Episode Details

The Fables of Ivan Krylov — Episode Thirteen

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

Fortuna Comes to Visit (Фортуна в гостях, Book V, No. 26) — Three brothers in a tumbledown house blame Fortune for everything — until she comes, unseen, to stay the whole summer and help them in all they do. One grows rich as Croesus, one rises in rank; the third spends the summer catching flies, and never misses one. Krylov's opening moral tells you who to blame.

Fortune and the Beggar (Фортуна и Нищий, Book V, No. 22) — A beggar with a tattered sack marvels that the rich, up to their throats in gold, are never full. Fortune offers him a sackful of gold coins on one condition: whatever falls from the sack to the floor turns to rubbish. The sack is old. The beggar keeps asking for one pinch more.

The Fox (Лиса, Book IX, No. 4) — Drinking at an ice-hole in hard frost, a Fox freezes the tip of her splendid golden tail to the ice. The remedy is simple — a sharp tug and a pinch of hairs — but who would spoil such a tail? She waits for the thaw, and the people, to wake. The Wolf's rescue, when it comes, is simpler still.

The Fox and the Marmot (Лисица и Сурок, Book II, No. 10) — Exiled from her judgeship in the henhouse "for bribes," the Fox pours out her innocence to the Marmot: she under-ate, under-slept, and all of it slander. The Marmot believes nearly all of it — he has only often noticed the fluff upon her snout. Krylov's closing stanza aims the same line at every sighing official who somehow builds a house.

The Fox and the Donkey (Лисица и Осёл, Book VII, No. 9) — Fresh from the Lion, the Donkey reports that the king of beasts lies frail in his cave while every passer-by settles old scores — one with his teeth, one with his horns. Did the Donkey dare touch him? "What have I to fear? I kicked him too!" Krylov's moral is for everyone who finds his courage only after the mighty fall.

Krylov Fables.

Intermission: "Santa Fe Springs 2" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.