They Fucked Us Over
Петров-Водкин, Смерть комиссара (Death of the Commissar). 1928. Russian Museum, Petersburg.
I’m in a bad, nihilistic mood today, so I thought… why not teach students some bad words?
This should be a very interesting song for Russian students, as it involves some somberly expressive мат. This term refers to the worst Russian obscenities, all of which are built from five or so (depending on who’s counting) extremely vulgar roots. I plan to release an introduction to this topic soon, in book form. For now, suffice it to say that most Russians regard мат as being much worse than any swear words to be found in English; and that, in any case, Russian мат can be a good deal more inventive because of the language’s powerful word-formation system. By adding prefixes and suffixes, etc., one can create extremely harsh words for all sorts of things — including nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. The result is a kind of dark “shadow” of Russian. In my experience, learning to appreciate this kind of language is one of the real joys of learning Russian; although, like curse words in any language, мат is often uninspired and repetitive, on the tongue of a true virtuoso it can be wildly inventive and absolutely hilarious.
Of course, in moments of existential despair, perhaps few words in Russian can adequately express one’s feelings quite like мат. That’s the point of the stylized war song below. One might guess it was written in World War II or something, but it was actually written by the band Хуй забей (the band’s very name involves мат!), and is covered here by the Russian rock veteran Boris Grebenshchikov (of Akvarium).
Let’s look at the мат expressions in the song, starting with the very basic verb ебать (to fuck - ебу, ебёшь, ебёт, etc.), from the root ёб-. Like any other Russian verbs, we can add prefixes to this basic verb to get new verbs, for example: наёбывать АЙ / наебать кого (to trick someone, to “fuck them over”) or съёбываться АЙ / съебаться (to run off, escape). Often, as with the latter example, there’s really no way to translate the Russian other than, perhaps, by adding “fucking,” i.e. “to fucking run off.”
While we’re at it, let’s add a third ебать verb not used in the song: заёбывать АЙ / заебать кого means “to fucking annoy,” or, more literally, to “fuck someone to satiety,” to “fuck someone silly.” For example: “Ты меня заебал!” — “I’m fucking sick of you, you’re driving me fucking crazy!” Compare that to the standard Russian expression: Ты мне надоел! (надоедать АЙ / надоесть кому). Needless to say, the мат version is more… expressive.
The third мат expression in the song is from a different root, пизд-, whose basic noun is пизда. The latter refers to a certain part of the female anatomy, but by extension it suggests disaster, as in the derived noun пиздец (something really bad; a disaster, ruin, or the “end” — конец). This word can be used all by itself (it is very common!), or with the dative, as in the song: Нам пиздец, which we might loosely translate as “We’re fucked” or “We’re fucking dead.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to мат. For now, enjoy how just a few мат expressions are used to great effect in the song. Use of мат in print, or in songs like this, is generally rather shocking, or at least it was twenty years ago or so. That was when the group Ленинград burst onto the scene; they were (roughly speaking) the first massively popular band to use мат unabashedly in their songs. I’ll have to post some of their stuff later — they’re hilarious.
Reinforcements
It’s a pity — help didn’t come,
They didn’t send reinforcements.
Now there are only the two of us left.
They fucked us over.
All our brothers are dead
And we’re running out of rounds;
But we’re holding the line,
We’re fighting bravely.
The gun’s dead; that’s it, we’re fucked.
Nothing left to shoot back with…
Well then, let’s have a smoke, brother soldier,
We can’t fucking escape death!
It’s a pity — help didn’t come,
They didn’t send reinforcements.
Oh well, nothing new —
They fucked us over.
Подмога
Жаль, подмога не пришла,
Подкрепленье не прислали.
Нас осталось только два,
Нас с тобою наебали.
Все братушки полегли
И с патронами напряжно,
Но мы держим рубежи,
Мы сражаемся отважно.
Пушка сдохла - всё, пиздец,
Больше нечем отбиваться...
Что ж, закурим, брат-боец,
Нам от смерти не съебаться!
Жаль, подмога не пришла,
Подкрепленье не прислали.
Что ж, обычные дела -
Нас с тобою наебали...
