“Ripple” was written in 1970 by lyricist Robert Hunter, with music by Jerry Garcia, and released later that year on the Grateful Dead’s album American Beauty. Hunter wrote the lyrics during an extraordinary burst of inspiration while staying at a friend’s flat in London in May 1970; in the same sitting, he also wrote “Brokedown Palace” and “To Lay Me Down.” Garcia reportedly set “Ripple” to music soon afterward during the Festival Express train tour across Canada. Rather than telling a conventional story, the song reflects on choice, creativity, faith and the unknowable paths people follow through life. Its famous image of a ripple spreading across still water suggests how actions, words and ideas can travel far beyond their source.
The Grateful Dead first performed “Ripple” live in an acoustic set at the Fillmore West in San Francisco in August 1970. The band’s official archive generally lists August 18, 1970 as its debut, although surviving records from those Fillmore shows are incomplete and some sources give August 19. That early performance was particularly notable because several future American Beauty classics – including “Brokedown Palace,” “Operator” and “Truckin’” – were also receiving their first live outings around the same time.
A few details add to the song’s mystique. Hunter later singled out the image of a fountain “not made by the hands of men” as one of the favorite lines he ever wrote. Despite becoming one of the Dead’s best-loved songs, “Ripple” was actually performed surprisingly rarely: after the early 1970–71 period, it disappeared from the band’s concerts for years before returning during their celebrated acoustic shows in 1980. The studio recording also features David Grisman on mandolin, helping give the track its timeless, almost traditional folk-song character – a sound that eventually carried “Ripple” far beyond Deadhead culture and into songbooks, campfires and countless cover versions.
Ripple lyrics:
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
It’s a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they’re better left unsung
I don’t know, don’t really care
Let there be songs to fill the air
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand, if your cup be empty
If your cup is full, may it be again
Let it be known, there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
You who choose to lead, must follow
But if you fall, you fall alone
If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?
If I knew the way, I would take you home.
Ripple lyrics’ translation into Russian:
Перевод песни Grateful Dead “Ripple” на русский:
Рябь
Если бы слова мои сияли золотом солнечного света,
А мелодии звучали на арфе без струн,
Услышал бы ты мой голос сквозь эту музыку?
Принял бы его так, словно он — твой собственный?
Это наследие прошлого, мысли в нем разрознены,
Возможно, их лучше оставить непетыми.
Не знаю, да и неважно мне это —
Пусть песни наполняют воздух.
Рябь на спокойной воде,
Когда не брошен камешек
И нет дуновения ветра.
Протяни руку, если чаша твоя пуста;
Если же она полна — пусть наполнится вновь.
Знай: есть источник,
Который не был создан руками людей.
Есть дорога — не просто шоссе, —
Между рассветом и ночной тьмой.
И если ты пойдешь по ней, никто не последует за тобой:
Этот путь предназначен лишь для твоих шагов.
Рябь на спокойной воде,
Когда не брошен камешек
И нет дуновения ветра.
Тот, кто решил вести, должен и следовать сам,
Но если упадешь — упадешь в одиночестве.
А если устоишь — кто укажет тебе путь?
Знай я дорогу — я бы проводил тебя домой.