SOYUZMULTFILM (translation/subtitles by Niffiwan, helped by AxmxZ and members of prodisney.ru)
If You Don't Like - Don't Listen
Based on the tales of Stepan Pisakhov
Of our Arkhangelsk region, so much untruth and silliness is told,
that I've resolved to tell everything as it is in these parts;
the whole simple truth.
Whatever I say, it's all true.
Eternal Icebergs
For example,
our river Dvina at its narrow point,
is 20 miles wide.
And at its wide point,
wider than the sea.
People travel on it on Eternal Icebergs.
We even have Icebergers;
people who make their living doing the ice business.
They transport icebergs from the sea and rent them out.
To those who want them.
Eternal Iceberg
In Old Times, engaged girls got an Eternal Iceberg for their dowry.
And also a fox fur overcoat.
So that she'd have a way and a dress to visit guests across the river.
Eternal Love
Peace and Love
-In the summer we get many visitors. "Eternal Iceberg Rentals"
They'd come to the Iceberger and start bargaining,
wanting the nicest of icebergs for just 3 kopeks per person!
Even riding a tram in those years cost 15 kopeks a head.
But the Iceberger said, sure; he agreed outwardly,
and slipped him a spoiled, old, rotting iceberg
just barely alive.
Here's your thrift item!
That's how it was!
About the Bear
In our parts, polar bears sell milk on the street.
They're trained for it.
Polar bear cubs sell sunflower seeds,
and produce hand-rolled cigarettes.
Various birds chirp
arctic owls, geese, swans...
northern eagles,
penguins.
Penguins, though they don't live here, come to make money.
They use street organs, hand drums...
But brown bears are strictly forbidden from entering.
Because it's the north, after all.
"No Entry for Brown Bears!"
One time a carriage was carrying a flour bag and dropped it in the woods.
A bear found it.
He rolled in the flour, and became like a white bear.
Daddy!
To the market he went, to sell seeds and Kvass.
Daddy!
They recognized him, of course; his real self showed through!
Daddy!
No Entry for Brown Bears!
Our folk is kind. They gave him some sliced dried apples, a stone of sugar,
and told him to come back sometime for his wheelbarrow.
Frozen Songs
In the summer, it never goes dark.
We don't sleep.
In the day we work,
at night we go out.
We have races with the reindeer!
And in the fall we get ready for winter.
We dry the northern lights.
At first, after all, it doesn't shine that brightly.
We yank it down, and hang it in bundles.
and it hangs, not drying out or ageing.
and at wintertime we'll take the northern lights,
soak it in warm water, and ignite it.
It shines brightly, cleans the air, and smells good.
In Old Times, temperatures reached -200, -300
In my memory, they even reached -500.
In that frost, any word which leaves a mouth freezes.
Every word has its own look, colour, light...
Women would make knitted lace from the songs, and various pretty things.
They'd hang them in front of the house,
putting the best words on the roof crest
and funny poems on the sides.
No place was more adorned than our village Uyma.
One time an overseas merchant walked by,
and saw the decorations; the frozen songs.
What a wonderfull, interesting, wild oddity!
VERY GOOD
FROZEN SONGS
and the stranger decided to order some songs.
to bring to his own country for listening and marvelling.
WE AGREE
WE WILL SING
Our daughters, mothers, grandmothers, those who have a voice,
all started singing songs,
freezing them.
Songs don't hurt work; they can be sung while the job's being done
and they bring profit.
SING
They put the songs into special boxes
and marked where's the front and the back
so that they wouldn't be played back to front.
Some big heaps were sung.
In the spring, they sent them over on steamships.
They were brought to a foreign country.
Everyone was curious,
what are these frozen songs from Arkhangelsk?
The theatre was filled to the brim!
A swan is swimming.
My white swan.
A soul is singing.
A fair maiden is singing
with her fair soul.
Though the foreigners don't understand our tongue,
they understood the beauty of our songs.
Screenplay G. Sapgir, L. Nosyrev
Director L. Nosyrev
Art director V. Kudryavtseva
Composer Y. Botyarov
This is no fairy tale, you know.
It's the cold, hard truth in these parts.
Learned, versed people are everywhere.
They won't let a lie go by.
So that's what we call it:
"If you don't like - don't listen"
Ensemble of folk music led by Dmitriy Pokrovskiy
The End