Here are the words to the song (or a poem) in English:
Tr. Jacob Robbins, 1921
1. From beyond the wooded island
To the river wide and free,
|: Proudly sail the arrow-breasted
Ships of Cossack yeomanry. :|
2. On the first is Stenka Razin
With a princess at his side,
|: Drunken, holds a marriage revel
With his beautiful young bride. :|
3. But behind them rose a whisper,
“He has left his sword to woo;
|: One short night, and Stenka Razin
Has become a woman too!” :|
4. Stenka Razin hears the jeering
Of his discontented band,
|: And the lovely Persian princess
He has circled with his hand. :|
5. His black brows have come together
As the waves of anger rise,
|: And the blood comes rushing swiftly
To his piercing, jet-black eyes. :|
6. “I will give you all you ask for,
Life and heart, and head and hand,”
|: Echo rolls the pealing thunder
Of his voice across the land. :|
7. “Volga, Volga, mother Volga,
Deep and wide beneath the sun,
|: You have never seen a present
From the Cossack of the Don. :|
8. And that peace might rule as always
All my free-born men and brave,
|: Volga, Volga, mother Volga,
Volga, make this girl a grave.” :|
9. With a sudden, mighty movement,
Razin lifts the beauty high,
|: And he casts her where the waters
Of the Volga move and sigh. :|
10. Now a silence like the grave sinks
To all those who stand to see,
|: And the battle-hardened Cossacks
Sink to weep on bended knee. :|
11. “Dance, you fool, and men, make merry!
What has got into your eyes?
|: Let us thunder out a chanty
Of a place where beauty lies.” :|
12. From beyond the wooded island
To the river wide and free,
|: Proudly sail the arrow-breasted
Ships of Cossack yeomanry. :|