Planet Literature

A Song by Zemfira about Direct and Indirect Violence

In 2005, the Russian singer-songwriter Zemfira wrote the song Nye strelyaitye (Don’t shoot). In a video clip from 2022, she explicitly relates the song to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A Singer in the Sights of the Media

In 2007, Zemfira commented in interviews on her „relationship crises“, which had been speculated about in the Russian media for some time. According to her, some of the songs on her new album Spassibo (Thank You) were an attempt to come to terms with her personal crisis.

With this, the singer tried to put an end to the rumours about her private life. These had previously taken on increasingly unpleasant forms. Among other things, the artist had been associated with drug excesses and a pathological anorexia.

Against this background, Zemfira’s song Nye strelyaitye (Don’t shoot), written in 2005, can be understood as a kind of musical resistance against the voyeurism of the media. The plea expressed by the person in the song not to target her vulnerable psyche, her scars and her private life would then be an almost imploring appeal to also grant a person in public life a right to privacy.

Nye strelyaitye as an Anti-War Song

After the Russian army invaded Ukraine, Zemfira released a new video clip for the song. At the end, images of the destruction caused by the war are superimposed. In this way, the artist herself opens up another possible interpretation for her song.

For this purpose, the people addressed by the person in the song must be divided into two groups. The first group consists of those to whom the person is concretely exposed in war. These people can kill her directly with their weapons.

The second group comprises those to whom the person turns for help. On the one hand, they are explicitly asked not to remain silent in the face of the violence to which the individual is exposed. On the other hand, however, the latter also rejects a look at war in which the victims become the objects of sensationalist voyeurism.

Compassion and Voyeurism

From this arises the appeal not to feign compassion in the cosy TV room, as this cannot meet the concrete suffering of the people affected by the war.

Instead, those who witness the violence from afar should do everything they can to put an end to it. The first step towards this is to amplify the cry of the tortured and raped, persecuted and maimed again and again by the echo of one’s own voice. This is exactly what the refrain of the song says: „Don’t be silent!“

The quoted interview with Zemfira can be found in livejournal.com, October 28, 2007.More on Zemfira in the article on her song Мясо (Myassa: Flesh): War as Delirious Flood of Images

Don’t Shoot!

No, don’t shoot!
I am just a timid whisper,
a faint, almost faded sigh.

No, don’t look at me!
My scars are none of your business,
Avert your pitiful eyes from me,
they do me harm.

But please don’t be silent
in this eloquent silence
that buries me beneath it!
No, don’t be silent!

No, don’t shoot!
Don’t you see the love in this room,
this exposed love that you break apart
with your thoughtless hands?

No, don’t ask me any questions!
I’m afraid of losing my grip.
And your hands won’t be able to hold
me and my burdening answers.

But please don’t be silent
in this eloquent silence
that buries me beneath it!
No, don’t be silent!

Земфира (Zemfira): Не стреляйте (Nye strelyaitye)

Video clip:

Live in London, November 3, 2022

Images: Francisco de Goya (1746 – 1826): Episode from the Spanish War of Independence (between 1808 and 1812; Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Wikimedia commons); Marina Zacharowa: Zemfira performing in Moscow, 2013 (Wikimedia commons)