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One Note Samba (by Jobim): a new Russian translation
Feel free to sing this!
One of my favorite songs is One Note Samba (1960), with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Portuguese lyrics by Newton Mendonça, English translation by Jon Hendricks. Here's an instrumental version, and below you'll find a version (1962) with Herbie Mann playing the flute and Jobim singing the English lyrics.
Recently, I thought: Wouldn't it be nice if there were a Russian version? Actually, there is a Russian version, by Aleksei Ivashchenko. You can find the words here, and you can see a performance here. That song is perfectly fine, but (much like the Russian translation of the famous Polish tango To ostatnia niedziela) it isn't really a translation; it's a song about how awesome this one note is, but it omits the whole love-song aspect of the original (where You are my One Note). Accordingly, I present my alternate translation of this samba, which you're free to go out there and sing:
Эту маленькую самбу
Одной нотой напишу
Эта нота будет корнем
Тех других, что я споюЭта новая — последствие
Той, которая была
Точно так, как я — неизбежное
Последствие тебяСколько здесь людей всё говорят и говорят
И всё ничтожно, почти ничтожно
Я пропел всю гамму мне известную
И всё ещё ничтожно, почти ничтожноИ я вернулся к первой ноте
Как всегда вернусь к тебе
И волью я в эту ноту
Всё, что чувствую к тебеКто все ноты распевает
До ре ми и гамму всю
Ничего не получает
Лучше ноту пой свою
Comments and suggestions welcome. (I know what you're thinking: why rhyme "к тебе" with "к тебе"? But note the English rhyme "to you"/"for you" and the Portuguese rhyme "pra você"/"de você".)
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Samba de uma Nota Só is one of the few Jobim pieces I can actually play without getting my thumbs and fingers all messed up. Its just a nice friendly little number, no minor dissonances, and a very happy and enjoyable tune. Thanks for highlighting this, Sasha – I’ll sing along.
I hadn’t heard this song before, but I really liked it. But it was interesting to hear this song in Arabic. I’ve translated some songs this way and I really liked it, it’s like the song is filled with new meaning, check it out here is a great place where they could do the translation. Songs in Arabic sound very mesmerizing, I think this song would be magical.
Rusça Tercüme
Russian Translation