I Don't Like (Я не люблю)

"I Don't Like" (Я не люблю) - Vladimir Vysotsky, USSR, 1968

"I want to show you a song that will answer half of those questions that I get asked in letters. Questions that concern me personally, about my personality - of that which I personally love in this life, which - no, what I accept, which - no..." - Vladimir Vysotsky
(quote sourced from commentary on v-vissotsky.ru)

Vysotsky had countless songs that had him playing roles (he was an actor as well, after all), but this is a personal song. It's a list of what Vysotsky likes (or rather, what he doesn't like) in this life. The idea of this song is simple, and yet we get an complex and vivid realization of that idea here.

This is one of Vysotsky's more popular songs, and with good reason. It's simply ripe for interpretation, as we can say so much about Vysotsky as a person simply by looking at what he likes, doesn't like, hates, pities, and so on. I will let you determine how to best interpret the personality that is Vladimir Vysotsky from this song, and I will instead comment only on an interesting history:

This song had two changes to lines that represent Vysotsky completely rethinking his opinion.

The original "I don't like it when they shoot in the back - but if it's needed, I'll shoot at point-blank" is changed to "I don't like it when they shoot in the back - I'm likewise against shots at point blank". Vysotsky goes from accepting a point-blank shot if necessary to being against it.

The original "I don't like violence and powerlessness - and I don't pity the crucified Christ" is changed to "I don't like violence and powerlessness - I really only pity the crucified Christ." In an interesting change that adds another layer of possible interpretation to the song, Vysotsky grows to pity the "crucified Christ" (but only the crucified Christ, that's key).

Now, there's a fair amount of wordplay and metaphor going on in this song, so I can't guarantee an accurate translation. I will leave you with the following resources:

http://wysotsky.com/wysotsky/0002/008... - Many translations of this song into many languages (scroll down).
http://lang-8.com/1232502/journals/30... - A line-by-line collaborative translation of this song into English, though many of the text is in Russian.