beginnerrussian

page 10. Look at my page 4 post and my interest in the poem (or song) 'The Hills of Manchuria'.  googling so far has  provided me with two possible versions of this song/poem, obviously as per my prev p.4 this is the one we are looking for ie the first three verses... Ночь подошла, сумрак на землю лёг, Тонут во мгле пустынные сопки, Тучей закрыт восток. Здесь, под землёй, наши герои спят, Песню над ними ветер поёт И звезды с небес глядят. То не залп с полей долетел – Это гром вдали прогремел, И опять кругом всё спокойно, Всё молчит в тишине ночной. (188) "On the Hills of Manchuria" w/ Lyrics (English/русский) - YouTube *In addition, yesterday up popped this blog and this post, the burial mounds of the Russian Steppe.  On Chekhovian landscapes in the Ukrainian steppe, and burial mounds — SIMON CROFTS Its a very interesting blog to explore.  As ever be sure to open up google translate, perfectly good for us beginners.  beginners note ... sopki   сопки...

page 9. This appeared by chance on google results, Russian words with no direct equivalent in English. This material is way beyond my ability level as a beginner but still is reasonably pertinent in our journey to explore Russian language and culture. In other words dip in and enjoy! Microsoft Word - Web site.doc

page 8.  All forms of music interest me, including classical. It can be orchestral, it can be chamber.  We are lucky here in the UK we have bbc r3, sometimes a little variable, but one soon find out which times or programmes to avoid. For thirty plus years it has been a musical education to me.  To a newbie I wld suggest the more famous Beethoven symphonies, the Bach cello suites and the Beethoven later string quartets. Dip into Haydn, Vaughan Williams and of course Mozart, I heard his fantasia (solo piano?) the other night and it was quite wonderful.   I had wanted to work my way thro the symphonies of Shostakovich, but each piece will take many listenings to get anywhere near to understanding it. So here I am weeks later quite happily still on no.1.  Tootling around on the web I found this material, very interesting... Shostakovich and psychology? : r/shostakovich