A soldier went to a distant land
Riding his horse o'er the plain
His native village he left for aye
He'll never come back again
In vain did his youthful soldier's bride
To the north-west gaze each morn and eve
Waiting in hope that her soldier dear
Would return from the land he'll ne'er leave
But beyond the hills were the snow lies deep
And the ice-fields crack and the tempests blow
Where angrily bow the pines and firs
The Cossacks bones lie beneath the snow
He fought so his people would not be enslaved
As his father's own father had done before
As a boy of 19 left a pregnant wife
And as a man he went to war
As the Cossack lay dying he pleadingly asked
That above him a mound should be piled for a tomb
And a hazel tree from his native land
Be planted in brilliant flower to bloom.
But beyond the hills were the snow lies deep
And the ice-fields crack and the tempests blow
Where angrily bow the pines and firs
The Cossacks bones lie beneath the snow
A soldier went to a distant land
Riding his horse o'er the plain
His native village he left for aye
He'll never come back again
But beyond the hills were the snow lies deep
And the ice-fields crack and the tempests blow
Where angrily bow the pines and firs
The Cossacks bones lie beneath the snow
Riding his horse o'er the plain
His native village he left for aye
He'll never come back again
In vain did his youthful soldier's bride
To the north-west gaze each morn and eve
Waiting in hope that her soldier dear
Would return from the land he'll ne'er leave
But beyond the hills were the snow lies deep
And the ice-fields crack and the tempests blow
Where angrily bow the pines and firs
The Cossacks bones lie beneath the snow
He fought so his people would not be enslaved
As his father's own father had done before
As a boy of 19 left a pregnant wife
And as a man he went to war
As the Cossack lay dying he pleadingly asked
That above him a mound should be piled for a tomb
And a hazel tree from his native land
Be planted in brilliant flower to bloom.
But beyond the hills were the snow lies deep
And the ice-fields crack and the tempests blow
Where angrily bow the pines and firs
The Cossacks bones lie beneath the snow
A soldier went to a distant land
Riding his horse o'er the plain
His native village he left for aye
He'll never come back again
But beyond the hills were the snow lies deep
And the ice-fields crack and the tempests blow
Where angrily bow the pines and firs
The Cossacks bones lie beneath the snow
Contributed by giorgio - 2009/7/19 - 08:59
×
![]()
Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
Lyrics from an old Cossack folk-song
Music by Kevin Dardis
The text of this song is from a Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quiet Flows the Don" (1934), i.e. the first part of his epic work "Tikhiy Don / Тихий дон", literally "The Quiet Don", about the Don Cossacks.