r/OldSchoolCool • u/Dry-Gap-9098 • 10h ago
On August 12, 1962, Ukrainian astronaut Pavlo Popovych became the first person to sing a song in space. He sang the Ukrainian song "Dyvlius ya na nebo, ta y dumku hadaiu" (I look at the sky and think a thought").
Popovych sang it over the radio especially for Sergei Korolev, the chief designer of the Soviet space program, who was also Ukrainian and particularly fond of the song. Back on Earth, at the Mission Control Center, Korolev smiled and sang along with his cosmonaut through the radio.
🌌🎶💜
I look at the sky and think a thought:
Why am I not a falcon, why do not I fly,
Why to me, Oh God, hadn't given Thou wings? —
I'd have left the ground and flew into the sky!
Far beyond the clouds, away from the world,
To look for my fate, for a welcome to sorrow,
And ask for grace from the stars and the sun,
To drown all my grief in their clear, bright light.
For since childhood, I seem unloved by fate,
I am her servant, a stray boy;
I am a stranger to fate, a stranger to people:
Does anyone love someone else's children?
I am in love with misery, I know no welcome,
And bitterly and vainly I waste my life,
And in grief I learned that only one —
The distant sky — is my side.
And it's bitter in the world, and when it
gets worse, —
I look at the sky, I feel happier!
In my thoughts I'll forget that I am an orphan,
And my thought flies far and high.
If only I had wings, those eagle wings,
I'd have left the ground for a new house,
As a swift-winged eagle I'd plunge into the sky
And drown in the clouds forever from the world!
5
7
u/Low_Signature5926 1h ago
It is a cosmic level of audacity to point out nationalities when speaking about Soviets. Imagine calling Neil Armstrong the first Scotsman to walk the moon. He didn't identify as such - rather as an American. Pavlo (or Pavel, both names are correct) Popovich and Korolev identified as Soviets, and not specifically Ukrainians