And here's a translation of sorts. My short comments in Italic.
On life of "bees" and coprophagous "beetles"
Here, the life of a "bee" is described, but i haven't found the text anywhere. — SC
And now about the "beetles"
Who are they, those misterious "beetles" whose popularity is simply fantastic? - the reader would ask. Unfortunately, it's only an English pop group "The Beatles", consisting of four people — George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr. Three with guitars, one drummer, and all the four... just escaped saying "sing"! It's hard to imagine what sounds these young men produce to their own accompaniment, what's the meaning of their "opuses". Enough to say that one of their compositions is called "Get out of here, Beethoven" [means "Roll over Beethoven", of course].
When "Beatles" release their twisting shouts, young people start shrieking of delight, stomping their feet and whistling. Thousands of American teenagers are so obstinate in howling along to their idols that we can barely hear the latter and amplifiers don't help. Fan girls from the pit twitch so much to the rhythm of twist that often faint and fall off their seats.
The "beetles" have 12 servants — "bees", five of which are responsible for correspondence. There's a "camera bee", there's a publishing issuing a monthly magazine called "Beatles"...
Poor naive "beetles"! Maybe you are quite sure that all this — fame, megabuck, screams and shrieks of fans, visits to kings — is forever and deserved. But i bet you'd be on top for another year or a year and a half and then other young men with even more ridiculous haircuts and wilder voices will take your place, and everything will be over!
And you'll find it hard to find a temporary job in small suburbian bars or you'll have to be the "bees" for the new "beetles"...
And as for Beethoven, the one you ask to "roll over" so insistently in your song, i think we shouldn't worry about him.
PS: in case you've noticed, dear reader, i've added "coprophagous" to the word "beetles" in the header, but i think you won't blame it on me. Moreover, we had given you a short explanation.
Nikita Bogoslovsky [famous Soviet composer - SC]
Below the picture: "Beetles" came to the US. A caricature from New York Herald Tribune.
By the way, rumour has it: when the author of the article was (much later) asked if it was a "paid" or a planted article, he answered, "no, but maybe i was drunk when i was writing it".
