Dark Eyes "Ochi chornye"

The words of Ochi chornye are a poem by the Ukrainian writer Yevhen Hrebinka, published in a Russian literary paper in 1843. The melody is not Russian in origin: it comes from a Valse hommage by the German composer Florian Hermann, printed in the 1870s in an arrangement by Sofus Gerdal. The two were joined later in the century, and the song entered the Russian romance repertoire in the version Feodor Chaliapin performed and recorded, with extra verses of his own. It has since been absorbed into jazz and Roma repertoires far from either source.