Which language is the song 'Temnaya noch'?

[Stanfordian]

I have tried Google translation to no avail. I will be very grateful if someone will tell me which language the song ‘Temnaya noch’ (‘Dark in the Night’) is in:

Temnaya noch, tolko puli svistyat po styepi,
Tolko vyetyer gudit v provodakh, tusklo zvyezdy myertsayut.
V tyemnuyu noch ty, lyubimaya, znayu, nye spish,
I u dyetskoy krovatki taykom ty slyezu utirayesh.

Kak ya lyublyu glubinu tvoikh laskovykh glaz,
Kak ya khochu k nim prizhatsya syeychas gubami!
Tyemnaya noch razdyelyayet, lyubimaya, nas,
I tryevozhnaya, chyernaya styep prolyegla myezhdu nami.

Vyeryu v tyebya,
V doroguyu podrugu moyu,
Eta vyera ot puli myenya
Tyemnoy nochyu khranila...
Radostno mnye,
Ya spokoyen v smyertyelnom boyu
Znayu, vstryetish s lyubovyu myenya,
Chtob so mnoy ni sluchilos.

Smyert nye strashna,
S nyey nye raz my vstryechalis v styepi.
Vot i syeychas
Nado mnoyu ona kruzhitsya.
Ty myenya zhdyesh
I u dyetskoy krovatki nye spish,
I poetomu, znayu, so mnoy
Nichyego nye sluchitsya!

[Pabmusic]

I have tried Google translation to no avail. I will be very grateful if someone will tell me which language the song ‘Temnaya noch’ (‘Dark in the Night’) is in:

Russian (it should be ТЕМНАЯ НОЧЬ). It was composed in 1943 by someone called N. Bogoslovsky.

[aeolium]

I think it's Bulgarian, Stanfordian - it looked like a Slavonic/Russian type language and I think it's possible to google some words or phrases and get links to sites on Bulgarian folk songs.

Edit: or perhaps it's a Bulgarian version of a Russian song?

Pabmusic, why is the spelling so different, or is it a kind of phonetic transliteration?

[Northender]

I think it's a Russian wartime song - try googling 'Dark Night Russian song', you should get lots of hits.

[Pabmusic]

...Pabmusic, why is the spelling so different, or is it a kind of phonetic transliteration?

I suppose it is (I really don't speak Russian or Bulgarian) - it's usual with non-Roman alphabets to render them into English using transliterations. Think of the rather arbitrary way Peking became Beijing - a difference of transliteration, not meaning.

As I understand it, the Cyrillic H is usually rendered N in Roman alphabets, which then leaves the odd-looking letters Я, Ч and Ь. I've just played with a Cyrillic converter, which produced the wonderful-looking TYeMNAYa NOChj. Near enough, I suppose.

[gurnemanz]

I think it's a Russian wartime song - try googling 'Dark Night Russian song', you should get lots of hits.

I did a bit of Russian many years ago and was interested in following the song up.
Dmitri Hvorostovski sings it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niQndOf8S78

Translation here:

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/dark-night-dark-night.html-0

[Flosshilde]

Think of the rather arbitrary way Peking became Beijing - a difference of transliteration, not meaning.

I thought Peking became Beijing (& Bombay, Mumbai, etc), because it was closer to how it was pronounced in China (& India, etc).

[Dave2002]

I thought Peking became Beijing (& Bombay, Mumbai, etc), because it was closer to how it was pronounced in China (& India, etc).

In the case of Chinese I think some pronunciation by non Chinese speakers may be changing because of the different systems which have been used over the years to represent words to non Chinese speakers. I don't know enough to be sure, but I think a few years ago tennis players (for example) whose names appear as Zhang might then have been shown as Chang. If I'm right this would suggest that the pronunciation of their names (to/for Chinese speakers) has not changed, but that the most commonly used transliteration into western scripts has.

See for example articles on Pinyin, and distinguish variants such as Wade-Giles romanization and Hanyu pinyin etc.

[Dave2002]

A less obviously "serious" version (with er - ghastly- syrupy backing!) than by Hvorostovstki's is this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WouMWgil-aU

[Pabmusic]

I thought Peking became Beijing (& Bombay, Mumbai, etc), because it was closer to how it was pronounced in China (& India, etc).

I think that's true-ish, though the Chinese example was more an attempt at standardisation of different systems, whereas the Indian one was Hindu nationalism.

In the case of Chinese I think some pronunciation by non Chinese speakers may be changing because of the different systems which have been used over the years to represent words to non Chinese speakers. I don't know enough to be sure, but I think a few years ago tennis players (for example) whose names appear as Zhang might then have been shown as Chang. If I'm right this would suggest that the pronunciation of their names (to/for Chinese speakers) has not changed, but that the most commonly used transliteration into western scripts has.

See for example articles on Pinyin, and distinguish variants such as Wade-Giles romanization and Hanyu pinyin etc.

This is what I'd understood. The current system (Pinyin?) was commissioned by Mao to standardise it. Mumbai/Bombay is a little different as it was a Hindu nationalist move for political reasons. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...ut_bombay.html

[Stanfordian]

Thank you all so much for your helpful input. I think the song text is a Russian song with the original Cyrillic alphabet presented in Western European script.