Pushkin — Ruslan and Lyudmila, Canto Five
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Ruslan's horn sounds beneath the wizard's mountain — and when Chernomor swoops down with his club raised, the knight catches him by the beard and will not let go: two days they fly over forests, mountains and the sea's abyss, until the shorn beard hangs from Ruslan's helmet and the powerless dwarf rides home in a sack behind the saddle. In the silent palace a wild sword-blow knocks the cap of invisibility from the unseen princess, and Lyudmila lies revealed in the nets, sunk in magic sleep; the Finn's voice sends Ruslan homeward with her in his arms. On the road he watches the great Head breathe its last, finds his old rival Ratmir a happy fisherman who has forgotten glory for love — and then, in the moonlit valley, dreams a prophetic dream while Farlaf, guided by Naina, rides through the dark with his sword drawn.
Ruslan and Lyudmila (Руслан и Людмила), Canto Five — by Alexander Pushkin, in a new English verse translation made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.
Pushkin.
Intermission: "2-22" — instrumental.
KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.
