Dark Eyes

"Dark Eyes" is a well-known and popular Russian romance. The lyrics were written by the poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka and first published on January 17, 1843. The melody associated with the lyrics have been borrowed from the "Valse hommage", Op. 21 for piano, written by Florian Hermann and published in 1879. The Russian singer Feodor Chaliapin popularized a version of "Dark Eyes" with changes to the lyrics and additional verses. Another popular version was written by an Italian-born British composer Adalgiso Ferraris. It was first published in 1910 as "Schwarze Augen" (Black Eyes). The song became one of his major successes in the 1920s and 1930s; his version was played by Albert Sandler and Leslie Jeffries in 1939, and sung by Al Bowlly as "Black Eyes" in 1939 with words of Albert Mellor. Max Jaffa also recorded it. Composition The lyrics were written by the poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka, born in Poltava, now in Ukraine. The first publication of the poem was in Hrebinka's own Russian translation in Literaturnaya Gazeta on January 17, 1843. A song using these lyrics was published in 1874, but its melody was not included in the publication.