Bulat Okudjava (May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, singer and song-writer. He was an author of approximately 200 songs that he himself set to music. At the time when majority of Soviet art was directed at the masses, his songs were hauntingly original and personal. It was this quality that attracted his listeners and helped to establish him as one of Russia’s most beloved bards.
This is a small selection of his songs translated into English.
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (also transliterated as Boulat Okudjava, Bulat Okudjava, Boulat Okoudjava, or Okoudzhava; Russian: Була́т Ша́лвович Окуджа́ва, Georgian: ბულატ ოკუჯავა) (May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Soviet poet, writer, musician, novelist,singer-songwriter. He was one of the founders of the Russian genre called "author's song" (авторская песня, avtorskaya pesnya). He was of Georgian-Armenian origin, born in Moscow and died in Paris. He was the author of about 200 songs, set to his own poetry. His songs are a mixture of Russian poetic and folksong traditions and the French chansonnier style represented by such contemporaries of Okudzhava as Georges Brassens. Though his songs were never overtly political (in contrast to those of some of his fellow "bards"), the freshness and independence of Okudzhava's artistic voice presented a subtle challenge to Soviet cultural authorities, who were thus hesitant for many years to give official sanction to Okudzhava as a singer-songwriter.