Planet Literature

A Song by Boris Grebenshchikov about Good and Evil Magic

In his song Vorozhba (Magic Powers), the Russian singer-songwriter Boris Grebenshchikov contrasts the evil magic of war with the healing magic of a life based on striving for harmony with oneself and the world.

Grebenshchikov’s „No to War“

With Boris Grebenshchikov, another legendary figure of the Russian singer-songwriter scene vehemently condemned the war right at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a Facebook post, he called it „madness“ and a „disgrace for Russia“: „Эта война – безумие и позор России.“

Some time after that, Grebenshchikov also responded musically to the war – with the song Vorozhba (Magic Powers). In it, he contrasts two forms of magic: destructive dark magic and redemptive light magic.

Dark and Light Magic

Dark magic envelops the world in a poisonous mist and destroys it in a violent firestorm. At the same time, its dazzling light leads to blindness, so that those affected do not or only too late realise what is happening to them.

Bright magic, by contrast, can save the world. It stands for the wisdom of experience of the ancients and the religious wisdom of spiritualised people. The fact that Grebenshchikov portrays the latter as yogis refers to his Buddhist background.

Apart from that, Buddhism also emphasises the interconnectedness of all living things more than any other religion. This makes it particularly clear that any partial destruction of life also affects all other forms of life.

No Inner Peace Without Outer Peace

In terms of spiritual life, this means that inner harmony is dependent on outer harmony, and that war and inner peace are incompatible.

This insight is, of course, valid independently of the Buddhist faith. The allusion to the yogi merely sums it up in a coherent image. The same applies to the old people mentioned by Grebenshchikov in the song.

Here, too, it is not a question of asking one’s grandparents concretely to conjure away the war with a few magic tricks. The reference to the experiential knowledge of the ancients is rather an appeal to all of us to act wisely and do everything possible to put an end to a war that violently ignores the spiritual possibilities of human beings.

Magic Powers

Do you see, grandfather, the trace of decay
in our sky? And you, grandmother:
Do you feel the putrid fog?
Oh, conjure, conjure it away,
or else there will be no tomorrow!

Do you see, warrior, the useless sky?
Do you feel, Yogi, how we are drowning
in the stream of our own life?
Oh, call, call with all your might
for Him who has forgotten us!

Now the volcanoes have erupted.
The firestorm devours us all,
even if we didn’t start it.
He, who lives by his lust for murder,
has put a curse on our world.

This witchcraft has walled up our hearts
in coffins of icy iron.
How brightly they once shone!
How tightly they are now enclosed
by the darkness of the demon’s tomb!

Please, grandfather, and you, grandmother:
Conjure it up, the redeeming light!
Let it illuminate our hearts
with its shining writing!
As long as I breathe
I will wait and pray for it.

Борис Гребенщиков (Boris Grebenshchikov): Ворожба (Vorozhba)

Song, unplugged

Live, with the band Aquarium

More posts on Boris Grebenshchikov:

The dream of the simple life (about the song Kostroma, mon amour)

The hungry spirits and the liberated spirit (about the song Kladbishche / Graveyard)

About Boris Grebenshchikov:

Born in 1952, the artist founded the band Aquarium together with Anatoly Gunitsky during his studies of mathematics in St. Petersburg. While he began to work scientifically, he performed in parallel with the band, which still exists to this day in changing line-ups, and founded the rock magazine Roksi.

Although the band was banned in 1981 and Grebenshchikov was additionally dismissed, he became a central figure in the oppositional music scene. For example, he helped the legendary Viktor Tsoj (Tsoi) and his band Kino produce their first album and also worked with the cult band Mashina Vremeni. In the course of perestroika, Grebenshchikov became an idol of Russian youth.

After intensively studying Buddhism since the early 1990s, Grebenshchikov met the Indian-born spiritual savant Sri Chinmoy in 2006, with whose disciples he gave a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, among others. He has also translated writings by the Tibetan lama Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche into Russian.  

Bilder / Images: Iwan Martschyk: Boris Grebenschtschikow beim Atlas Festival (Atlas Weekend) in Kiew / Boris Grebenshchikov at the Atlas Festival (Atlas Weekend) in Kiev (Wikimedia commons); Leon Bakst: Zauberer; Kostümskizze für Igor Strawinskys Ballett Der Feuervogel / costume sketch for Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird(Wikimedia commons)