Watch Out For Yourself
Today, another well-known song from Tsoi about the uncertainty of life. It contains a lot of verbs, with examples from all three tenses, and a lot of helpful adverbial cues (today, tomorrow, (last) night). Look over the highlighted forms and their English translations.
The first two lines provide a good contrast using a single aspectual pair: говорить И / сказать А (to say, to speak). The first infinitive is imperfective, and the second perfective. When we conjugate these two forms, in accordance with their verb type, the resulting pair of third-plural forms are: говорят and скажут. Note a crucial difference: the first form is present-tense, and the second is future-tense. Whenever we conjugate a perfective verb, it is automatically future tense — and, by the same token, the only way we know that the form скажут is future-tense is by knowing that the verb сказать is perfective. This is just one obvious reason why paying attention to aspect is essential — we must get in the habit of assessing every verb form we meet in terms of its aspect, not to mention learning new verbs as aspectual pairs. Aspect is a grammatical category that is truly inescapable in Russian!
If we look over the remaining forms, we notice that all but one happen to be perfective; here we can tell with the help of the English translation. There's just one past-tense form in the song — can you find it?
Watch Out For Yourself
Today they say to someone: "See you later!"
Tomorrow they'll say: "Farewell forever!"
The wounded heart ("heart wound") will flare red.
Tomorrow someone, having returned home,
Will find his cities in ruins,
Someone will fall from a tall (construction) crane.
Watch out for yourself, be careful!
Watch out for yourself!
Watch out for yourself, be careful!
Watch out for yourself!
Tomorrow someone, in the morning, in bed,
Will understand that he is incurably ill,
Someone, having stepped out of the house,
will "wind up beneath a car."
Tomorrow, somewhere,
in a hospital (one of the hospitals),
The hand/arm of a young surgeon will tremble,
Someone in a forest will step on a mine.
Watch out for yourself, be careful!
Watch out for yourself!
Watch out for yourself, be careful!
Watch out for yourself!
Last night, above us, a plane flew past;
Tomorrow it will fall into the ocean,
All the passengers will perish.
Tomorrow, somewhere — who knows, where? —
War, epidemic, snowstorm,
The black holes of the cosmos...
Watch out for yourself, be careful!
Watch out for yourself!
Watch out for yourself, be careful!
Watch out for yourself!
Следи за собой
Сегодня кому-то говорят: “До свиданья!”
Завтра скажут: “Прощай навсегда!”
Заалеет сердечная рана.
Завтра кто-то, вернувшись домой,
Застанет в руинах свои города,
Кто-то сорвётся с высокого крана.
Следи за собой, будь осторожен!
Следи за собой!
Следи за собой, будь осторожен!
Следи за собой!
Завтра кто-то утром в постели
Поймёт, что болен неизлечимо,
Кто-то, выйдя из дома,
попадёт под машину.
Завтра где-то
в одной из больниц
Дрогнет рука молодого хирурга,
Кто-то в лесу наткнётся на мину.
Следи за собой, будь осторожен!
Следи за собой!
Следи за собой, будь осторожен!
Следи за собой!
Ночью над нами пролетел самолёт,
Завтра он упадёт в океан,
Погибнут все пассажиры.
Завтра где-то, — кто знает, где? —
Война, эпидемия, снежный буран,
Космоса чёрные дыры...
Следи за собой, будь осторожен!
Следи за собой!
Следи за собой, будь осторожен!
Следи за собой!
Vocab notes:
прощай(те): farewell (may imply that one will never see the person again) • алеть ЕЙ / заалеть ЕЙ: to flare up, turn red (алый: scarlet) • сердечный: adj. from сердце: heart • рана: wound • возвращаться АЙ / вернуться НУend: to return • заставать АВАЙ / застать Нstem: to find • руина: ruin • город, pl. города: city • срываться АЙ / сорваться n/sAend: literally, to be torn off; to plunge • высокий: high • кран: crane; faucet • следить Иend за чем: to follow, watch out for • осторожный: careful • постель, и: bed • понимать АЙ / понять Й/Мend: to understand • больной: sick • (не)излечимый: (in)curable, (un)treatable • выйдя: “having walked out” (perfective verbal adverb from выходить И / выйти) • попадать АЙ / попасть Дend: to wind up, make it, “get” (somewhere, improbably, accidentally, or with difficulty) • больница: hospital • дрожать ЖАend / дрогнуть НУ: to shake, tremble • хирург: surgeon • лес: forest • натыкаться АЙ / наткнуться НУend на что: to step on, hit upon • мина: mine • пролетать АЙ / пролететь Еend: to fly past • падать АЙ / упасть Дend: to fall • погибать АЙ / погибнуть (НУ): to perish • пассажир: passenger • эпидемия: epidemic • снежный: adj. from снег: snow • буран: (snow)storm • космос: cosmos, universe • дыра: hole
