I play the accordion (Пусть бегут неуклюже)

I don’t know Russian, but I do love this birthday song because of its sad, melancholic tune.

Artist: Crocodile Gena (Крокодил Гена)
Featuring artist: Aleksandr Timofeevsky, Russian Children Songs
Song: Пусть бегут неуклюже

let ’em run somewhat clumsy
puddles are like some glum seas,
and the asphalt is flooded by rain
they don’t know, those people
on this day dull and cripple
why I am so happy and fain

and I am playing
accordion
let ’em people at me stare
such a pity
birthday party’s
only once a year

a good magician will fly here
in a blue helicopter
and will show a movie for free
He will say all best wishes
and what’s ever more precious
give me five houndred pounds of ice-cream

and I am playing
accordion
let ’em people at me stare
such a pity
birthday party’s
only once a year

such a pity
birthday party’s
only once a year

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Пусть бегут неуклюже
Пешеходы по лужам,
А вода — по асфальту рекой.
И не ясно прохожим
В этот день непогожий,
Почему я веселый такой.

Припев:
Я играю на гармошке
У прохожих на виду…
К сожаленью, день рожденья
Только раз в году.

Прилетит вдруг волшебник
В голубом вертолете
И бесплатно покажет кино.
С днем рожденья поздравит
И, наверно, оставит
Мне в подарок пятьсот «эскимо».

Припев
Я играю на гармошке
У прохожих на виду…
К сожаленью, день рожденья
Только раз в году.

 

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Now In English phonetics:

Pust’ begut neuklyuzhe
Peshekhody pa luzham
A vada – pa asfal’tu rekoi

I neyasno prokhozhim
V etot den’ nepogozhii
Pochemu ya veselyi takoi

Ya igrayu na garmoshke

U prokhozhih na vidu
K sazhalen’yu, den’ razhden’ya

Tol’ka raz v gadu

Priletit vdrug volshebnik
V golubom vertolete
I besplatno pokazhet kino.
S dnem rozhden’ya pozdravit
I, naverno, astavit
Mne v podarok pyat’sot “eskimo”.

---

English version of this song (Translated by Irat Feiskhanov):

Let pedestrians stumble
Through the rain into puddles,
And the water in rivers run by,
And the passers-by wonder
How on earth in this weather
One can stand here
As cheerful as I.

But I’ll play on my accordion
Well in sight of those passing near.
How unlucky that our birthdays
Come only once per year!

A magician from nowhere
Will appear in a chopper
And he’ll show us a movie for free;
And he’ll say “Happy birthday!”
And will leave me, I wager,
Half a thousand bars
Of ice cream.

And I’ll play on my accordion
Well in sight of those passing near.
How unlucky that our birthdays
Come only once per year!

---

 

Cheburashka (Russian: Чебурашка) is an iconic Russian classic cartoon character who later became a popular character in Russian jokes (along with his friend, Gena the crocodile). According to the creator of the character, Eduard Uspensky (1965), Cheburashka is a monkey-like creature who lives in a tropical forest. He accidentally gets into a crate of oranges, eats his fill, and falls asleep. The crate is eventually delivered to a grocery store in an unnamed Russian city (hinted to be Moscow), where the rest of the main story unfolds. – Wikipedia.

More Cheburashka in my other blog:
https://artishorseshit.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B0-cheburashka/