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 Crow and the Fox (Ворона и Лисица, Book I, No. 1) — Krylov opens with the moral: flattery is a filthy thing, sweet poison dressed as gain — yet every heart keeps one little corner for the flatterer. Then Heaven sends a Crow a piece of cheese, and a Fox passing under her spruce smells it, and begins to pour out praise: what a neck, what eyes, what feathers — and surely an angel's voice. The prophet-bird needs only open her beak to sing.

The Crow and the Hen (Ворона и Курица, Book I, No. 4) — Moscow, 1812: as Kutuzov sets his snare for the invader and the whole city pours out of the walls like bees from a hive, one Crow sits calm on her rooftop and declines the road. Crows, she reasons, are neither roasted nor boiled — she will rub along with the guests, and perhaps even feast on a cheese or a bone. But when Smolensk begins to starve his guests with hunger, she finds herself inside their soup at last.

The Cuckoo and the Dove (Кукушка и Горлинка, Book VI, No. 2) — The Cuckoo cuckoos in sorrow on her bough: she loved, she became a mother — and her children will not know her at all. Is that the payment she had hoped for? The gentle Dove suffers for her, but asks one question: when did you ever build a nest? "What nonsense — I always laid my eggs in other birds' nests." Krylov's closing lesson is addressed to fathers and mothers.

The Cuckoo and the Eagle (Кукушка и Орёл, Book VIII, No. 6) — The Eagle, by decree, grants the Cuckoo the rank of Nightingale. Perched in state on her aspen, she sets out to display her musical talents — and the whole forest flies off, laughing and scolding. Her complaint reaches the Eagle, and his answer is the fable's moral: a king can command the birds to honor a Cuckoo as a Nightingale; he cannot make a Nightingale out of a Cuckoo.

The Cuckoo and the Rooster (Кукушка и Петух, Book IX, No. 10) — "How grandly you sing!" — "And you, my light, how smooth and long your note!" The Cuckoo and the Rooster praise each other to the skies — a voice pure as a nightingale's, a singer better than the bird of Paradise — until a Sparrow chances by and tells them plainly: praise each other hoarse if you like, your music is bad. Krylov's closing lines explain why the Cuckoo praises the Rooster.

Krylov Fables.

Intermission: "Damp Pine Sunrise" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.