Як»-истребитель [Yak-istrebitel'] [English translation]

I'm Yakovlev1 fighter, my engine sings steel,

Skies are my soul and fiber,

But he, who's sitting behind the wheel,

He thinks of himself as a fighter.

Junkers2 went down in this last ordeal -

I struck him with brutal force.

But he, who's sitting behind the wheel,

Already gives me remorse.

In my recent fight I was hit a great deal,

Mechanics did overhauling,

But he, who's sitting behind the wheel,

Again is forcing me stalling.

A bomber plane carries a bomb that will bring

Death to our headquarters.

And a stabilizer is singing, it seems:

“Peace to your sons and daughters!”3

A Messerschmitt4 plane quickly gets on my heels.

I’m wounded and tired of war.

But he, who's sitting behind the wheel,

I see, he is going head-on!

And what is he doing? Incoming! A blast!

But I will not burn in the rye!

Velocity limits all broken at last,

I exit the treacherous dive.

I’m leading, behind me… I better lose wings!

Just where is he, my wingman?

Well, now he’s on fire, but he nosedives and sings:

“Peace for all your children!”

The one, who's now occupying my skull,

Is left by himself, a fool.

He got me confused and he forced me to dive

Right from the Nésterov's loop.5

He switched to full throttle, he's increasing wing loads,

Well, hardly a fighter ace.

Again, I would have to conform, I suppose,

But this time is very last.

I won’t be submissive! I swear by these skies!

It's better to lie on the ground.

Now what? Is he deaf? Can't he hear my fast pulse?

My gasoline blood... it runs out!

The patience threshold of the vehicle was reached:

The time of this pilot has passed.

The one, who was sitting behind the wheel,

Has burred his face in the glass.

He's killed! With an ease now I'm flying alive,

I'm burning my last reserves.

What's this? I'm maintaining a vertical dive…

Can't level the flight by myself!

It's pretty annoying that I've little achieved,

But let Lady Luck gift others.

It seems that today I was able to sing:

“Peace to all your mothers!”

1. A Soviet WW2 fighter plane, likely Yak-9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-92. A German WW2 bomber plane, likely Ju-87

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_873. The refrain line is "Peace to your home!", but I had to change it a number of times to keep the meter and rhyming of the original. Vysotsky is stretching the sound of the first word, so it sounds like the wailing sirens of Stuka bombers. Those sirens became the propaganda symbol of German air power, and were known as Jericho Trumpets.4. A German WW2 fighter plane, likely Bf-109

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_1095. An aerobatic maneuver, the inside loop. In USSR it was called the deadman's loop or Nesterov's loop, after Pyotr Nesterov, who was the first to perform it in 1913. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Nesterov

• Artist:Vladimir Vysotsky