Anton Stepanovitch Arensky:
Don't turn on the light
("From distant lands and peoples...", Track 5)
- Don't turn on the light.
The stars send their greetings.
Don't chase the dream away.
Text from CD insert. 
Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night Over the Rhone (detail), 1888, Oil on canvas,
92.0cm x 72.0cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Magnify- "Ne zazhigaj ognja!"
Ne zazhigaj ognja! Vo mgle dushistoj nochi
Otradno mne s toboj sidet' najedine.
Vzgljani, kak zvjozdy nam, nebes daljokikh ochi,
Privet svoj tjoplyj shljut, mercaja v vyshine.
Ne zazhigaj ognja! So svetom k nam nakhlynet
Znakomaja toska bescel'noj sujety,
Umchitsja svetlyj son, i schast'je nas pokinet.
Ne zazhigaj ognja, ne otgonjaj mechty. - "Do not light the lamp!"
Do not light the lamp! In the darkness of this scented night
it is a delight for me to sit alone with you.
Look how the stars, the eyes of far-off skies,
send us their warm greetings, twinkling far above.
Do not light the lamp! With light will flood to us
the familiar sadness of life's pointless bustle;
the light will dash away the dream, and happiness will abandon us.
Do not light the lamp - do not chase away our dream.
Transliterated Russian text and translation
from The Lied and Art Song Texts Page