Episode Details

The Fables of Ivan Krylov — Episode Thirty-Five

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

The Starling (Скворец, Book IV, No. 6) — Krylov opens with his counsel: every man has his own talent, so take up the work you are born to. A young Starling learns to sing exactly like a goldfinch, and the whole forest praises him. Then he hears men praise the nightingale — and envy takes hold. He sings in the nightingale's way, in a style all his own, and his closing couplet tells him what that profit is worth.

The Stone and the Worm (Камень и Червяк, Book V, No. 6) — Lying in a field, a Stone grumbles about the rain: what a noise, what a boor — everyone waited for it like a dear guest, and all it did was fall for two or three hours. Let them ask about the Stone instead: here for ages, quiet and modest, never once thanked. The Worm answers — and Krylov's closing couplet turns the answer on a man who boasts of forty years of service.

The Swan, the Pike, and the Crayfish (Лебедь, Щука и Рак, Book IV, No. 5) — Krylov's most famous fable opens with its moral: when comrades have no concord, their work will not go well. A Swan, a Crayfish, and a Pike harness themselves together to haul a loaded cart. They strain out of their very skins — the Swan to the clouds, the Crayfish backward, the Pike to the water. Who is to blame is not for us to judge; the cart's own position delivers the verdict.

The Swimmer and the Sea (Пловец и Море, Book VI, No. 10) — Cast ashore by a boiling wave, a Swimmer sleeps, wakes, and curses the Sea: with your sly stillness you lure us in, and in your depths you drown us. The Sea appears in Amphitrite's form and answers for itself: sailing my waters is neither fearful nor dangerous — blame Aeolus's sons, the winds, who give me no rest. Krylov's closing couplet concedes the counsel is good, and then names its one flaw.

The Tax Collector and the Shoemaker (Откупщик и Сапожник, Book III, No. 1) — A rich Tax Collector feasts daily in splendid chambers, yet never sleeps soundly — and at dawn his neighbour finishes the job: a poor Shoemaker, Klim, who sings from morning to night and lets him sleep not at all. Orders will not work, and asking does no good, so the Collector sends for him, learns how happily a man can live with work, a good wife, and no spare money — and gives him a sack of five hundred roubles. That night the Shoemaker buries the sack in his cellar, and with it everything else he owned. His closing words, when he brings the sack back, are the fable's whole point.

Krylov Fables.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.