query: Murka

[ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN]

In response to the query: There are indeed numerous variants of
"Murka," which is not surprising in a folksong.  One version (probably
close to the one recorded by Iulia, who was the wife of journalist and
translator Thomas Whitney) is as follows:

        Zdravstvui, moia Murka, Murka dorogaia,
        Zdravstvui, moia Murka, i proshchai!
        Ty zashukherila vsiu nashu malinu,
        A teper' maslinu poluchai.

        I lezhish' ty, Murka, v kozhanoi tuzhurke,
        V golubye smotrish' nebesa.
        Ty teper' ne vstanesh', shukher ne podnimesh'
        I ne budesh' kapat' nikogda.

        Razve tebe, Murka, plokho bylo s nami?
        Razve ne khvatalo barakhla?
        Chto tebia zastavilo sviazat'sia s legashami
        I poiti rabotat' v Gubcheka?

        Ran'she ty nosila tufli iz Torgsina,
        Lakovye tufli "na bol'shoi",
        A teper' ty nosish' rvanye kaloshi,
        I mil'ton khiliaet za toboi.

        Zdravstvui, moia Murka, zdravstvui, dorogaia,
        Zdravstvui, moia Murka, i proshchai!
        Ty zashukherila vsiu nashu malinu
        I teper' za eto poluchai!

In addition to the various Russian versions, there's also a good Polish
translation by Agnieszka Osiecka (who died just a week ago, tsarstvo
ei nebesnoe), which was recorded in the 60s by Slawa Przybylska.

There hasn't been too much in the way of analysis of the genre.  There are
a few references in my article "The Quiet Rehabilitation of the Brick
Factory:  Early Soviet Popular Music and Its Critics" (_Slavic Review_ 39
[1980]:373-88).
                        Bob Rothstein