Охота на кабанов [Ohota na kabanov] [English translation]

Today’s mud is one heck of a trouble.

Plus, it pours, as if God lost his pants.

But to hell with the rain! Hunters party:

Shooting wild boars today is in plans.

In the swamp boars were driven with drumbeats;

Hunters wiped off hot sweat from their heads.

They despised the rolled gold of the forests,

And they worshiped the shooting instead.

CHORUS:

Rangers' bloodlust is often reprimanded,

Better carry your hunters in your arms;

Wild boars’ meat is adored when carbonated,1

And wild boars are long favored for their ham.

The wild boars not a second are bothered

By the thoughts of the treatment they meet.

The wild boars are escaping from noises

To acquire an eternal retreat.

BONUS VERSE:

It doesn’t matter that their cries sound so husky,

Hunters’ spirit cannot be damped down.

Number Three is the one who got lucky,

He got three boars with fangs in a frown.

Heavy slugs are escaping the rifles,

As they slay random targets en masse,

But the gunshots' sounds are so delightful,

They remind of a boy scouts' drum class.

CHORUS

At the campfire canned beef was soon offered;

Someone poured Hunter’s vodka in mugs.

Yet the wounded one kept crawling forward,

At the gun's bore it’s staring through shrubs.

Soon a jerrycan was splashing spirits,

And the horns were signaling retreat.

Fervor ceased, as if after a skirmish,

And the wounded was gunned for its meat.

CHORUS

Then they told me regarding this hunting,

Slowly turning a carcass in flames:

"We must feel the excitement of fighting,

We are missing the combat and death.

We just bring ourselves back to the frontline

To recall the "Fix bayonets!" scene.

We are simply survivors of wár time,

We are hunting to let off some steam."

CHORUS

1. A grilled meat dish of the French origin. Vysotsky was married to French actress Marina Vlady for a decade, until his death in 1980. He misspells the name of the dish in his lyrics and I follow his lead. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonade