The Fables of Ivan Krylov — Episode Thirty-Nine
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Five fables by Ivan Krylov (1769–1844), in new English verse translations made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.
The Wolf and the Fox (Волк и Лисица, Book IV, No. 3) — Krylov opens with the moral: we gladly give away what we ourselves do not need — and truth goes down easier half-open. A Fox, feasted full on chicken with a good heap stored away in reserve, settles down to nap under a haystack when a hungry Wolf comes visiting: not a bone anywhere, fierce dogs, a sleepless shepherd — he might as well hang himself. She is full of sympathy, and offers him — a little hay, from the whole stack. Of her meat in reserve, not one word. The grey knight, flattered to his ears, goes home without his supper.
The Wolf and the Lamb (Волк и Ягнёнок, Book I, No. 13) — Krylov opens with the most famous line in all his fables: with the strong, the powerless is always in the wrong. A Lamb goes to a stream to drink on a hot day, and a hungry Wolf, wanting to give the business a lawful look, accuses him of muddying his pure drinking with sand and silt. The Lamb answers truly — he drinks a hundred steps downstream; he was not even a year old the summer before last; he has no brothers. Each defence is swept aside, until the Wolf stops pretending: you are guilty because I want to eat — and drags him into the dark forest.
The Wolf and the Little Mouse (Волк и Мышонок, Book VII, No. 20) — A grey Wolf drags a sheep from the flock into a hidden corner of the forest and falls on her so greedily that the bones crunch in his teeth — then saves the remainder for supper and lies down to rest. Drawn by the smell of the feast, a little Mouse creeps through the moss, snatches one small piece of meat, and hurries home to his hollow. The Wolf raises a howl through the whole forest: Help! Guards! A robbery! My whole estate is stolen! Krylov closes with the same scene in town — a judge whose little watch has been stolen, shouting for the guards.
The Wolf and the Shepherds (Волк и Пастухи, Book VI, No. 1) — The shortest fable in this episode, and the whole point is in the Wolf's own muttered line. Passing close around the shepherds' yard, the Wolf sees through the fence how the Shepherds, having picked the finest ram in the flock, calmly dress the little ram themselves — while all the dogs lie peacefully at rest. Walking away in vexation, he says it to himself: what a noise you all would raise here, friends, if I had done that.
The Wolf in the Kennel (Волк на псарне, Book II, No. 8) — A Wolf at night, meaning to climb into the sheepfold, lands in the kennel instead. The whole yard rises: dogs barking in the sheds and straining to fight, kennelmen shouting "a thief!", gates barred, men running with cudgels, guns and fire. Cornered, teeth clicking, the Wolf turns diplomat: your old matchmaker and godfather, come to make peace, ready by a wolf's oath never to touch the local flocks again. The grey-bearded huntsman's answer closes the fable — and it is one of the most quoted refusals in Russian literature.
Krylov Fables.
KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.
