was written when she was 5 years old. It was about band “Black Sabbath” and about how well they were singing their song “Paranoid”. At the same age she started to attend music school also). First song we heard was ‘SPID [AIDS]’. It became a huge radio hit but video was never shown [Zemfira’s decision. She just didn’t like it and actually the song itself was never one of her favorites]. From that moment she became someone everybody heard and was talking about but never seen. Her first video on the song that made this girl really huge was called “Arividerchi”. But girl’s face was hidden there. So, she was a kind of enigma. And after this video Zemfira became so huge that it was impossible to hide something. But the media interest was really high still. The girl was [and IS] a person hard to work with: very emotional, stubborn, impatient, touchy and sometimes quite aggressive. U never know what to expect from her. And she’s always in trouble. For example during her concert at Kiev some ppl in police uniform came on the stage and tried to stop the show. One of them made a REAL mistake – he tried to take Zemfira’s guitar. And as a devoted musician, the girl has a kind of religious feeling to her instrument. NOBODY has right to touch it. So she took the bottle with water and soon that guy in uniform [lieutenant-colonel of Ukrainian police] found himself being damn wet. The band was arrested. Police wanted to send them to prison for 15 days for ‘hooligan aggression’ but friends of the singer somehow solved the problem. And something like that happens quite often. Zemfira says she wants ‘peace’ but she just can’t perform in conditions that most of organizers suggest [awful sound, big distance between stage and audience, etc…] She respects ppl that attend her concerts that’s why she has to fight. In few words, now she has problems with local authorities of almost every region of Russia and some neighbor countries. But she isn’t that awful. Girl just has sharp feeling of injustice and can’t control her emotions well enough. But even being angry she uses strong arguments between curses. Girl definitely has brain. She treats her fans as friends (this year she already took part in 2 chats with them and even spent whole Sunday answering their questions on the forum (it wasn’t easy, I guess… even at cut version it took 13 pages… poor girl! And now she’s planning to visit some meeting of chat members). What else… oh, yeah… and she has great sense of humor… sometimes bitter but still great.
*Scandal*
Allo. I’m a girl-scandal. Girl-air.
My Kenzo-sandal, ur and my birthday.
Sisters weren’t missing me, a girl-star.
Much higher above but still similar stars
Were sitting with their legs dangling,
Were chattering using pictures.
Who said it’s not gonna work?
If I do want, it all will come true.

Allo. I’m a girl-out of mind. Girl-stand at ease.
Having made myself, I made it painful.
Winds hate me, a girl-star.
And I was tearing winds into meters with my body.
Having measured the possibilities with segments,
I leave with king-steps.
Who said it’s not gonna work?
If I do want, it all will come true.

Allo. I’m a girl-fire. Girl-splashes.
Inside me I hide the radar that catches thoughts.
Being with me is possible for noone.
And after making u to follow the false footsteps,
I stake 100 counters on the black,
Stubbornly standing near the edge.
Who said it’s not gonna work?
If I do want, it all will come true.

Allo. I’m a girl-scandal. Girl-air.
Allo. I’m a girl-out of mind. Girl-stand at ease.
Allo. I’m a girl-fire. Girl-splashes.
Allo. I’m a girl-scandal. Girl-air.
Allo. I’m a girl-scandal. Girl…

Oh… someone, shoot me! The truest thing that that American journalist said is that Zemfira’s lyrics are impossible to translate. [But as u see, Mia, I keep on trying!] These texts can be interpreted in million ways even if u know Russian. And after being translated by someone with such an awful English they became even less understandable. Sorry.


*SPID [AIDS]*
Taking off my ear-phones
I was listening to the wind
Trough the opened doors
Of an empty rout taxi.
The wind told me about one dreadful secret
That there is the very last day left to us...

As you have an AIDS,
And that means we'll die
You have an AIDS,
And that means we.....

Will be swallowing pills in the hospital,
Not thinking about tomorrow,
Not watching television.
We'll search for the distant kingdom on the map
Maybe will be lucky to get some visas.

But you have an AIDS,
And that means we'll die,
You have an AIDS,
And that means...

Have gone away with the settling accounts.
"See you, Mom, keys are at neighbors."
I was blowing on the eyelids until they cold down
And willows were crying... and putting the markings… That's it!
You were just so lazy
To see in newspapers that...


*Maechki [T-shirts]*
You, you're white and vibrant
Me, I'm dark and tender
You, You're crying; nobody sees that.
And me, I'm crashing glass in my hands.
[I am a] Dupe!
You, you love so sincerely.
Me, I'm so hopelessly caught.
Us, we're telling each other secrets.
We understand everything, but that's not enough.

Anechka was asking to take the t-shirts off.*
Anechka
Anechka was asking to take the t-shirts off.

You, you're worth your sincerities.
Me, I believe that I'm worth them too.
You, you're genius; I'm genius too.
If you're looking for something, that makes two of us.
Hurt comes not only from pain.
Fear comes not only from conscience.
Oddly we again didn't have enough will,
And I'm multiplying cig butts; you're writing a piece.

*Don’t try to find any sense. ‘Anechka’ is just a rhyme to “maechki” as Zemfira says. The song was written for piano and makes Zemfira think about Freddie Mercury.


*Nebo Londona [London sky]*
I had dreamt of the London sky,
I saw the long kiss in it,
We were flying not even holding on,
So, who's gonna fall first,
Smashing into pieces on the Tower bridge?
In the morning,
I'll find out in the morning,
You'll find out later
Nothing else's more precious
Than these dreams…

Without these little calls
I'm just a lonely animal
I'll miss, go out my head in the night
And no one will notice.
Still the same lonely animal
I count all the steps to the last point
Let’s go flying…

I had dreamt of the London sky
I saw the long kiss in it
We were there walking in the clouds
Pretending to be the London rain
Drizzling together to the asphalt
In the morning
I'll find out in the morning
You'll find out later
Nothing else's more precious
Than these dreams…



*Arividerchi*
Moscow ravens
Woke me up
Wet matches
Killed the hope to
Smoke…
That means I’ll live longer
Means we’ll be
Burning the ships in my harbor
I'll exchange my ticket for rubles.
I'd want it to grow to the shoulders [hair, I guess – SP].
I'll never come back
Home.
Being with you is so interesting;
With them - not very...
I see what's tight
I remember what's solid
I'm giving for free
The time.
Do u see? I’m burning.
Somebody made a mistake
And put me on fire
Arividerchi
They didn't teach [me] to look in the knothole first.
And, more likely, it won’t have time to grow to the shoulders
I'll break the turnstile
And run to trade the ticket back.
I'll be waiting; give me a call.
At my usual six
I became a life older*
Perhaps that's something to be concerned about.
The ships are in my harbor.
If we can't fly, we'll swim.
I'll set the clock two hours back [time difference between Ufa and Moscow]

* I think she means the serious illness that happened to her when she was young. I remember her telling somewhere that spending many weeks at hospital when u are so young and all other kids are having fun in the street can make u ‘one life older’. But u never know for sure with Zemfira.

All these songs are from the first album except “Nebo Londona”. As I said, this song wasn’t released on any album but it became very popular anyway. I’ll add some more translations later today (sinoptik is on it’s way )
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