4 Lines from Russian to English - Pretty Please? :-)

Hey everyone,

Could someone please translate the following four lines from Seryoga's "Korabli" for me? I would be ever so grateful! :-)

Куда уходит время, кто расскажет мне по пунктам?
Куда уходят годы, куда бегут секунды?
Куда уходят корабли, покидая гавань?
Куда уходят те кто их провожают плавать?

Thanks and best regards,

Nate

Edit: Just so no one can say I'm lazy ;-) the closest I could get so far would be something along the lines of

Where does the time go, ... [really no clue here]
Where do the years go, where the seconds
Where do the ships go that leave the port
Where do those go that escort them

Yes, it's probably not even close to the actual meaning. My understanding of the russian language blows, but give me time. :-D

Where does the time go, who'll tell me item after item?
Where do the years go, where do the seconds run?
Where do the ships go that leave the port?
Where do those go that see them off?

"...item after item"? I'm not even getting that in english. :-D

Thanks for the translation, it's appreciated.

Best regards,

Nate

Well, that's what dictionary says:
по пунктам — point by point, paragraph after paragraph, item after item

I thought a bit about this, maybe it could mean something like "one by one" in this context (the years). But then again, that doesn't fit well with the "who'll tell me"-part...

Best regards,

Nate

Well, it can be understood as a synonym to "thoroughly" or "in detail".

Then maybe it means something like

"Where does the time go, who can really tell (me)"


Best Regards,

Nate

I don't know. I don't really think there is a reason to oversimplify the translation, since it isn't quite common to say like he did in Russian, too.

There's one problem with rap songs: you can't expect a perfect language from them. My guess is that the author wasn't too laborious about the lyrics, so it's a compromise between keeping the sense and keeping the rhyme =)
This 'Куда уходит время, кто расскажет мне по пунктам?' really sounds just a little bit odd (normally, you wouldn't put it this way in a conversation), still it's comprehensible.
'По пунктам' literally means: 'articulately', 'paragraph after paragraph', 'clause by clause' etc.
So, if I wanted to answer Seryoga's question 'по пунктам', literally, I would do it like this:
'The time is spent on: [время уходит на:]
1) <something>
2) <another something>
3) <...> ... '

...and so on.

I don't know what would be the best possible equivalent for 'по пунктам' in this particular case in English (tell me if you do ), but that's the idea. That's why this phrase sounds odd: noone would answer a question in that manner (maybe, except for some lecturer, or a scientist).