Гражданская оборона: The Zoo
This is the album art from Civil Defense’s “Red Album” (Красный альбом). Cats feature on a number of the band’s covers; frontman Yegor Letov was a cat person. Below is a delightful little ditty from the album — another song about escape, this time from a zoo. Surely the zoo is a metaphor for a deranged, bestial society, and other forms of pseudo-existence. There are many such examples of “escape” songs in late Soviet rock — a theme also common in songs of the Gulag.
Speaking of which, we might read the first verse here (a long litany of commands — what one shouldn’t do) as survival tips for life in the Zoo/Gulag — a genre one encounters in the works of Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov, and others. Shalamov, for example, write about the dividing line “за которой уже ничего человеческого нет в человеке, а есть только недоверие, злоба и ложь” (beyond which there is no longer anything human in a human being — instead, there is nothing but mistrust, spite, and untruth). He follows this with typical advice for surviving the Gulag (as Shalamov himself did for many years): “не верь, не бойся и не проси” (don’t trust / believe, don’t fear, and don’t ask).
In short, the best advice for surviving in the Gulag is to shed any vestige of hope in human decency. In such inhumane conditions, people become like animals. Meanwhile, it seems that Letov hopes to maintain his humanity, find others like him, and escape the zoo.
Letov himself was forcibly institutionalized in his younger days — an experience he compared to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” So, the themes of the song were ones he took very personally, and very seriously (as is evident from many of his heavier songs). If anything, the gleeful, humorous tone of this song clashes with the darkness of the subject matter — yielding a sense of the absurd that is commonly encountered in Russian humor.
The Zoo
No need to remember, no need to wait,
No need to believe, no need to lie,
No need to fall, no need to beat,
No need to cry, no need to live.
I’m looking for people like me,
Crazy and weird,
Crazy and sick.
And when I find them
We’re getting out of here
We’re heading out into the night
We’re leaving the zoo!
Oh baby baby, you’re simply a mouse.
You’re like a period [i.e. the punctuation mark] when you’re silent;
But there are so many of you it’s dark in my eyes [i.e. I can barely see],
I would so like to smash the window!
Empty noises, empty days;
There are too many of you, and we are alone.
A knife flashes in the hands of a child,
But I hope that it’s just an illusion!
Зоопарк
Hе надо помнить, не надо ждать
Hе надо верить, не надо лгать
Hе надо падать, не надо бить
Hе надо плакать, не надо жить
Я ищу таких, как я,
Сумасшедших и смешных,
сумасшедших и больных
А когда я их найду
Мы уйдём отсюда прочь,
мы уйдём отсюда в ночь
Мы уйдём из зоопарка!
Oh baby baby, ты просто мышь
Ты словно точка, когда молчишь
Hо вас так много, в глазах темно
Я так хотел бы разбить окно.
Пустые звуки, пустые дни
Вас слишком много, а мы одни
В руках ребёнка сверкает нож
Hо я надеюсь, что это ложь!
Vocab notes
не надо + inf.: one shouldn’t, no need to • помнить: to remember • ждать: to wait • верить: to believe • лгать / солгать (лгу, лжёшь): to lie • падать / упасть: to fall • бить: to beat • плакать (плачу, плачешь): to cry • такой: such (people) • сумасшедший: crazy • смешной: funny, weird • больной: sick • находить / найти: to find • (отсюда) прочь: away, out of here • ночь: night • зоопарк: zoo • просто: simply • мышь, -и: mouse • словно: like • точка: a period, a point • молчать: to be silent • вас так много: there are so many of you • в глазах темно: I can’t see (it’s dark in my eyes) • разбивать / разбить: to break • бы: marks a hypothetical • пустой: empty • один, одна, одни: alone • рука: hand • сверкать / сверкнуть: to shine, glimmer • нож: knife • надеяться: to hope • ложь, -и: lies, falsehood
