Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. A Ballad of Fighting.
Commentary to the song “The Famous Regiment”.
In this song, the colonel symbolizes the awaited messenger, the men of the famous regiment symbolize the believers, and the trumpeter is the poet himself. And the last stanza says not about the defeat of the famous regiment, but about the last days, when the people turn away from the face of God.
And it is pertinent to recall here Publius Ovidius Naso’s words: “Medio tutissimus ibis.” (“You will go safest in the middle.”)
The presented text is inspired by Dmitry Yefremov’s translation.