Пачка сигарет [Pachka sigaret] [English translation]

I sit and look at a foreign sky out of a foreign window,

And don't see a single familiar star.

I've walked down all the roads to there, and to here,

Turned around — and couldn't make out the footprints.

But if there's a pack of cigarettes in your pocket,

Means that everything's not so bad for today.

And a ticket for a silver-winged airplane,

That, taking off, leaves the earth but a shadow.

And nobody wanted to be guilty without wine,*

And nobody wanted to rake the coals with their hands,**

But without music in the world death has no beauty,

But without music I don't want to perish.

But if there's a pack of cigarettes in your pocket,

Means that everything's not so bad for today.

And a ticket for a silver-winged airplane,

That, taking off, leaves the earth but a shadow.

*. This is a play on words, giving it a double meaning.

"without wine" transcribes phonetically to "bez vina".

"without guilt" transcribes phonetically to "bez vini".

So it means both "nobody wanted to be [found] guilty without guilt",

and "nobody wanted to be guilty without wine [alcohol]".**. This refers to the idiom "raking the coals with another's hands" meaning

"using the fruits of someone else's labour for personal gain".

The lyrics say nobody wanted to be the one doing the raking.

In other words, nobody wanted to do someone else's dirty work.

• Artist:Kino
• Album:Звезда по имени Солнце (1989)