A spring song

[shewhomust]

We are young, and the boys of our village
Are as bright as the stars up above.
Though we study our Marx and our Lenin
Still we sigh, in the springtime, for love.

Chorus:
Can it be as you say? Does love get you that way?
Oh, please tell me just how this can be.
We're in tune with the spring;
All the world seems to sing,
In our country so young and so free!

See that boy, with a tie like a rainbow,
On his way to the park for a stroll?
He's a Komsomol hero of labour,
With a prize for his output in coal.

Chorus:
Can it be as you say? &c....

Songs I learned at my mother's knee... She may have got it from Unity Theatre / Leeds Unity Theatre, but if anyone knows any more about its provenance, please tell me.

Comments

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

I'm very curious now, too. I'm sure you've already discovered that searching the internet isn't much help.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yup.

And - much as I love the internet - it cheers me to discover that once in a while I still know something that it doesn't.

(Except that now it does, of course...)

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

If you've turned on the option that discourges search engines from indexing your blog, the Internet may still be unaware of the lyrics.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you could do that, so I probably haven't.

But no, given a choice between having a secret and showing off, I'll show off!

Good "strawberry thief" icon, btw - you have a great set of icons!

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I try.

If you want to discourage search engines, go here:
http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml
and check the box next to:
Block Robots/Spiders from indexing your journal

From what you said above, I assume you don't want to. But I just can't leave that hanging.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. And thank you - that's another bit of LJ to explore, sometime!

Exciting discovery

[(Anonymous)]

My dad said he was taught this one at school at the back end of WWII (he was in the East End of London) but it was swiftly removed from the school songbook as the cold war kicked in.

Delighted that you have written this down; it is the only reference to this song anywhere.

Re: Exciting discovery

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Equally delighted to learn that someone else knows this one!

Do you know which school your father learned it at? My parents both taught in the East End, but not until after the war.

Re: Exciting discovery

[(Anonymous)]

East Ham Grammar.
He was taught this song too...

Fatherland of mine so wide and spacious
Filled with mountains, plains and river fair
I know not of any other country
Where man's freedom can with ours compare.

Everywhere our life is wide and joyous
Like the Volga flowing in the spring
To the young the road in life lies open
To the old great happiness we bring.