The giraffes had a daughter who married. Lyrics: The giraffe is big, he knows better. Translation of the lyrics Vladimir Vysotsky - the giraffe is big, he knows better

A song about nothing, or What happened in Africa - song by Vladimir Vysotsky (1968).

- SO WHAT HAPPENED IN AFRICA?-

About one “frivolous” song by V. Vysotsky
Bibina A.V.

Vladimir Vysotsky has many humorous works, which at first glance do not pretend to have any depth of content and are extremely understandable. This is also what the widely known song about the Giraffe seems like, one of the author’s titles of which is “A Song About Nothing, or What Happened in Africa. One family chronicle." But the poet himself emphasized the presence in his humorous works of a “second layer” - necessarily a serious one. An attempt to identify it leads to quite interesting results.

N. Krymova believes that the meaning of the “second layer” is contained in the refrain of the song - a replica of the Parrot, which has passed into everyday speech as a proverb (Krymova N. About the poetry of Vladimir Vysotsky // Vysotsky V. S. Izbrannoe, M. 1988. P. 494 ). V. Novikov calls the phrase “The giraffe is big - he knows best” as a formula for opportunism (Novikov V. Training of the spirit // Vysotsky V. S. Four quarters of the way, M. 1988, p. 268), although it would be more accurate to talk not about opportunism, but about non-interference. This reading of the text seems quite appropriate. Vysotsky does not have a direct satire on the life principle “My house is on the edge - I don’t know anything”; but both his lyrical hero and characters close to him in worldview are characterized by the opposite - the principle of “intervention”, active participation in what is happening: “I’m working hard for you guys until I vomit!” (“My destiny is to the last line, to the cross...”); “In order for the clouds to clear, / The guy was needed right there” (“Throw away boredom like a watermelon rind...”). Indifference and indifference turn into tragedy - both personal and general: “Having put the coachman to sleep, the yellow sun froze, / And no one said: move, get up, don’t sleep!” (“I breathed blue...”). And life itself in this system of concepts is considered as a “good thing” - apparently, interesting and useful (“I left the business”), and passivity and apathy are actually equated with death (“Song of a Finished Man”).

So, the first of the possible interpretations of the events “in hot yellow Africa”: the criminal indifference of others - a consequence of the “active passivity” of the Parrot - helps the Giraffe to abolish the laws of the animal world and destroy the established order. But was “The Giraffe really wrong?” Let's take a closer look at this character and his actions.

Exploring the opposition of top and bottom in Vysotsky’s artistic system, A. Skobelev and S. Shaulov note: “Looking up is always a characteristic of a spiritualized person... - Vysotsky’s poet is always a “long-necked” creature, and therefore, by the way, “The Big Giraffe,” who knows better, evokes obvious author's sympathy" (Skobelev A., Shaulov S. The concept of man and the world: Ethics and aesthetics of Vladimir Vysotsky // V. S. Vysotsky: Research and materials. Voronezh, 1990. P. 43). Moreover: this character is clearly among the characters approved by the author with “consistently non-conforming behavior” (Ibid., pp. 34-35). Overcoming the views on family and love imposed by others, defending his right to individuality, the Giraffe acts almost the same as the lyrical hero, who does not want to move “where everyone else is” (“Alien Rut”), and in response to the indignant “noise and barking” he could well have answered with the words of one of the role-playing characters attractive to the poet: “I don’t care - I really want to!” (“Gunner”).

Taking into account the above, the plot should be understood positively: the Giraffe turns out to be the overthrower of outdated customs, and the family ties that have arisen between animals of different species are similar to interethnic marriages. Parrot’s position also takes a new shine: his proposal not to interfere in the unusual, but ultimately natural course of events is a manifestation not of indifference, but of wisdom (it’s not for nothing that he is “old”). The concept of “the wisdom of non-interference” arises - but in this artistic system it is almost an oxymoron!

A comparison of mutually exclusive and individually clearly unsatisfactory interpretations encourages one to read the text again and again - and discover elements in it that have not yet been taken into account. So, although the Giraffe is similar to Vysotsky’s lyrical hero, he is at the same time endowed with a trait that is clearly unpleasant for the author - a tendency towards demagoguery: “Today in our fauna / Everything is equal!” (Such parody of ideological formulations occurs more than once in Vysotsky. As an example, one can cite the statement of the character in the song “Smotriny”: “The neighbor yells that he is the people, / That the law is basically observed: / That - whoever doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, - / And he drank, by the way,” and in the poem “The bridges burned down, the fords deepened...” we find “an endless path forward,” which turned into a crowd moving in a circle with a knocked down landmark, etc. See also the poem “We are brought up in contempt to theft..." and "We are vigilant - we will not spill secrets..."). The fact that lovers find themselves rejected by the society of their own kind also encourages reflection. These are the results of the affirmation of individuality; but how to evaluate them?" The second part of the paradoxical call of the lyrical hero remained unfulfilled: "... do as I do! / This means - don’t follow me<...>"("Alien Track"): Giraffe's followers, mindlessly repeating his actions, actually establish a new stereotype. This again changes the interpretation of the work. Almost every line can complicate interpretation. How, for example, should we understand the pun: “The Giraffe and the Giraffe are pouring / The tears of a crocodile”? The interaction of the names of various animals here leads to the actualization of the direct meaning of the definition and destroys the phraseological unit, forcing it to be taken literally. But does this cancel its general linguistic meaning - in other words, are the characters actually grieving or to maintain appearances? And finally: “...it is not the Giraffe who is guilty, /But the one who...” - and why, in fact, should someone alone be to blame? Is this a serious conclusion or an ironic one?

In fact, in “A Song About Nothing...” several different worldviews collide (at least three: a youthful romantic attitude to life, a sophisticated realistic one, and a philistine one). As a result, it turns out to be ambiguous. Despite its external frivolity and the apparent presence of “morality,” the author offers us here many deep questions - perhaps not resolved by himself. Or not having a final decision at all...

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* Today in our fauna/ Fauna (new Latin fauna, from Latin Fauna - goddess of forests and fields, patroness of herds of animals) is a historically established set of animal species living in a given area and included in all its biogeocenoses.

In yellow hot Africa,
In its central part,
Somehow suddenly, out of schedule,
An accident happened.
The elephant said without understanding:
- Looks like there's going to be a flood!..-
In general, like this: one Giraffe
Fell in love with Antelope.
Then there was a clamor and barking,
And only old Parrot
He shouted loudly from the branches:

- What, does she have horns? -
The Giraffe shouted lovingly.-
Today in our fauna
Everyone is equal!
If all my relatives
She won't be happy -
Don't blame me -
I will leave the herd!
Then there was a clamor and barking,
And only old Parrot
He shouted loudly from the branches:
- The giraffe is big - he knows better!
To Papa the antelope
Why such a son?
It doesn’t matter what’s in his face,
As for the forehead - everything is one.
And the giraffes' son-in-law grumbles:
-Have you seen the dunce?-
And they went to live with the bison
With Giraffe Antelope.
Then there was a clamor and barking,
And only old Parrot
He shouted loudly from the branches:
- The giraffe is big - he knows better!
In yellow hot Africa
There are no idylls in sight.
Giraffe and Giraffe are pouring
Crocodile tears.
I just can’t help my grief -
There is no law now.
Giraffes have a daughter
Marry Bison.
Let the Giraffe be wrong
But it is not the Giraffe who is to blame,
And the one who shouted from the branches:
- The giraffe is big - he knows better!

Translation of the lyrics Vladimir Vysotsky - the giraffe is big, he knows better

In the yellow and hot Africa,
In the Central part,
Suddenly, out of schedule,
~ Is it ~ misfortune.
Elephant said do not understand:
- Seen to be the flood!..-
In General: one Giraffe
Fell in love with the Antelope.
And only the old Parrot

- What, the horns?
Cried the Giraffe lovingly.-
Now in our fauna
All polls are equal!
If all of my family
She's not happy-
Don't blame me
I am out of the herd!
There was hubbub and barking,
And only the old Parrot
Shouted loudly from the branches:
- Giraffe great - he knows better!
Dad antilophia
Why such a son?
It was him in the forehead,
That forehead - all the same.
Giraffes and son-in-law whine:
See the mutt?-
And went to Buffalo to live
With A Giraffe Antelope.
There was hubbub and barking,
And only the old Parrot
Shouted loudly from the branches:
- Giraffe great - he knows better!
In the yellow hot Africa
Not see the film.
Lew Giraffe mother giraffe with
Crocodile tears.
Grief not only to help
There is now a law.
The Giraffes came out daughter
Married to a Bison.
Let Giraffe was wrong,
But was not a Giraffe,
And the one who yelled from the branches:
- Giraffe great - he knows better!

In Johannesburg we were met by a short woman - Alice. Since she didn’t know me at all, she immediately rushed to my fellow traveler Vasily and began shaking his hand. And I stood modestly on the sidelines, not interfering with the meeting of friends. After a joyful meeting, she took us to her home. And for two days in Johannesburg we lived in her house. Each of us got a room. Vasily - the hall (as a privileged friend), and for me - a small master's room. There was a strange bed there.

She was very tall, about waist-high to me. Throwing back the covers, I saw the reason - there were two entire mattresses on the legs. So I started calling our landlady “Princess and the Pea.” She must have liked being a princess, because when she left, she politely said goodbye to Vasily. And she hugged me friendly. Actually, she wants to come to Belarus as a missionary. And that’s why she asked to call herself not Alice, but Alesya. He is training.

I was surprised by the houses in which South Africans live (everyone lives in houses; there are hotels and offices in multi-storey buildings in the city center). They are not tall here and stand right on the ground. There is probably a foundation, but it is not visible. It feels like the floor is laid directly on the ground. Perhaps this was done to keep things cool. The inside of the house looks unkempt. We were in three different houses - and everywhere the same picture. This applies to everything: the furniture is mostly old and of different sizes, shabby, there is no order, things are lying around. And they don’t even know what “European-quality renovation” is. Uneven ceilings, same walls. It seems to me that this local environment influences them so much.

On Monday, local pastor Yaaapi came to pick us up (in order not to break his tongue, he called him “Yasha”). Despite his strange name, he is a white Afrikaner. He put us in his pickup truck and drove us across the country from North to South, from Johannesburg to Durban. We were lucky to see the real Africa both from an airplane window and from a car window. Mpumalanga, Free state, KwaZulu Natal. These are the provinces through which our route ran. There were also names unusual for these places. For example, one city we passed through was called simply and without any frills - Harrismith. About a hundred kilometers from it there is an equally glorious town called Ladysmith. I assumed that this Harry and this Lady were in some kind of connection with each other. I asked “Yasha”. He replied that they were husband and wife (but the distance between husband and wife was upsetting). I thought, what happened between them that they were so scattered? After such preparation, I was not at all surprised by the name of another city - Pietermaritzburg. Johannesburg from the same opera. It feels like all these guys didn’t die from modesty.

The roads are good, wide, and you can drive fast - 120 km/h. There are not many cars. I was surprised by the approach to road repair. Before the start of each section of the road being repaired (and sometimes along the entire length), a man stood and waved a red flag. Europeans (and Belarusians too) put up signs and running orange lights in such situations. Because it's cheaper. It's probably cheaper to hire people for this. Or maybe this is how they fight unemployment? It is probably unnecessary to write that this is a favorite job for blacks - waving a flag all day long. I didn't see any white people. Having crossed the Drakensberg Mountains, our car began to descend towards the Indian Ocean.

And now the Ocean is in front of us. Already the second one on this journey, Indian. Worried, swimming was prohibited, there were signs everywhere. But what are some prohibitions for the Slavic soul, when in order to meet him, first he flew the whole world, and then he also traveled the whole country. There's not a soul on the beach. The weather is not very good for the locals (cloudy), and the ocean is cool. But not for us! The water turned out to be very warm, like in the Black Sea in August. The few locals walking along the embankment looked at our swimming with curiosity. We apparently looked like walruses, the only swimmers in the ocean.

After cosmopolitan Durban came the mountains. Our guide took us to show the famous Quasisabantu mission (it was founded and headed by the still famous Erlo Stegen). And the higher we rose, the poorer things became around us. No, the beauty of the African mountains was amazing. The squalor of human life was also striking. The primitive rectangular houses of the valleys were replaced by the even more primitive round houses of the Zulus. Poverty turning into misery. And all this against the backdrop of beautiful mountain landscapes (nature is like in the Alps, but the vegetation is much more diverse). The Zulu (Zulus) people (or rather tribe) live here.

When I got to the territory of the mission itself, I felt some kind of déjà vu. I've already seen all this somewhere. I remembered where - in the popular TV series Lost. The same situation - an island of civilized white life among a hostile environment. I was surprised how it was possible to build something like this in the mountainous African wilderness. And this is exactly the wilderness. There is no city nearby. Only miserable Zulu settlements on the mountain slopes. More than three hundred people attended the evening services (which are held here every day). On Sundays, they say, several thousand gather. I have never seen anything like this anywhere, because this is not even a regional center. And at the mission station there is a huge stadium under the roof. This is the House of Prayer. I asked the tour guide how many people can fit in this building? He named two numbers: 8 and a half and 12. The first concerns white people. And the second one is black. And he explained why - because the Zulus like to sit closely huddled together. And I finally understood why local buses have not four rows of seats, but five (two on one side and three on the other). Because Zulus love to cuddle together.

They treated us very hospitably at the mission. They fed us for free, provided us with a hotel, gave us a guide and showed us everything (we met a guy from Kobrin here). The mission is dominated by the German spirit and the same order - Ordnung (its founder is German). At the service, the blacks, although they sang beautifully, behaved very calmly, not at all like at the Congress. In the morning at breakfast in the dining room (with 700 seats) it was unusually quiet, even for Belarus. And only one black baby climbed onto the table and began to crawl on it. And then, when his parents sat him down at the table, he began to drum on it like a tom-tom. I thought that he had not yet been sufficiently imbued with the German spirit.

We visited a workshop where fruits are packaged and grown here. We were met by a stern, blond German woman (she didn’t even say hello). I had never eaten an avocado, so I asked my guide to see what kind of fruit it was. The stern German woman reluctantly went to the warehouse and brought half of the box - did she pick it up on purpose, or did it just happen? It seems to me that the first assumption is more correct). And then, as compensation, a guy from Russia, whom we met there, gave a good recipe for how to make avocado salad. I’ll come back and try it if I find an avocado in Minsk.

On the way back, “Yasha” took us where no white tourist had gone before. Everything we have seen so far has been more or less acceptable. And if on that side of the mountains there was poverty turning into misery, then here there is poverty turning into wretchedness. Dirt, filth, vileness. And sun-scorched mountains. And mountains of garbage that local residents dump in the same place where they live. This is where the real “yellow hot Africa” began. And people. None of them work. Everyone we saw on the street was either sitting or lying down. “Yasha” said that Africans have a special gift - to lie under a tree all day (in Cape Town the same gift is called “waiting for the wave”). After all, even in poverty, you can restore order, clean everything up. We passed through an area where women wear only loincloths among all their clothing. Still. I thought that coming to a black neighborhood in Cape Town meant I was going to hell. I was wrong. It was a black paradise. I just haven’t seen real hell. On this trip I saw, and even visited, this hell.
In the evening we arrived at another Christian mission. This is the mission in which our guide “Yasha” is leading. He showed us his dining room. And he said that in order to cook food, they extract gas themselves by drilling a hole in the ground. This is such a country. With gold and diamonds. With gas, for the extraction of which it is enough to simply drill a not very deep hole in the ground. And very, very poor. And behind barbed wire. That’s what I called it – The Country Behind the Barbed Wire.

The southern solar fairy tale, which happened in the Far Far Away Kingdom in the Thirtieth State, at the very End of the Earth, has ended. There is only one night left in a thousand in the very heart of the heart of the Arab East, smelling of spices and secrets, in the trading city of Abu Dhabi. From a blooming spring to a fading gray autumn, from the African sun to cloudy darkness, from rest of soul and body to work for both. Hello, Motherland.

October 2010 Johannesburg, Durban, South Africa.

Large giraffe
V.S. Vysotsky

In hot yellow Africa, in its central part,
Somehow, suddenly, out of schedule, a misfortune happened.
The elephant said, without making it out: “It looks like there’s going to be a flood.”
In general, this is how one giraffe fell in love with an antelope.
Then there was a clamor and barking,
And only the old parrot
He shouted loudly from the branches: -
The giraffe is big, he knows better.

“What, she has horns,” the giraffe shouted lovingly, “
Nowadays, everyone in our fauna is equal.
If all my relatives are not happy with her,
Don't blame me, I'll leave the herd.
There was a clamor and barking.
And only the old parrot
He shouted loudly from the branches: -
The giraffe is big, he knows better.

Why does the antelope dad need such a son?
It doesn’t matter whether it’s in his forehead or on his forehead - it’s all the same.
And the giraffe’s mother is grumbling - have you seen the dunce? –
And the antelope went to live with the bison and the giraffe.
There was a lot of noise and barking
And only the old parrot
He shouted loudly from the branches: -
The giraffe is big, he knows better.

There are no idylls in hot yellow Africa.
A giraffe and a giraffe shed crocodile tears.
But I can’t help my grief, there is no law now...
The giraffes had a daughter who married a bison.
Let the giraffe be wrong
But it's not the giraffe's fault,
And the one who shouted from the branches: -
The giraffe is big, he knows better. big giraffe
VS Vysotsky

In the yellow hot Africa, in its central part,
Somehow suddenly, out of schedule, misfortune.
Elephant said, do not understand: - be seen flood.
In general, as one fell in love with a giraffe antelope.
Here stood the hubbub and barking,
Only old parrot
Shouted branches: -

Well, that "s horns it - shouted giraffe lovingly -
Now in our fauna are all the polls.
If all my relatives will she not happy
Do not blame me, I will leave the herd.
Here stood the hubbub and barking.
Only old parrot
Shouted branches: -
Giraffe big, he knows better.

Pope Antelope why such a son?
Anyway - that in his forehead, that forehead - all the same.
And giraffe mother whine - seen dunce? -
And went to live with the buffalo giraffe antelope.
Here stood the hubbub and barking
Only old parrot
Shouted branches: -
Giraffe big, he knows better.

In the yellow hot Africa don't see idylls.
Pour giraffe with crocodile tears zhirafihoy.
Not only help burn, there is now law...
Do giraffes marry the daughter of a bison.
Let giraffe was wrong
But not guilty giraffe
And the one who shouted from the branches: -
Giraffe big, he knows better.