Idut barany, byut barabany !

[FRISON Philippe]

Dear all,

In a book on the first Chechen war, Russian soldiers sent by Grachev to
assault Grozny on New Year Eve 1995 are compared with the following words :

Oaaa?o aa?aiu (a ?ya), [Shagayut barany (v ryad)]
Au?o aa?aaaiu, [byut barabany]
Oeo?o ia ieo aa?o [shkuru na nikh dayut]
Oa aea aa?aiu... [te zhe barany]

(A. A?aoo. Ia iioea <Iu niaei a aie iieaai)

According to the author it comes from ANdrey Bitov.

I found on the Internet, that it should be verses from Berthold Brecht
(1943). It is not the '4 pennies Opera' as it was written on one site.

There is also a song by Vysotsky with more or less the same words that he
can have song at Taganka Theater in a play called "Dobry chelovek from
Sezuan".

If verses comme really from Brecht, could anybody give the original text (in
German) ?

Who tranlated it into Russian Andrey Bitov or some one else ?

How did these words become so famous ?

Thank you in advance for any clue.

Philippe Frison
Strasbourg (France)

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