This week we remember the great Russian poet, singer and bard Vladimir Vysotskij (January 25, 1938–July 25, 1980).
“Russian actor, lyricist, and folk-singer whose social and political satire spoke of the ironies and hardships of a strictly regulated Soviet society. While risking official displeasure, he became an immensely popular figure who was revered by the Russian people even after his death” Read more about Vladimir Vysotskij here
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Купола
Как засмотрится мне нынче, как задышится?
Воздух крут перед грозой, крут да вязок.
Что споется мне сегодня, что услышится?
Птицы вещие поют – да все из сказок.
Птица Сирин мне радостно скалится –
Веселит, зазывает из гнезд,
А напротив – тоскует-печалится,
Травит душу чудной Алконост.
Припев:
Словно семь заветных струн зазвенели в свой черед –
Это птица Гамаюн надежду подает!
В синем небе, колокольнями проколотом,-
Медный колокол, медный колокол –
То ль возрадовался, то ли осерчал…
Купола в России кроют чистым золотом –
Чтобы чаще Господь замечал.
Я стою, как перед вечною загадкою,
Пред великою да сказочной страною –
Перед солоно – да горько-кисло-сладкою,
Голубою, родниковою, ржаною.
Грязью чавкая жирной да ржавою,
Вязнут лошади по стремена,
Но влекут меня сонной державою,
Что раскисла, опухла от сна.
Припев:
Словно семь заветных струн зазвенели в свой черед –
Это птица Гамаюн надежду подает!
Душу, сбитую утратами да тратами,
Душу, стертую перекатами,-
Если до крови лоскут истончал,-
Залатаю золотыми я заплатами –
Чтобы чаще Господь замечал!
borissoff 
3 comments
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January 30, 2013 at 15:01
derwan
A very important poet and bard of my early days. After years well go back to old friends.
Vladimir’s name has frequently encountered in Slavic end of ‘mir’. Can this connect to the Sogdiana ‘myr’ – Mithra and names appearing in the Parthian eg ‘Mihrfarn’ or ‘Mithridates’? One more thing: Gothic kings Valamir and Theodemir have the same ending. And what can be said about Valdemar different than is commonly think. Especially since: Parthians, it seems that may have something to do with the ancestors of the Slavs and Gothowie however is also the IE nation.
January 30, 2013 at 15:14
borissoff
Let me think on this.
January 30, 2013 at 22:21
borissoff
I have already said that it is difficult to etymologise proper names. Vladimir (pleophonic variant Volodimir) can be clearly divided into two parts:vladi + mir. There is a general agreement that the first part is a contracted володеть volodet’ ‘to possess, to rule’ (cp. Polish wɫodać, wɫadać). Because of the Gothic waldan with the same meaning our German colleagues readily labelled it as a Germanic loan. I should give credit to Vasmer for rejecting this theory. The root val- is so widespread among IE languages that there is no doubt that it belongs to the most archaic stratum of the common lexicon. It stretches from the Latin valeo, -ēre ‘to be able, strong’ to Tocharian (A) wäl-, Tochaian (B) walo, wlo ‘to rule, reign’ to Vedic bala ‘power, strength, might, vigour, force, validity’ (Cp. also Slavonic Волот Volot ‘Mythical giant’ and Skr. balavat ‘possessing power, powerful, mighty, strong’).
I would break down the Slavonic volodet’ into volo ‘rule, power’ and det’ which is directly related to Skr. dhā – dhatte/dhāti ‘to put, place, set’ — literally ‘to put, apply power > to rule’. It is pretty clear up to this point. The problem is with the mir bit. There is an agreement that the first element mi– is related to mi- in mil‘dear, loved’ (Vasmer & Trubachev). Initially I accepted the etymology proposed by Gilferding and my preliminary entry for mir was :
“The traditional etymology linking this word with the SA mitra/मित्र ‘friend’ is possible but doubtful semantically and phonetically. The root mil/मिल् ‘to come together, assemble, concur’ appears more plausible in all respects. The second meaning of мир/mir – ‘peace’ may be a later semantic development. UA мир, BG мир, SRB мир, SLO mir, CZ mír, PL mir, U.SR měr, LT mieras, LV miêrs”
However, I am reluctant to include it into my dictionary because it would be natural to see the correlation Slavonic l > Skr. r but not the other way round. There is no clear explanation of the final -r. It was Toporov who offered Skr mitra > Sogdyan myr/mihr ‘the sun, Mitra’ but it does not appear relevant semantically and has some phonetic problems so Trubachev dismissed it and I agree with him. The commonality here seems to be the element mi-. One thing everybody agrees on is that mir is an ancient inherited Slavonic word.
The common etymology of Vladimir is ‘he who possesses, rules the world’. German scholars contest it and consider it ‘people’s etymology’. Because the attested spelling is ‘Володимѣръ Volodimėr’ Vasmer believed that the ending was borrowed from Gothic where -mērs allegedly means ‘great’ based on O.H.German mâri ‘famous’ and Irish mor, mar ‘great’. How Gothic a became ė they would not tell and also why the Slavs had to borrow this ending. Interestingly, Vasmer wisely does not mention Valamir and Theodemir because it would be in conflict with his -mērs. I, for one, think that these name were built in Slavonic fashion. The two peoples lived in close proximity and their elites most probably intermixed as it usually happens. Full stop. Linguistics ends here and politics start. Whatever arguments you put on the table you will never convince a Danish or German that Vladimir is not a mispronounced Waldemar and a Lithuanian would tell you that that both these names derive from Waldymieras :).