Dark is the Night (Zloveshchiyan Song)

Dark is the Night (Тёмная ночь, lit. Dark Night) is a famous Zloveshchiyan song associated with the War of The Three States. it was originally performed by Luka Agafonov in the 1956 Zloveshchiyan war film, Soldiers of Three.

The song was composed by Motka Belov (1920-2009), Lyrics by Kostenka Drozdov specially for the film Soldiers of Three. Lov Egorov, without knowledge and without permission from the authors and film unit, recorded the song, thus becoming the first to do so, but it was Luka's performance that made it so popular and well-known as it is today. In the film, Luka plays the act of a young soldier who recalls his wife and baby at the rainy night while singing the song.

The official experts were keen to accuse Belov for propagating "Philistine" sentimental tunes. Though ostracized by the authorities, the song became a symbol of the war years for millions of Zloveshchiyan throughout the country.

Dark is the Night has been described as "a gentle lyrical song imbued with a feeling of homesickness and expressing devotion to one's beloved" which helped "reveal the personal side of army life, indiscernable in the roar of warfare". It contrasted sharply with the prevalent type of war song, which was either a field marching song or a civil patriotic one.

Lyoan interlinear translation of lyrics:

Dark night, only bullets are whistling in the steppe, Only the wind is wailing through the telephone wires, stars are faintly flickering... In the dark night, my love, I know you are not sleeping, And, near a child's crib, you secretly wipe away a tear.

How I love the depths of your gentle eyes, How I want to press my lips to them! This dark night separates us, my love, And the dark, troubled steppe has come to lie between us.

I have faith in you, in you, my sweetheart. That faith has shielded me from bullets in this dark night... I am glad, I am calm in deadly battle: I know you will meet me with love, no matter what happens.

Death is not terrible, we've met with it more than once in the steppe... And now here it looms over me once again, You await my return, sitting sleepless near a cradle, And so I know that nothing will happen to me!