Celebrating New Year in Russian style, step 6. Learning the NY song

25 Dec – Learning the NY song ‘The fir – tree was born in the forest’


‘The fir – tree was born in the forest’ or The forest raised a Christmass tree (В лесу родилась елочка) - is a famous children's New Year song in Russia by Raisa Kudasheva.

Author of song is Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva, teacher, librarian and poet. She wrote poems, tales and songs for children. The poem "Christmas Tree" was written in 1903 and published in the Christmas issue of Child magazine "Baby" (Малютка, Malutka). In 1905 the poem was set to music by an amateur composer Leonid Karlovich Beckmann  who wrote this song for his daughter. The original text of Kudasheva had 56 rows. When writing a song poem was reduced.

There are translations of lyrics in Azerbaijani, Greek, English, Finnish and Ukrainian languages.

В лесу родилась елочка,

В лесу она росла.

Зимой и летом стройная,

Зеленая была.

Метель ей пела песенку:

"Спи, елочка, бай-бай!"

Мороз снежком укутывал:

"Смотри, не замерзай!"

Трусишка зайка серенький

Под ёлочкой скакал.

Порою волк, сердитый волк,

Рысцою пробегал.

Чу! Снег по лесу частому

Под полозом скрипит

Лошадка мохноногая

Торопится, бежит.

Везет лошадка дровенки

На дровнях мужичок

Срубил он нашу ёлочку

Под самый корешок.

И вот она, нарядная,

На праздник к нам пришла,

И много, много радости

Детишкам принесла.

В лесу родилась елочка,

В лесу она росла.

Зимой и летом стройная,

Зеленая была.

English lyrics by Arthur Durando and Irina Popov

1.The forest raised a Christmas tree,

‘Twas silent and serene

In winter and in summer

It was slender and so green.

2.The wind sang it a lullaby:

Sleep Christmas tree, sleep tight!

The snow was making clothes for it:

It was a pretty sight!

3.A trembling bunny put himself

Beneath its arms so wide;

The hungry wolf just passed him by -

A lovely place to hide!

4.Some sleigh bells rang throughout the woods,

The snow was crisp and clean,

A horsey brought a forester

To hew that tree so green.

5.And now it comes to visit us,

With lights and garlands bright,

While all the children dance and sing

To greet it with delight!