The traditional Russian tune was sung by barge-haulers on the Volga River. It’s basically a sea-shanty for landsmen. The lyrics are available on the Wikipedia page.
My question is about the “Разовьём мы берёзу / Разовьём мы кудряву!” line, which is ‘poetically’ translated as ‘cutting down the stout birch tree’, but really seems to be some idiomatic Russian expression about untwisting a curly birch (?). Can anybody explain what that bit is supposed to mean? Russian has a lot of juicy idioms, so I’m curious as to the nuances of this. I suspect that it’s meant as ‘we’re doing this impossible task’ or ‘we’re doing this despite the consequences’, but hey, maybe the burlaks were trudging through birch thickets at the time or using birch saplings as yokes or something. I’m gonna cut this Gordian knot if it harelips everybody on Bear Creek!
Not sure if you know this, but birch trees quite often have abnormal, wavy growth, similar to curly or flame maple. These curls in the grain are obviously impossible to take out, or “untwist”. Flame birch is very pretty and sought after for high-end furniture, gunstocks, musical instrument parts etc., but also more difficult to work than normal, straight-grained timber.
I did find a reference to the Russian idiom ‘you can bend an alder, if you do it slowly’. Perhaps this is the opposite version - you can untwist/unknot the birch thicket/curly birch if you do it slowly - or slow and steady wins the race/little strokes fell great oaks in English.
Since we’re in the speculation phase, can I add the point that there is a type of cordage made from birch shoots and roots (called ‘withies’) twisted together. Could it perhaps be that the boatmen are being cheered on to row so hard as to break/untwist such a cord?
I always thought it was a rowing song, as the rhythm doesn’t sound like walking. Nor would they all need to pull rhythmically in unison once the boat was moving, they would simply need to keep pulling steadily.
Draught horses or other animals were often used to pull smaller barges on canals in other countries, and they certainly didn’t haul rhythmically.
Some contemporary historians, however, say that Repin incorrectly depicted the boat dragging in order to create a more dramatic image. In fact, people dragging a boat going upstream along a river bank was an extreme situation for burlaki. Most of the work was done without leaving the boat.
First, several people in a small boat paddled upstream with an anchor tied to a rope and threw it in the water as far as possible. Then, the burlaki pulled this rope tied to a big revolving barrel in the center of the deck, moving the ship in the desired direction. Obviously, they used sails when the wind blew in the same direction as the ship.
So it seems that it could be a capstan song for kedging, which would make a lot more sense.
And another thought - birch bark comes off in decent sized sheets, and is useful for many things, not least for writing, as in the famous preserved medieval Novgorod documents. But, left alone, it will curl ridiculously tightly as it dries, and is impossible to uncurl.
I doubt this would have caused too much angst to the Vulgar Beatmen, but with Russians ya never know…
