Episode Details

Five fables by Ivan Krylov (1769–1844), in new English verse translations made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.

The Bear and the Bees (Медведь у Пчёл, Book V, No. 7) — The beasts elect Mishka overseer of the hives — a bear with a famous sweet tooth for honey. When he hauls the whole store home to his den, the court in proper form dismisses him and sentences him to lie the winter through in that same den; the sentence is decided, settled and sealed, but not a drop of the honey is ever returned.

The Bear in the Net (Медведь в сетях, Book VI, No. 19) — Tangled fast in the hunters' net, with boar-spears, guns and dogs closing in, the Bear pleads his case: of all beasts, he swears, he alone has never touched a dead man. The hunter's reply turns the boast neatly inside out.

The Bee and the Flies (Пчела и Мухи, Book VI, No. 13) — Two Flies, chased from every feast in their homeland and shut out from the sweets by glass covers, invite the Bee to fly with them to distant, sweeter lands. The Bee — loved by peasant and grandee alike for her honeycombs — declines, and tells them exactly what awaits the useless, abroad as at home.

The Boy and the Snake (Мальчик и Змея, Book VI, No. 9) — A boy reaches for an eel and grabs a Snake instead, and turns as pale as his own shirt. The Snake grants him one pardon — and one warning: beware, and know with whom you jest.

The Boy and the Worm (Мальчик и Червяк, Book VI, No. 21) — Krylov opens with the moral: never trust to find happiness by betrayal. A worm, sheltered all summer in a peasant's garden, helps a boy steal the one amber apple he cannot reach — and learns, under the boy's heel, what a traitor's reward is worth.

Krylov Fables.

Intermission: "Damp Pine Sunrise" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.