Lesson 11 - Love is in the Air

(Due to lack of interest in the enhanced version of the podcast I
am going to stick with the audio only version. Below is the
Valentine's Day enhanced show converted into .mp3 file)

Привет! Hey there, all you Russian language addicts and all those
who have just subscribed. Welcome! (Добро пожаловать!)





It’s Lesson#11 - Love is in the Air. It's been a while since I
cranked up my Microphone and my Mac to produce a podcast. My house
renovations are still going on, and we are still living with my
in-laws. Even though my current environment is not ideal for
writing and producing podcasts, I felt that I needed to get back
out there for several reasons. I'm still getting lots of e-mails on
a daily basis from listeners who express their desire for more of
'A Spoonful of Russian'. Another reason is we are working on
getting things ready for our trip to my hometown in Russia this
summer, and my daughters are in serious need of freshenning up
their Russian:) There are other reasons as well. But personally, I
just miss it myself. I miss plotting the idea of the lesson, typing
it on my PowerBook (while listening to some nice classical music.
Russian, of course), recording it, choosing different audio
transitions, piecing it all together in GarageBand, uploading it,
and getting your responses later.

As much as I'd like to produce lengthy and in-depth lessons on a
weekly basis, that would not be possible for the time being. The
next few lessons will probably be shorter and carry less info. Hey,
it's 'A Spoonful of Russian' after-all:)



LESSON - "Love is in the Air"

You all know that Valentine's Day ( 'День Святого Валентина' in
Russian) is just around the corner. I am not going to go into the
history of the holiday. You can do a little research on the subject
at wikipedia.org if you want. But wouldn't it be cool to send your
sweetheart a valentine written in Russian? I'm gonna show you how
to do it. Here are some simple phrases you can use:





- "I love You" , of course. "Я Тебя Люблю." For your convenience I
created some flash-cards to go with the lesson.




- Another phrase you can put down in your valentine is: "Be Mine".
And depending on the gender the Russian translation is either "Будь
Моим" or "Будь Моей".




- "We're Made for each Other" - "Мы Созданы Друг для Друга".

- If you are an older couple I have a perfect card for you on Apple
site. It's one of the iCards Apple offers. It uses one of my photos
that depicts a pair of old boots. It says: "We May be Old, but we
Match!" In Russian, "Хоть Мы и Стары, Мы - Идеальная Пара!" You can
locate my card on mac.com --> iCards --> under "new in
iCards".







ENDING WORD and a SONG

Now that you have a few phrases in Russian to dazzle your
sweetheart, you might want to play this next song for her/ or him.
It's called БЕЛОЙ АКАЦИИ ГРОЗДЬЯ ДУШИСТЫЕ. Literally
"Sweet-smelling clusters of acacia". It's a romantic song about 2
lovers reminiscing about their time together one summer. The
unforgettable time they spent under an acacia tree, listening to
the nightingale's song and whispering the words "I am yours
forever".




БЕЛОЙ АКАЦИИ ГРОЗДЬЯ ДУШИСТЫЕ
(А.Пугачев – музыка неизвестного автора)


Целую ночь соловей нам насвистывал,
Город молчал и молчали дома...
Белой акации гроздья душистые
Ночь напролет нас сводили с ума.

Сад весь умыт был весенними ливнями,
В темных оврагах стояла вода.
Боже, какими мы были наивными,
Как же мы молоды были тогда!

Годы промчались, седыми нас делая.
Где чистота этих веток живых?
Только зима да метель эта бела
Напоминают сегодня о них.

В час, когда ветер бушует неистово,
С новою силою чувствую я:
Белой акации гроздья душистые
Невозвратимы, как юность моя!
Белой акации гроздья душистые
Неповторимы, как юность моя...