Город под подошвой [Gorod pod podoshvoj] [English translation]

Either it is Don or Volga flows. Knapsack - on the shoulder

Pain in the chest - there is a small hiding place, which was opened with a crowbar 1, not with a key

How many more miles? A short flight did not count

A long dusty tour 2, van is full of boxes of merch 3

We believe - we'll be lucky, our beds are portable

For a minstrel - there are two ways: corporative party or a flat party 4

Patterns are of the same type. Everybody is an MC

Because having generated the successors, we have reached the change of paradigm

Now rap is multi-party. Having produced the battles 5

I am looking in the mirror like "How much trouble have you done?!"

I would have enslaved all rap, but I'm always on the move

The industry has a nervous tic, give those who suffer from stenocardia Valocordin 6

Gather a court, but success is never blamed

We are the first Cro-Magnons - we have made our way in the world 7

Don't talk bullshit! I don't give a shit about you servants 8 five times over

Because we perform forcefully like a pithecanthropus's jaw

All my rap, if shortly, is about the thing that

For so many years so many cities have been under hoof

To go uphill when gets lucky. Then downhill when feels sick

I'm not really a Gulliver, but still the city is under (my) hoof

City under hoof, city under hoof

Traffic lights, state duties, charges and customs

I don't know whether this path is wade or to the bottom

You live under a thumb, I have a city under my hoof 9

Passing by poplars and the fields of ripe bread

Where Yesenin's 10 ghosts are, crosses, public prayers, spruces

From the minivan I see the soil, I see the sky above it

We will overcome everything, if not I'm not an Aquarius

Our land drowns single persons like puppies

I was a stranger, but Ohra, Porchy, Ilya 11 are more than a family

I was composing a real bomb at night, stuffing it for all I am worth

I so longed to be a part of something bigger than me

The world is empty, no matter if you get to know every second person

I'm not a cyborg with a positive smile of a Komsomol member 12

AY! Spare me your panaceas

Home Paracelsus, since for me fucking working is an end in itself

Got tired a bit? We don't give a shit, Tony Stark serves as a standard

A couple of countries, of motorways. Krasnodar, Tatarstan, Moskvabad 13

Passports, the clamour of stages, like hot cakes

Whether down the MKAD 14 on your marks, or off to Madagascar (You know!)

All my rap, if shortly, is about the thing that

For so many years so many cities have been under hoof

To go uphill when gets lucky. Then downhill when feels sick

I'm not really a Gulliver, but still the city is under (my) hoof

City under hoof, city under hoof

Traffic lights, state duties, charges and customs

I don't know whether this path is wade or to the bottom

You live under a thumb, I have a city under my hoof

Give me a bit of strength here not to turn and not to crack 15

There is a route and there is a center of population on the highway

And we are being waited for there today. Whimperer, don't be womanlike

Ruslan 16 has a journey soundtrack in the sounding board

Again my fucking face is sleepy, again time for getting up is before nightfall

Again bullet-proof vest 17, again road, kit-bag behind the back

Everything is in haste, the field is shitted, rain, cloudy

Bridge to Asgard - after, let it just be lucky with the transport

I make each of my verse to be a self-portrait

An hour for the check, rapping like a stoned 18 speech therapist

Template on the parapets: logo is everywhere on the wall

My doctrine is for everybody, like Muḥammad's and Baphomet's

Am I a star? Give me a warm plaid and a hood

Tissues to wipe my ass - and that's it, rate "Good"

It was said in the past "I would not go reconnoitring with him" 19

I haven't gone on a tour with you - you haven't stood the test (Know it, homie!)

All my rap, if shortly, is about the thing that

For so many years so many cities have been under hoof

To go uphill when gets lucky. Then downhill when feels sick

I'm not really a Gulliver, but still the city is under (my) hoof

City under hoof, city under hoof

Traffic lights, state duties, charges and customs

I don't know whether this path is wade or to the bottom

You live under a thumb, I have a city under my hoof

1. фомка (fomka) is a thieves' cant for crowbar (used for breaking in)2. чёс (chyos) is a jargon for a tour (usually pejorative connotation: either it is of a very low quality, or it is a bad pop-singer's tour)3. мерч (merch) is from english "merchandise". It is items with the group's or musician's symbols (eg. T-shirts, bags etc.)4. корпортив (korporativ) is a corporative party (a party of a company). When a musician performs at such events, he is being paid a lot. Квартирник (kvartirnik) is a flat party, where a live performance neither gets a lot of audience nor money.5. rap battles6. Valocordin is a heart drug7. выбиться в люди (vybit'sya v lyudi) word-for-word is "to become a man", but the Russian idiom means "to achieve success"8. челядь (chelyd') is a historical term for slaves during the period of Kievan Rus'9. The song title and this phrase, if they are to be translated word-for-word, would be "The city under a sole". BUT the context suggests that:

1) the song is about depressive and urban cities, so it's better to translate it as something like "a depressed city", for which there is an idiom in English "to be under smb's hoof"

2) there is some kind of parallelism with the idiom in the lyrics. Again, if translate word-for-word, it would sound like "to live under smb's heel", for which there is also a good idiom in English "to be under smb's thumb OR be tied to smb's apron strings", which means that a man is very dependant on his girl (he is a henpecked husband).

So, the author obviously draws a parallel between "being under smb's heel" (dependant on a girl) and "being under a hoof" (depressed by smth).10. Есенин (Yesenin) was a Russian lyric poet who mostly wrote about the beauty of the Russian nature.11. Since Miron (Oxxxymiron) has been living for a long time in England, he at first was a stranger in Russia. But now he has his team who he calls "more than his family": Ohra is a back singer, Porchy is a rapper and beatmaker, Ilya Mamai is responsible for Oxxxymiron's concerts.12. The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Russian: Всесоюзный ленинский коммунисти́ческий сою́з молодёжи (ВЛКСМ) usually known as Komsomol (Russian: Комсомо́л, a syllabic abbreviation from the Russian kommunisticheskii soyuz molodyozhi), was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it was officially independent and referred to as "the helper and the reserve of the CPSU". It was known for the propaganda of "positive vibes".13. Moskvabad is some kind of a meme or a joke, a funny name for Moscow, that is connected with a great amout of worker migrants from Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). The ending "-bad" is obviously derived from the capital name Ashgabat (Turkmenistan), but for sure there are more Asian capitals that sound similar, like Islamabad (Pakistan), for example. 14. МКАД (MKAD) - The Moscow Automobile Ring Road (Russian: Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога, Moskovskaya Koltsevaya Avtomobilnaya Doroga), or MKAD (МКАД), is a ring road encircling the parts of the City of Moscow.15. in Russian in can be interpreted in variety of ways: either it is about the moral strength - then it is "not to give up, not to crack", or it is about a car (van in this context) - then "not to break down"16. Ruslan is a Miron's friend and a van-driver during their tour.17. броник (bronik) is a colloquial for bullet-proof vest (бронежилет, bronezhilet). Not used very often amongst common people, perhaps just military people say it like that18. Под марафетом (pod marafetom) = having used cocaine.19. A famous Russian proverb meaning that somebody is not a reliable person, somebody who you do not trust

• Artist:Oxxxymiron