Written in 1957, “Midnight Trolleybus” is considered one of Okudzhava’s most popular songs. Understood to describe soviet guilt in the post-Stalin era, the lyrics demonstrate a common theme of Okudzhava’s poetry and songs—that of the “journey” (put’). There is a definite emphasis placed on movement in “Trolleybus”: the song describes the protagonist’s midnight ride through the city of Moscow and the lyrics are composed of several verbs of motion such as “to rush,” “to sail,” etc. In his contribution to the Russian Studies in Literature discussion of “Bulat Okudzhava—His Circle and His Times,” Oleg Kling suggests a connection between “Midnight Trolleybus” and Acmeist poet Nikolai Gumilev’s “Stray Tram” («Заблудившийся трамвай»), particularly due to Okudzhava’s decision to describe the trolley bus in his poem as blue (синий троллейбус). Kling believes the connection between the song and poem to be particularly compelling since Okudzhava references Gumilev’s “Stray Tram” in another one of the bard’s songs about a Moscow trolley bus: “Песенка о московском трамвае”: “But along these streets, across the bridges/it runs, jingles, rattles cheerily along” (“Но по улицам через мосты/он бежит, дребезжит и бодрится…”). Kling suggests that these are the same bridges and streets traversed by Gumilev’s “Stray Tram.” Another important element at stake in Okudzhava’s “Midnight Trolleybus” is the fact that the song’s protagonist is able to find solace and comfort in the presence of the other trolley bus passengers: “Midnight trolley, open your door!/I know how in the chilly midnight/Your passengers–your sailors–/Come to my aid./With them more than once I’ve left my troubles behind,/We’ve rubbed shoulders together…” Here Okudzhava seems to suggest that through contact with other people who have experienced suffering under Soviet rule this shared pain can in fact be alleviated, if only for the length of a midnight ride on a trolleybus.
Полночный троллейбус
Когда мне невмочь пересилить беду,
Когда подступает отчаянье,
Я в синий троллейбус сажусь на ходу,
В последний, в случайный.
Последний троллейбус, по улицам мчи,
Верши по бульварам круженье,
Чтоб всех подобрать, потерпевших в ночи
Крушенье, крушенье.
Последний троллейбус, мне дверь отвори!
Я знаю, как в зябкую полночь
Твои пассажиры, матросы твои
Приходят на помощь.
Я с ними не раз уходил из беды,
Я к ним прикасался плечами…
Как много, представьте себе, доброты
В молчанье, молчанье.
Последний троллейбус плывет по Москве,
Москва, как река, затухает,
И боль, что скворчонком стучала в виске,
Стихает, стихает.
A Russian trolleybus from the 60’s
Source cited in commentary:
Kling, Oleg. “‘A Long Road is Yours by Fate’: The Myth of the Journey in Bulat Okudzhava’s Lyric Poetry’ in ‘Bulat Okudzhava–His Circle and His Times: A Discussion. Russian Studies in Literature.'” Russian Studies in Literature, 41:1 (2004): 44-57.
