Last week Zemfira, a prominent Russian singer who has been labeled a foreign agent and driven into exile, released a song—”Motherland”—that I found quite striking, in a brutal way. It’s about modern Russia, but it’s really about forced patriotism more generally, and indeed about forced adherence more generally. It has 1M views on YouTube, and two videos, each with its own twist:
(The opening frame in each appears to be the officially required disclaimer that the video was created or is being distributed by someone who had been labeled a foreign agent by the Russian government.) As usual, the translation, done with the help of my parents, Anne and Vladimir, offers our best guess as to the meaning, but we may have erred; please let me know if that is so.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
To kiss her boots and soles.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
Present, future, and past.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
Even if you and I weren’t asked by anyone.
Learn to love your motherland, bitch,
Our sick and thinned-out motherland, or else.[1]
Our sick and thinned-out motherland, or else.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
Respect her insanity and old age.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
To feel joy when flying into the abyss.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
They didn’t give us another and we didn’t want another.
Learn to love your motherland, bitch.
But how it was to sing, how it was to sing, how it was to sing[2]
But there is truth, there is pride, there is courage.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
To take communion and pray daily.
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
The flown-away, confused bird
We will teach you, bitch, to love your motherland,
Condemnation and thoughts are impossible.
Learn to love your motherland, bitch,
It will be painful, it will be bad, it will be complicated,
Painful, bad, complicated.
Our sick and thinned-out motherland, [love her] or else.
Our motherland, struck mute and gray-haired, [love her] or else.
[1] The last words are literally “well” or “nicely” or “in a good way,” but in context they appear to have the separate meaning of “or else” (i.e., we’re telling you nicely now, but we won’t if you don’t do what we tell you).
[2] This might carry the suggestion that the singer remembers how it was to sing about her motherland in the past, when she could do it sincerely and happily.
