Нью-Йоркский таксист [Niu Yorkskie Taksist] [English translation]

I've been here in America four years already

And lived in all her famous cities

can't understand the 'freedom' people have here

instead i'm haunted by nightmares of the future

When I arrived I figured out very quickly

You'll have to plow for every crumb of bread

Bankers and Ministers live well here

And the rest all try to live off each other

I came here from sultry Sokhumi (1)

Where by profession I was a caucasian thief

But i better had gone to dry in the Karakum desert

than sign myself this shameful verdict

When I arrived, I tried, wherever possible

To work in my profession as a thief

Everything was new to me, and carefully

I began to pick pockets with experienced hand

But I quickly got fed up with it

and instead tried to make a whole million (X)

So the cops put handcuffs on me

And took me to prison, where criminals go.

But geeze, I invited a couple of prominent lawyers

Who would even bail out the devil for money

So i came out all clean and innocent

I swear to god - of freedom, there was no trace.

I tried to part ways with the profession of a Jackal

Said to myself: Don't beg or ask.

And suddenly my conscience kicked in:

Hey, couldn't you drive a taxi ?

So I introduced myself to this hard labour

Grinded like a sucker, from dusk to dawn

And thus my conman pride took a beating

As if a bitch spat on me, I'll be damned!

What's all this talk ? let's say: I worked a crap profession

Just what had happened in this western paradise

over there I'd been a human, here a taxi driver

Who whored himself out on the asphalt

I was plundered, they simply didn't pay

And heaped abuse in english language on me

One time some bastard almost killed me

The taxi got hijacked, i went home on foot

Grinding the taxi basically isn't a bad job

You can make quite a decent dollar (3)

But for me to work in such a manner

It just killed my human dignity

I had halfway turned into an intellectual

But loved the women - is that so hard to understand?

In the taxi I was simply a living impotent

I couldn't raise my jacklift for a single lady! (4)

I dragged myself home, tired and broken

And fell into bed, still wearing my clothes

And again tomorrow, for some bad-tempered parasites

I was damned to get up so early

Like some devil, constantly engulfed in exhaust fumes

At night I dream romantic dreams

While I fiddle around in my own pockets

It's surprisingly hard for a thief to break the habit

It's time to take up the sinister craft once more

And again practice my 'special trade' (5)

I wanna live the way I used to, carefree in Sukhumi

And find my luck again, despite all.

I wanna live the way I used to, carefree in Sukhumi

And find my luck again, despite all.

• Artist:Willi Tokarev