Literally everywhere quite recently one could hear the song of Viktor Tsoi “Cuckoo”. Polina Gagarina performed the soundtrack for the military-patriotic film “Battle for Sevastopol”, after which it gained immense popularity (being very famous before that). In the television show “Voice” and “Voice. Children ”it is perhaps the most often performed composition among the participants. In various dance projects under the “Cuckoo” they now love to stage choreographic performances related to the war. Almost certainly, many Russians associate it with a military uniform and young people with spiritual faces. But let's see if such a meaning was put into the words of this song by Viktor Tsoi?
Many musicians rehearsed the “Cuckoo”: Zemfira, DDT, Bi-2. Artists painted this composition in a certain gamut of colors and brought personal meanings to it. But unlike the soundtrack to the film, versions of other musicians did not make propaganda sense into it. Now, on May 9, in schools, along with the song “Victory Day,” they also sing “Cuckoo.” And if you ask people what the song "Cuckoo" is likely to answer "about the war."
So, after listening to the “original”, I think it’s easy to guess that initially it was a completely different matter, and the lines “and if there is gunpowder, give fire” do not call for military action. To begin with, the song of Viktor Tsoi is personal. It is aimed not at the people (as it seems, if you listen to the version of Polina Gagarina), but at the person, at each of us.
The name of the song represents rock, fate, the supreme powers that the lyrical hero applies to find out how long his life will be, how much he will manage to give the world in creative terms for the period of time allotted to him. The summer calculus is carried out by songs, and not by years, which indicates the dominant role of creativity in the life of Viktor Tsoi.
The lyrical hero wonders which path he should choose. In these lines we see concepts and phenomena that are opposite in meaning. The world is diverse and contradictory, which makes it difficult to make any choice. It seems to me, for the most part, the choice consists of a peaceful, calm, partly inactive lifestyle (“live on the settlements”, “lie on a stone”) and a life filled with struggle, opposition, activity (“live in the city”, “burn with a star” )
Further, the choice of Viktor Tsoi becomes obvious. The line "my palm turned into a fist" means the path of struggle and opposition. You also need to clarify the meaning, paying attention to the word "turned." I think it means here that he chooses this path, partly because circumstances, destiny, and higher powers push him to this. The hero didn’t turn his hand into a fist, this happened not by his will. Turning to the sun, he asks to give fire if there is gunpowder left in it, which means "if you have the strength and capabilities - act, do not waste them. As for the image of the sun, I can assume that we are talking about a person, about each of us, about the listener, whom Viktor Tsoi addresses and asks him to switch from “passive glow” to “giving fire”. It is also possible that the sun symbolizes the supreme forces or good fortune, to which the hero turns to him asking for help and assistance.
The lyrical hero does not just ask for help and assistance from higher forces or good luck, he says that outstanding, courageous figures (poets, musicians, politicians, etc.), those who choose a difficult path, the path of struggle, “folded their heads "Or perished. Many of them lost their minds, again unable to withstand pressure from outside.
Where are you now, free will,
With whom are you now gentle dawn
You meet, answer.Good with you and bad without you
Head and shoulders patient
Under the whip, under the whip.
In these lines, the word "will", in my opinion, is implied in several senses. On the one hand, this is the absence of bondage. That is, the lyrical hero is, as it were, imprisoned, not at large. Most likely, he meant the lack of freedom in the political, social, economic and spiritual spheres of life. Viktor Tsoi wants to know where all this can be found, where does it exist? On the other hand, the will is implied as the ability to the internal efforts of man. The author of the song says that he is tired of fighting, that he is in a critical situation, does not feel enough strength in himself to resist, and therefore he puts “patient head and shoulders under the whip”.
Unfortunately, now we can’t find out exactly the meaning of this song. And the audience of “Cinema” can only create their own interpretations of the group’s compositions and have “a pack of cigarettes in their pocket”.
