The meaning of the lyrics of the song "Banya (sauna) with a white firing" (Banka po-belomu) the performer of the song "Vladimir Vysotsky"

Heat me a banya, the white, bright kind,

I have grown unaccustomed to the light.

I will stew in the heat, and clear my mind,

The scalding steam will loosen my tongue tight.

Heat me a banya, my dear hostess,

I will burn on the bench, and I will blaze,

Scorch away my every doubtfulness,

There on the edge, in the steamy haze.

I will melt away beyond all measure,

A bucket of cold - and it's all gone by.

The tattoo of the Cult of Personality

Will turn blue upon my left breast, nigh.

Heat me a banya, the white, bright kind,

I have grown unaccustomed to the light.

I will stew in the heat, and clear my mind,

The scalding steam will loosen my tongue tight.

So much faith and forest cut to the ground,

So much heat and hardship left behind,

And on my left breast - Stalin's face is found,

And on the right - "Marina," one of a kind.

Oh, for my faith, so reckless and so bold,

How many years I spent in paradise!

I traded it for a life, dark and cold,

My senseless folly, a heavy price.

Heat me a banya, the white, bright kind,

I have grown unaccustomed to the light.

I will stew in the heat, and clear my mind,

The scalding steam will loosen my tongue tight.

I remember how, at the crack of dawn,

I managed to shout to my brother, "Help me out!"

And two handsome guards, so strong and fawn,

Took me from Siberia, all about.

And then, in the quarry, or in the mire,

Swallowing tears and clay, we stood in line,

Closer to our hearts, we hammered his profile higher,

So that he could hear those hearts of ours entwine.

Heat me a banya, the white, bright kind,

I have grown unaccustomed to the light.

I will stew in the heat, and clear my mind,

The scalding steam will loosen my tongue tight.

Oh, I'm burning up from this story untold,

The steam has driven all thoughts from my head.

From the fog of the past, so dark and cold,

I plunge into a hot fog instead.

My thoughts are drumming beneath my brow,

It turns out, I've been branded for naught.

And I lash myself with a birch-tree bough,

At the legacy of those times, dark as thought.

Heat me a banya, the white, bright kind,

I have grown unaccustomed to the light.

I will stew in the heat, and clear my mind,

The scalding steam will loosen my tongue tight.

Протопи ты мне баньку по-белому -

Я от белого свету отвык.

Угорю я, и мне, угорелому,

Пар горячий развяжет язык.

Протопи ты мне баньку, хозяюшка,

Раскалю я себя, располю

На полоке, у самого краюшка,

Я сомненья в себе истреблю.

Разомлею я до неприличности,

Ковш холодный - и все позади.

И наколка времен культа личности

Засинеет на левой груди.

Протопи ты мне баньку по-белому -

Я от белого свету отвык.

Угорю я, и мне, угорелому,

Пар горячий развяжет язык.

Сколько веры и лесу повалено,

Сколь изведано горя и трасс,

А на левой груди - профиль Сталина,

А на правой - Маринка анфас.

Эх, за веру мою беззаветную

Сколько лет отдыхал я в раю!

Променял я на жизнь беспросветную

Несусветную глупость мою.

Протопи ты мне баньку по-белому -

Я от белого свету отвык.

Угорю я, и мне, угорелому,

Пар горячий развяжет язык.

Вспоминаю, как утречком раненько

Брату крикнуть успел: "Пособи!"

И меня два красивых охранника

Повезли из Сибири в Сибирь.

А потом на карьере ли, в топи ли,

Наглотавшись слезы и сырца,

Ближе к сердцу кололи мы профили

Чтоб он слышал, как рвутся сердца.

Протопи ты мне баньку по-белому -

Я от белого свету отвык.

Угорю я, и мне, угорелому,

Пар горячий развяжет язык.

Ох, знобит от рассказа дотошного,

Пар мне мысли прогнал от ума.

Из тумана холодного прошлого

Окунаюсь в горячий туман.

Застучали мне мысли под темечком,

Получилось - я зря им клеймен,

И хлещу я березовым веничком

По наследию мрачных времен.

Протопи ты мне баньку по-белому -

Я от белого свету отвык.

Угорю я, и мне, угорелому,

Пар горячий развяжет язык.

In Vladimir Vysotsky's song "Banya po-belomu" ("White Bathhouse"), we encounter a man who has endured hardships and seeks purification from his past.

The "white bathhouse," where the fire doesn't touch the stones, symbolizes cleansing, a kind of spiritual rebirth. The lyrical hero, tired of the "white light" – of lies, injustice, and hypocrisy – seeks solace in the steam room, hoping the hot steam will help him free himself from oppressive memories.

The hero's body bears witness to a difficult past: a tattoo from the time of the personality cult (likely a portrait of Stalin) and a portrait of Marinka - a symbol of love and freedom. These two images reflect the hero's contradictory nature, torn between the past and the present.

The song touches upon the theme of repression: the hero recalls how "two handsome guards took him from Siberia to Siberia" - a terrifying reality faced by millions in the USSR.

"We pinned the profiles closer to our hearts" - these lines suggest that the prisoners, stripped of everything, found solace in faith and love, symbolized by the portraits of Stalin and Marinka.

"Banya po-belomu" is not just a song about bathing, it is a metaphor for the purification of the soul, the search for truth and meaning in life. The hero seeks to rid himself of the burden of the past, of the "legacy of dark times," and the bathhouse becomes a place of spiritual rebirth for him.