[Verse 1] Valdai, low and small, yet it crowns them all. Three rivers hear its call, three worlds at its wall. A hill of 346, and kingdoms learned to read the streams like coded fire, the land like a wired-up key. [Pre-Chorus] North to the white cold tide, west where the Baltic slides. South through the buried roads, the plain begins to divide. [Chorus] Hold the watershed hold the watershed (ҳольд) hold the watershed One hill, three destinies one hill, three destinies (slavá) one hill, three destinies [Verse 2] Down Ladoga they go, Neva in the thaw. Past Ilmen’s iron edge, past Novgorod’s hawk-eyed law. The poles came with the oars, salt on their weathered hands, then portage through the hush to where the next river stands. [Pre-Chorus] Not a border stone, but a living spine. Who held that crossing place held the routes between the lines. [Chorus] Hold the watershed hold the watershed (ҳольд) hold the watershed One hill, three destinies one hill, three destinies (slavá) one hill, three destinies [Bridge] From Kyiv to the black, from the black to Constantinople, the road was water and will, a pulse through the ironfold. (Hej, skål) across the frost (Hej, skål) across the stone The valley learned to move what the hills had always known. [Final Chorus] Hold the watershed hold the watershed (ҳольд) hold the watershed One hill, three destinies one hill, three destinies (slavá) one hill, three destinies The road was not the edge the road was the artery (ҳольд) hold the watershed hold the watershed
