This article is about the song "Dark Eyes". For the film named after the song, see Dark Eyes (film). For other uses, see Dark Eye.

Dark Eyes (Russian: Очи чёрные, Ochi chyornye; English translation: Black Eyes; French translation: Les yeux noirs) is a Russian song.

The lyrics of the song were written by a Ukrainian poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka (Ukrainian: Євген Павлович Гребінка) (1812-1848). The first publication of the poem was in Literaturnaya gazeta on 17 January 1843.

The words were subsequently set to Florian Hermann's Valse Hommage (in an arrangement by S. Gerdel') and published as a romance on 7 March 1884.

Although often characterised as a Russian gypsy song, the words and music were written respectively by a Ukrainian and a German. Feodor Chaliapin popularised the song abroad in a version amended by himself.

(Dark Eyes - Red Army Choir)

(Dark Eyes - Jazz - by Swingamajig)

Russian

1.

Очи черные, очи страстные

Очи жгучие и прекрасные

Как люблю я вас, как боюсь я вас

Знать, увидел вас я в недобрый час

2.

Ох, недаром вы глубины темней!

Вижу траур в вас по душе моей,

Вижу пламя в вас я победное:

Сожжено на нем сердце бедное.

3.

Но не грустен я, не печален я,

Утешительна мне судьба моя:

Всё, что лучшего в жизни бог дал нам,

В жертву отдал я огневым глазам!

(Dark Eyes - Trumpet - Benko Dixieland Band)

Transliteration

Ochi chernye ochi strastnye

Ochi zhguchiye i prekrasniye

Kak lyublyu ya vas kak boyus ya vas

Znat' uvidyel vas ya v nedobryii chas

Okh nedarom vy glubini temnyei

Vizhu traur v vas po dushe moei

Vizhu plamya v vas ya pobednoye

Sozhzheno na nem serdtse bednoye

No ne grusten ya ne pechalen ya

Uteshitelna mnye sudba moya

Vsyo chto luchshyevo v zhizni bog dal nam

V zhertvu otdal ya ognevym glazam

 

 

 

 

(Dark Eyes - Cafe Accordion Orchestra - Swing)

Igor Outkine (Mazaika)

"The song is performed in a scene of the 2007 David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises by a singer and accordion player Igor Outkine."

English translation

Dark eyes, passionate eyes

Burning and splendid eyes

How I love you, how I fear you

Verily, I espied you in an ill-starred moment

Oh, not for nothing are you darker than the deep!

I see mourning for my soul in you,

I see a triumphant flame in you:

A poor heart immolated in it.

But I am not sad, I am not sorrowful,

My fate is soothing to me:

All that is of the best in life, God has given us,

As a sacrifice I have given up to the fiery eyes!

(Dark Eyes - By Matryomin ensemble from Japan)

Lyrics (Chaliapin version)

Очи чёрные, очи жгучие,
Очи страстные и прекрасные,
Как люблю я вас, как боюсь я вас,
Знать увидел вас я не в добрый час.

Очи чёрные, очи пламенны
И монят они в страны дальные,
Где царит любовь, где царит покой,
Где страданья нет, где вражды запрет.

Очи чёрные, очи жгучие,
Очи страстные и прекрасные,
Как люблю я вас, как боюсь я вас,
Знать увидел вас я не в добрый час.

Не встречал бы вас, не страдал бы так,
Я бы прожил жизнь улыбаючись,
Вы сгубили меня очи черные
Унесли на век моё счастье.

Очи чёрные, очи жгучие,
Очи страстные и прекрасные,
Как люблю я вас, как боюсь я вас,
Знать увидел вас я не в добрый час.

(Dark Eyes - by Chet Atkins - Country Hillbilly Gutar)

Transliteration (Romanized version)

Ochi chyornye, ochi zhguchie
Ochi strastnye i prekrasnye
Kak lyublyu ya vas, kak boyus' ya vas
Znat' uvidel vas ya ne v dobryi chas

Ochi chyornye, ochi plamenny
I monyat oni v strany dal'nye
Gde tsarit lyubov', gde tsarit pokoi
Gde stradan'ya nyet, gde vrazhdy zapryet

Ochi chyornye, ochi zhguchie
Ochi strastnye i prekrasnye
Kak lyublyu ya vas, kak boyus' ya vas
Znat' uvidel vas ya ne v dobryi chas

Ne vstrechal by vas, ne stradal by tak
Ya by prozhil zhizn' ulybayuchis'
Vy zgubili menya ochi chyornye
Unesli na vek moyo schast'ye

Ochi chyornye, ochi zhguchie
Ochi strastnye i prekrasnye
Kak lyublyu ya vas, kak boyus' ya vas
Znat' uvidel vas ya ne v dobryi chas

(Dark Eyes - Arrangements for Accordion)

English translation

Dark eyes, burning eyes
Frightful and beautiful eyes
I love you so, I fear you so
For sure I've seen you at a sinister hour

Dark eyes, flaming eyes
They implore me into faraway lands
Where love reigns, where peace reigns
Where there is no suffering, where war is forbidden

Dark eyes, burning eyes
Frightful and beautiful eyes
I love you so, I fear you so
For sure I've seen you at a sinister hour

Without meeting you, I wouldn't be suffering so
I would have lived my life smiling
You have ruined me, dark eyes
You have taken my happiness forever away

Dark eyes, burning eyes
Frightful and beautiful eyes
I love you so, I fear you so
For sure I've seen you at a sinister hour

(Dark Eyes - on Accordion (advanced) Young musician)

• The song is performed in a scene of the 2007 David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises by a singer and accordion player Igor Outkine.
• The song gives its name to Nikita Mikhalkov's film Dark Eyes (1987).
• American figure skater Sasha Cohen used this song for her short program at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
• The song featured in The Leningrad Cowboys' Total Balalaika Show (1994), featuring the full 160-member Red Army Choir.
• The Warner Bros. cartoon Falling Hare (1943) used this song in a scene where Bugs Bunny unsuccessfully tries to break down an airplane door (while the airplane was in the air and running) in order to find the Gremlin who has been continuously taunting him.
• The computer adventure game Syberia featured the chorus of the song in the last part of the game and being whistled by a lonesome janitor. The whole song is also in the game.
• Louis Armstrong did a version called "Otchi-Tchor-Ni-Ya", which in his unique New Orleans Creole patois sounded like "Oh Cha Chunya". The words were quite different from the proper translation of the song from Russian to English.
• Wingy Manone, trumpeter, and Edmond Hall, both from New Orleans, recorded a version of Dark Eyes in 1947. Edmond Hall's clarinet-solo is a classic and Wingy Manone sang a humorous nonsense-vocal:

Ochi chornya, Arizonia Hold the phone-ya, California Oh, Caldonia, I'm so alone-ya I wanna own ya. Won't you be mine?

• "Natalie" sung by Julio Iglesias is a version of this song.
• It is mentioned frequently in the movie The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart.
• In W.C. Fields' film Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, Gloria Jean sang this song in a scene where she finally finds her Uncle Bill (played by W.C. Fields) in Russia after he jumped out of the airplane that they were taking to retrieve his bottle of alcohol.
• Django Reinhardt recorded Les yeux noirs 3 times.

(Dark Eyes - Sophie Milman - Jazz)