Russian word order is free, because the endings already say who did what to whom, and songwriters use that freedom to put any word they like on the rhyme. Russian and English are already set in the translator above, so paste the lyrics, in Cyrillic or Latin letters, for a faithful translation, a singable version and notes.
Ya tebya lyublyu, tebya ya lyublyu and lyublyu tebya ya all mean I love you, each with a different emphasis. English word order is fixed, so the emphasis has to come from word choice, or the line has to be rebuilt.
Russian stress can fall on any syllable and moves between forms of the same word (ruká, rúku). The rhythm of a Russian line is built on those stresses, so the singable English version aims for the same pattern of strong and weak beats, not just the same syllable count.
Russian names and nouns take on affectionate endings: Masha becomes Mashenka, and solntse, the sun, becomes solnyshko, little sun, a common pet name. English has nothing similar, so the notes explain the tone, and the translation uses words like my dear or sunshine where they fit.
Ty is close and casual, vy is polite or plural. A song that moves from vy to ty marks two people becoming close. English you cannot show it, so the notes do.
Russian rap and rock use a lot of street slang and strong swearing. The notes explain slang the translator had to interpret. If a line feels milder in English than it does in Russian, check it with a native speaker.
Two original lines, written for this page, with a romanized version underneath. The first line has 13 syllables and the second has 12.
Я сохранил твой голос в старом телефоне,
Pronunciation: Ya sokhranil tvoy golos v starom telefone,
и слушаю его, когда в окне темно.
Pronunciation: i slushayu yego, kogda v okne temno.
I saved your voice on an old phone,
and I listen to it when the window goes dark.
I kept your voice recorded on my old telephone
and play it back each night when the window's dark
Sokhranil, saved, is masculine, so the singer is a man. The first Russian line ends on a soft syllable (teleFOne) and the second on a strong one (temNO); the singable version ends both on strong words, a small change a singer can absorb by holding the note. V okne temno, literally it is dark in the window, is a Russian way to say night has fallen, which the singable version turns into each night.
Yes, transliterated Russian works. Cyrillic is more accurate, because transliteration is spelled in many different ways.
Ukrainian has its own entry in the language list. Choose it as the original language for Ukrainian lyrics instead of Russian, because the two languages share many words that mean different things.
It translates the feeling rather than the ending, using words like dear, little or sunshine where they sound natural in English, and the notes explain what the Russian ending adds.
Yes. Lines that rhyme in Russian still rhyme in English, though usually on a different sound, and each line stays within about two syllables of the original and close to its stress pattern.