Все время спрашивают про учителей и кумиров.

Actually, I have one.

Course, neither of us were wearing helmets
And our blood was just everywhere
And when the morphine kicked in later
The censors threw their hands up in despair
And that's when the truth came marching in
And promptly pulled the plug
But you were better than any drug
You were better than any drug




В конце октября буду слушать ее в Париже в La Cigale.

Так приятно, когда есть женщина, лучше которой никто не скажет.

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
and I'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you're going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said





both my parents taught me about good will
and I have done well by their names
just the kindness I've lavished on strangers
is more than I can explain
still there's many who've turned out their porch lights
just so I would think they were not home
and hid in the dark of their windows
til I'd passed and left them alone

and god help you if you are an ugly girl
course too pretty is also your doom
cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room
and god help you if you are a pheonix
and you dare to rise up from the ash
a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
while you are just flying back

I'm not trying to give my life meaning
by demeaning you
and I would like to state for the record
I did everything that I could do
I'm not saying that I'm a saint
I just don't want to live that way
no, I will never be a saint
but I will always say

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cause someday you might find you're starving
and eating all of the words you said

Нow can I go home
with nothing to say?
I know you're going to look at me that way
and say what did you do out there
and what did you decide
you said you needed time
and you had time

You are a china shop
and I am a bull
you are really good food
and I am full
I guess everything is timing
I guess everything's been said
so I am coming home with an empty head

You'll say did they love you or what
I'll say they love what I do
the only one who really loves me is you
and you'll say girl did you kick some butt
and I'll say I don't really remember
but my fingers are sore
and my voice is too

You'll say it's really good to see you
you'll say I missed you horribly
you'll say let me carry that
give that to me
and you will take the heavy stuff
and you will drive the car
and I'll look out the window making jokes
about the way things are

how can I go home
with nothing to say
I know you're going to look at me that way
and say what did you do out there
and what did you decide
you said you needed time
and you had time

ani difranco

who are you now
and who were you then
that you thought somehow
you could just pretend
that you could figure it all out
the mathematics of regret
so it takes two beers to remember now
and five to forget
that i loved you so
yeah, i loved you, so what?

Ani DiFranco


Вот все это: шоссе, клаксонная перебранка,
Беспечальность твоя, моя неживая злость,
Трогать столб остановки, словно земную ось,
Твоя куртка саднит на грязном снегу, как ранка, -
Мне потребуется два пива, поет ДиФранко,
Чтобы вспомнить потом.
И пять – чтобы не пришлось.

...

За один понедельник можно успеть купить в Атриуме ванильное мыло, побывать в московском офисе ООН на деловой встрече, съездить в Cosmopolitan на Полковую попить кофе с редактором, поговорить о войне, о будущих детях и о том, как хочется путешествовать; пообедать в Старлайте на Маяковке с красивым сероглазым человеком, который привез мне из Португалии диск Амалии Родригез, королевы фаду, выпить ликера с Полиной, сесть на Патриарших пить пятнадцатилетний португальский портвейн, с крошками пробки, с лебедями, солнцем и запахом земли; разреветься на Тверском бульваре, впервые, что ли, месяцев за пять последних, съездить на Лениградский вокзал проводить сероглазого человека домой, поужинать в Факе луковым супом с сухариками, посмотреть винтажную авторскую рекламу, потравить анекдоты, и до ночи трындеть с товарищем по несчастью про парапланы и общую несправедливость мироустройства.

Мой день начался в восемь сорок пять и закончился в три ночи, и за это время, кажется, земная ось успела как-то непоправимо сместиться; сегодня утром я проснулась в каких-то принципиально иных координатах.

Мне бы хотелось научиться хотя бы через раз понимать, что происходит и что делать дальше; а то как-то ни одного доброго штурмана, ни одного навигационного прибора. Компас ходит по кругу, похож на сумасшедшего, бессмысленно вращающего глазами.

you walk through my walls
like a ghost on tv.
you penetrate me
and my little pink heart
is on its little brown raft
floating out to sea.
and what can i say
but i'm wired this way
and you're wired to me.
and what can i do
but wallow in you
unintentionally?
what kind of paradise am i
looking for?
i've got everything i want
and still i want more.
maybe some tiny
shiny key will wash up on the shore.
regretfully, i guess
i've got three simple things to say.
why me? why this now? why this way?
overtone's ringing,
undertow's pulling away
under a sky that is grey
on sand that is grey
by an ocean that's grey.
what kind of paradise am i looking for?
i've got everything i want
and still i want more.
maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the
shore.

(с) Ani DiFranco