TROIKA
Arranged by Jacob Prigozhey
Words by Nikolai Nekrasov
Why are you looking at the road so greedily?
And why are you running so hastily?
Anyone would love you:
The scarlet ribbon curls playfully
In your hair, dark as night.
Light fluff breaks through,
Inflames the blood murderously,
“Gift for lovers of singing”, M. 1877, No. 337
Russian songs. Comp. prof. Iv. N. Rozanov. M., Goslitizdat, 1952. -
Slightly modified and shortened in the song tradition, the text of N. Nekrasov’s poem “Troika” (“Why are you greedily looking at the road...”, 1846). In other sources, Nekrasov’s original text is given as the lyrics of the song. The melody of the folk song, arranged by Yakov Prigozhy to the words of Alexey Pleshcheev, “For the Last Time,” gained the greatest popularity. Music was also written by Nikolai Leontyev, M. Bernard, Alexander Dubuk and other composers. Part of the repertoire of Lydia Ruslanova. The text was often used to compose political parodies.
OPTIONS (2)
Away from your cheerful friends?
You know, my heart sounded alarmed -
Following the rushing troika?
At you, beautifully akimbo,
A passing cornet looked up.
It's no wonder to look at you,
The scarlet ribbon curls playfully
Hurry up and shut it down forever!
Lilac fog: Songbook: Favorite songs and romances for voice and guitar. - St. Petersburg: Composer, 2006.
2. Why are you looking greedily at the road?
Words by N. Nekrasov
Why are you looking greedily at the road?
Away from your cheerful friends?
You know, my heart sounded alarmed -
Your whole face suddenly flushed.
And why are you running hastily?
After the rushing troika!..
At you, beautifully akimbo,
A passing cornet looked up.
It's no wonder to look at you,
Anyone wouldn't mind loving you:
The scarlet ribbon curls playfully
In your hair, dark as night...
Don't look longingly at the road,
And don’t rush after the troika
And sad anxiety in my heart
Hurry up and shut it down forever!
The horses are strong, and well-fed, and lively,
The last two lines of the verses are repeated
Oh, those black eyes. Comp. Yu. G. Ivanov. Music editor S. V. Pyankova. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2004
ORIGINAL POEM
Troika
Nikolay Nekrasov
Why are you looking greedily at the road?
Away from your cheerful friends?
You know, my heart sounded alarmed -
Your whole face suddenly flushed.
And why are you running hastily?
Following the rushing troika?..
At you, beautifully akimbo,
A passing cornet looked up.
It's no wonder to look at you,
Anyone wouldn't mind loving you:
The scarlet ribbon curls playfully
In your hair, black as night;
Through the blush of your dark cheek
Light fluff breaks through,
From under your semicircular eyebrow
The sly little eye looks smartly.
One look from a black-browed savage
Full of spells that set the blood on fire,
The old man will be ruined for gifts,
Love will rush into the young man's heart.
You will live and celebrate to your heart's content,
Life will be full and easy...
But that’s not what befell you:
You'll marry a man for a slob.
Having tied an apron under the arms,
You will tighten your ugly breasts,
Your picky husband will beat you
And my mother-in-law will die to death.
From work both menial and difficult
You will fade before you have time to bloom,
You will fall into a deep sleep,
You will babysit, work and eat.
And in your face, full of movement,
Full of life - will suddenly appear
An expression of dull patience
And senseless, eternal fear.
And they will bury you in a damp grave,
How will you go through your difficult path?
Uselessly extinguished strength
And an unwarmed chest.
Don't look longingly at the road
And don’t rush after the troika,
And sad anxiety in my heart
Hurry up and shut it down forever!
You won't be able to catch up with the crazy three:
The horses are strong, and well-fed, and spirited, -
And the coachman was drunk, and to the other
A young cornet rushes like a whirlwind...
"Contemporary", 1847, No. 1
Russian songs and romances / Intro. article and comp. V. Guseva. - M.: Artist. lit., 1989. - (Classics and contemporaries. Poetic book)
Anarchy, hard work, oppression and punishment - this is the life filled with grief that he saw in the peasant environment, and against which he protested.
Against the backdrop of severe exploitation and complete lack of rights, the female role occupied a special place in his work. A huge number of texts are devoted to this topic, which helped to consider the problem from different angles. One of these Nekrasov poems is “Troika”.
The history of the poem "Troika"
This poem was written in 1846, when there were fifteen long years left before the abolition of serfdom. In it, Nekrasov, in his exquisite way, exposes a serious problem of society - oppression, inequality, dumbness of the people.
In this work, the author did not betray himself. He wrote with his characteristic realism. We can say that he is merciless towards his heroine, and does not leave her any chance for a better life. And the lot of women in Rus' in those days was very tragic.
The verse was not persecuted, and a year later it was published in Sovremennik. Some critics were delighted with both the content and the compositional idea.
The composers liked the first, lyrical part of the text so much that the poems were repeatedly set to music and became a romance. The first of the poems was made into a song by Nekrasov’s contemporary, Russian pianist and composer Alexander Ivanovich Dubuk.
Lovers of romances to this day pay tribute to the melodiousness of the poem, written more than 170 years ago.
Troika
Why are you looking greedily at the road?
Away from cheerful friends?
You know, my heart sounded alarmed -
Your whole face suddenly flushed.
And why are you running hastily?
Following the rushing troika?..
At you, beautifully akimbo,
A passing cornet looked up.
It's no wonder to look at you,
Anyone wouldn't mind loving you:
The scarlet ribbon curls playfully
In your hair, black as night;
Through the blush of your dark cheek
Light fluff breaks through,
From under your semicircular eyebrow
The sly little eye looks smartly.
One glance of a black-browed savage,
Full of spells that set the blood on fire,
The old man will be ruined for gifts,
Love will rush into the young man's heart.
You will live and celebrate to your heart's content,
Life will be full and easy...
But that’s not what befell you:
You'll marry a man for a slob.
Having tied an apron under the arms,
You will tighten your ugly breasts,
Your picky husband will beat you
And my mother-in-law will die to death.
From work both menial and difficult
You will fade before you have time to bloom,
You will fall into a deep sleep,
You will babysit, work and eat.
And in your face, full of movement,
Full of life - will suddenly appear
An expression of dull patience
And senseless, eternal fear.
And they will bury you in a damp grave,
How will you go through your difficult path,
Uselessly extinguished strength
And an unwarmed chest.
Don't look longingly at the road
And don’t rush after the troika,
And sad anxiety in my heart
Hurry up and shut it down forever!
You won't be able to catch up with the crazy three:
The horses are strong and well-fed and lively, -
And the coachman was drunk, and to the other
A young cornet rushes like a whirlwind...
Nikolai Nekrasov decided to describe in his work one of the peasant women, whose life is the same as that of thousands of young women throughout Russia.
A serf girl stands on the side of the road and carefully peers into the distance, afraid to miss the three. But the troika with a gorgeous cornet rushes by so quickly that the peasant girl has no choice but to try to run after it. Although it is not at all clear - why?
To shed light on the situation, the author begins to unwind the plot. He describes in detail how beautiful the girl is: cheeks, eyebrows, eyes. Nature has not deprived her of beauty, she is very attractive. And, it turns out, he can dream. These dreams are about a better life, an easier life. All this can be obtained by successfully marrying, for example, the same cornet who has disappeared.
But fate, the villain, has prepared a completely different scenario for this girl. And no matter how sad, the poet sadly predicts her near future. This means hopeless work, violence from picky relatives, and perhaps endless childbirth. All this will lead to early aging and death.
This is the ruthless but truthful future Nikolai Alekseevich predicts for his heroine. And in the finale, the poet tries to convey to his heroine that she should not stand by the road: nothing in her life will change, and her fate is already sealed.
Composition "Troika"
The composition of this work is circular.
The plot begins with the lyrical hero's address to a simple girl who was born into a peasant family and grew up here. The author also addresses the same heroine at the end of the plot. But only at the beginning this is not a simple appeal, but a question in which the author is trying to understand why the girl looks so greedily at the road. At the end of the plot, a warning already appears in this appeal, since he knows what fate awaits this girl, and he asks her not to look at the road with such longing and with such great hope that is not destined to come true.
The entire Nekrasov plot can be meaningfully divided into two parts , which will be equal. But only in the first part will the happy life of the main character be described, and in the second part the author will show how unhappy she can be. And then the poet says that this unhappy lot is precisely reality.
The first stanzas describe the girl’s anticipation and how suddenly, seeing such a rich threesome, she rushes for her. And here the three becomes a symbol that means a happy life. In the next three stanzas by Nekrasov there is a description of the portrait of the girl herself, who is languishing in anticipation. But the sixth stanza ends with an ellipsis, which helps the reader break this plot into two parts.
It turns out that the first part of the plot is a prophecy, but it is a happy one. And the second part is the present of any peasant woman. Her husband beats her, her mother-in-law will forever force her to work, and very quickly this strong and beautiful girl will turn into an old woman who is still young in years, but is already tired of life and the difficulties that befall her.
The image of the main character
It is not surprising that Nekrasov described the image of a peasant girl in such detail in his poem. Nikolai Alekseevich loved the Russian people very much. He found special words for each of his heroines and endowed her with special qualities, usually positive.
The girl in Troika, so dreaming of a happy life, appears before the reader as a pure, immaculate creature. She is not yet overwhelmed by life’s difficulties, she still believes and dreams. Her eyes are still burning. And in this short period of life that is allotted to her before marriage, she can afford to jump out onto the road to admire the racing troika.
Like most Nekrasov heroines, the girl is endowed with natural beauty, which at this moment in her life is in its prime. This is a real Russian beauty. The poet does not hesitate to describe her appearance in detail. And the reader can only be horrified at what a ruthless near future is predetermined for her.
Expressive means in Nekrasov's plot
Nikolai Nekrasov uses such a literary device as contrast in his plot: the life of a happy peasant woman and her fate as an unhappy woman. And for this, the author uses a variety of expressive means:
✔Epithets.
✔Metaphors.
✔Comparisons.
✔Phraseological units.
The verbs that the author uses in large numbers in the text are also of great importance to show how alive the girl is. Even the symbol - three - has a double meaning for the author. This is both a symbol of the happiness that can await her in the future, and a symbol of the fact that this happiness will pass by and will be lost for her forever.
Analysis of the poem
In his work, Nikolai Nekrasov shows a real picture of the life of peasants, in which there is so little joy.
The life of village women was sad because their position was even more powerless than that of the men. They were real slaves, whose life consisted only of work and patience. They had to endure humiliation from the owner or mistress, they had to endure humiliation from the husband, tired and embittered. Most often, peasant girls were born into families with many children, so they knew hard and backbreaking work from early childhood.
It is not surprising that in such a powerless situation, young peasant girls dreamed. There is nothing wrong. Such dreams can become pleasant memories in their adult independent life.
You can penetrate even deeper into the content and imagine the troika in the form of the transience of life.
Here is a cheerful troika, with a handsome cornet, with a tipsy coachman, rushing joyfully and briskly. Everything suggests that life is good. There is a place for pleasures, pleasures, and amusement in it. All that remains is to get on this wagon. But no! The troika rushed past, and with it all dreams and hopes crumbled.
The genre of folk lyrics and the image of the sad fate of a simple peasant girl are not accidental in Nekrasov’s work. He spent his childhood in a family where his mother was humiliated and his father committed outrages. It is important to note that the poem was written in 1846, fifteen years before the abolition of serfdom. The poet feels sincere sadness for the peasants; the women in his poems are endlessly suffering slaves, an empty place in the lives of rich people.
The main theme of the poem
The main theme in the poem is the lack of rights of peasant women in society, reinforced by the current serfdom. At its core, a crime against people is legalized, and an easy opportunity is given to step over the law. However, Nekrasov writes not only about physical slavery, but also about the moral dependence of a woman on the power of a man, a “fastidious husband.” Moral slavery forces a woman to change even in appearance, when a naturally beautiful person appears
"An expression of dull patience
And senseless, eternal fear."
The poet also touches on the theme of the collision of dreams and reality. The heroine runs after the troika, from where she caught the affectionate gaze of the young cornet. This look made my heart beat with hope. For what? That life can become “full and easy.” The author mercilessly destroys this hope in the four subsequent quatrains, which are introduced with the words “you will marry a man for a slob” and end with the sentence “and they will bury you in a damp grave.” Dream and reality in the life of a peasant girl are as far from each other as a gallant cornet racing in a troika and a slob standing by the road.
The poem is divided into two parts. The first is a description of the girl’s heartfelt anxiety due to the desire to change her fate, to make life easier, her beauty, liveliness, and openness.
In the second part, the author methodically, evilly and mercilessly shows the unattainability of the girl’s dream, describing her real fate. At the end of the poem, the poet, with pity, but firmly advises the heroine not to run after the troika, but to quickly drown out the “sad anxiety in her heart,” since her fate is already predetermined.
Structural analysis of the poem
The main means of artistic expression of the idea contained in the poem is in the poet’s address directly to the heroine. The author speaks to her like an older brother or father. He is harsh and merciless, but behind this one can see bitterness and suffering for the fate of the girl. Her beauty is described using epithets: her hair is “black as night,” her ribbon curls playfully, her eyebrow is semicircular, and her little eye looks out from under it.
With the help of the image of the troika, the poet shows the fleeting nature of life. Moreover, this transience is combined with the complete lack of rights of those who stand on its margins. Life flies by like three, leaving behind broken hopes and dreams. To make the poetic story more convincing, the author uses metaphors: “dirty work”, “mad three”, “rushes like a whirlwind”.
The composition of the poem is framed, “a story within a story,” because it consists of two components: reality and the author’s thoughts. The meter is a three-foot anapest, this gives melody to the work. The rhyme in the poem is cross, except for the last quatrain - in it it is adjacent.
Nekrasov wanted to give an extremely realistic picture of the life of a peasant girl. He succeeded completely. The poem "Troika" makes the reader suffer for the heroine.
"Troika" Nikolai Nekrasov
Why are you looking greedily at the road?
Away from cheerful friends?
You know, my heart sounded alarmed -
Your whole face suddenly flushed.And why are you running hastily?
Following the rushing troika?..
At you, beautifully akimbo,
A passing cornet looked up.It's no wonder to look at you,
Anyone wouldn't mind loving you:
The scarlet ribbon curls playfully
In your hair, black as night;Through the blush of your dark cheek
Light fluff breaks through,
From under your semicircular eyebrow
The sly little eye looks smartly.One glance of a black-browed savage,
Full of spells that set the blood on fire,
The old man will be ruined for gifts,
Love will rush into the young man's heart.You will live and celebrate to your heart's content,
Life will be full and easy...
But that’s not what befell you:
You'll marry a man for a slob.Having tied an apron under the arms,
You will tighten your ugly breasts,
Your picky husband will beat you
And my mother-in-law will die to death.From work both menial and difficult
You will fade before you have time to bloom,
You will fall into a deep sleep,
You will babysit, work and eat.And in your face, full of movement,
Full of life - will suddenly appear
An expression of dull patience
And senseless, eternal fear.And they will bury you in a damp grave,
How will you go through your difficult path,
Uselessly extinguished strength
And an unwarmed chest.Don't look longingly at the road
And don’t rush after the troika,
And sad anxiety in my heart
Hurry up and shut it down forever!You won't be able to catch up with the crazy three:
The horses are strong and well-fed and lively, -
And the coachman was drunk, and to the other
A young cornet rushes like a whirlwind...
Analysis of Nekrasov’s poem “Troika”
The Russian poet Nikolai Nekrasov is rightfully considered the singer of the female part. In his work you can find many works dedicated to Russian women - beauties, smart girls and excellent housewives, who, alas, are not spoiled by fate.
One of these rhymed biographies of a woman’s difficult lot is the poem “Troika,” later created in 1846. It should be noted that there were still almost 15 years left before the abolition of serfdom in Rus'. Therefore, Russian women in the villages were in the position of real slaves. Born into a large family, they were accustomed to hard peasant labor from childhood. However, many of the young girls did not want to put up with their unenviable fate and dreamed of fairy-tale princes. Therefore, the gentleman's threesome with a coachman and a young master aroused genuine interest among Russian beauties. After all, in one of these carriages there may be the same betrothed who will fall in love with a simple rural girl and take her with him.
However, with the realism inherent in Nekrasov, the poem “Troika” shows a completely different picture, depressing and joyless. The poet addresses all the young peasant women at the same time, asking: “And why are you running hastily after the rushing troika?” The author knows the answer to this question, since it is not difficult to fall in love with a Russian beauty. After all, “one look from a black-browed savage” can drive both an ardent young man and a gray-haired old man crazy. “Life will be both full and easy,” the poet notes, but then immediately corrects himself, arguing that the majority of rural girls will have a completely different fate. And the limit of their dreams, in the end, will be a “slob man” who is not averse to drinking and is always happy to teach his wife wisdom with his fists. Since after a wedding in Rus', newlyweds usually settled in their spouse’s house, Nekrasov predicts a very unenviable fate for the girls. From now on, they will have to carry a huge household on their fragile shoulders, and at the same time endure bullying from new relatives, especially the mother-in-law, who will “bend to death” the daughter-in-law. The difficult peasant life, which is built on the daily care of domestic animals, cleaning, cooking, looking after children and working in the field, will eventually turn yesterday’s beauty into an ugly old woman, on whose face is frozen “an expression of dull patience and senseless, eternal fear.” A woman’s life in Rus' is short, and soon a damp grave awaits her, to which she will give up her “uselessly extinguished strength and unwarmed breast.”
Anticipating such a development of events, Nekrasov asks the rural girls to come to terms with their unenviable fate and not to dream of what is not destined to come true. “Don’t look longingly at the road and don’t rush after the troika,” the author admonishes the rural beauties, knowing in advance that only disappointment awaits them ahead. If only because the girls will not be able to catch up with the white top three, both literally and figuratively. After all, its passengers are people from another world who have nothing to do with rural beauties who dream of a well-fed, calm and happy life. Therefore, “a young cornet rushes like a whirlwind to another,” for whom the peasant woman he meets on the way is an integral part of the Russian landscape, dull, ordinary and arousing absolutely no interest.
As for the dreams of young girls, this is the only bright spot in their hopeless peasant life. However, the poet believes that he needs to be forgotten as soon as possible in order to get rid of the “sad anxiety in the heart” that can darken the village beauty’s already difficult life.