At least you could have translated it... as I did. The original version is about the Volga Barge haulers, the 'burlaki'...and the symbols: the steppe, the Volga, the eagle, etc. I have analysed it, so have a look if you want. Then somebody changed the burlaki and added, of course, the cossack...so the lyrics no longer make complete sense. By the way, the painting is Ilya Repin's ''По следу'' (1881).''On the Trail'' I have also analysed Repin´s paintings.
The song is about Stepan Razin. The leader of the peasant war. For Freedom. The most precious thing a person has. Allegory. Because for such songs, the head was cut off. Having thrown off the shackles, the boatman gained Freedom and became an eagle. Predatory, bold and free. So the Cossacks were born from white slaves.
Matthew Wild difficult to translate the song words in the English language, it's bad Google translation( Oh, you wide steppe ! Oh, you Volga, mother Volga free ! Oh, you wide steppe, steppe,раздольная Oh, you Volga, mother Volga free ! Oh, Yes not steppe, eagle rises, the river boatmen will break all right enough. Do not fly, the eagle, low to the ground, Do not walk, Burlak, close to the coast. Oh, you wide steppe, wide, раздольная ! Oh, you Volga, mother Volga free !
My shot: How wide are you, o steppe How vast your expanses Where the Volga, our dear mother runs unbridled It’s no steppe eagle rising aloft It's a boatsman running rampant Fly not, o eagle, close to the earth Stay away, o boatsman, from the riverbank How wide are you, o steppe How vast your expanses Where the Volga, our dear mother runs unbridled Alternatively: a Don Cossack in place of the burlak/boatsman - that's how they sing it here.
It's listed on spotify under: The red army choir, selected recordings of the red army choir. May I also suggest "Cold waves (lapping)", also a beautiful calm and powerfull song.
