[Leica] Song of the War Correspondents

[leowesson at gmail.com (Leo Wesson)]

Peter, 

That's great!

Leo Wesson
leowesson.com

> On May 30, 2016, at 17:02, Peter Klein <pklein at threshinc.com> wrote:
> 
> As I've posted, we visited Ted Grant recently.  Ted's stories reminded 
> Katya of something from her younger days in the USSR--a popular Russian 
> song about photojournalists?  And, it actually mentions Leicas!  It was 
> written during World War II, and was often played on Russian media when 
> the "Great Patriotic War" was celebrated or memorialized.  So Katya found 
> the song on YouTube, and wrote up a literal translation of the words.
> 
> Here is a video of the song as sung in a 1944 Russian movie "short."  It 
> shows scenes photographers and cinematographers during the war, plus some 
> general war footage, The final onscreen title says "Glory to heroes."  It 
> is, of course, a propaganda piece designed to build morale, but still very 
> interesting.
> 
> You might notice that the arrangement mixes 1920s-30s "hot jazz" with a 
> Glenn Miller-style Big Band sound.  Jazz was normally disapproved of as an 
> example of "decadent Western culture." During the war, there was a thaw in 
> the official disapproval. Then after the war, many jazz musicians were 
> sent to labor camps as part of the "Campaign Against Cosmopolitans."
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4V7tgp9qFo>
> The video might show a 30 second commercial first.
> 
> Here is Katya's translation of the song lyrics. They are taken from a 
> longer poem by Konstantin Simonov, who actually was a war correspondent as 
> well as a poet, novelist and playwright.
> 
> --------
> *Song of war correspondents*
> 
> From Moscow to Brest
> There is not a place,
> Where we did not wander in the dust.
> With a Leica and a notebook,
> And sometimes with a machine gun
> We went through the fire and the frost.
> Without a sip, comrade,
> The song can?t be started,
> So let?s pour ourselves a shot.
> Here's to writers,
> Here's to photographers,
> Here's to those marching under fire!
> 
> We have a reason to drink -
> For military communications,
> For U-2, for ?Emka?, for success;
> For how we marched on foot,
> How pushed with our shoulders,
> How we got there ahead of everyone.
> From the winds and vodka
> Our throats were hoarse,
> But we say to those who reproach:
> "Try, like us, to roam,
> Sleeping in the field,
> Try fighting for at least a year!"
> 
> Where we have been,
> They did not give us tanks -
> But it never discouraged us.
> In the ragged pickup
> With only a revolver
> We were the first to enter cities.
> So let's drink to victory,
> To our newspaper,
> And if we will not live to see it, my dear,
> Someone will find out,
> Will photograph and write,
> Someone will remember you and me!
> ------
> 
> Pretty amazing, eh?
> --Peter
> 
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