Description:

A fox tries to obtain a crow's cheese by flattery. An adaption of Ivan Krylov's version of Aesop's fable, "The Fox and the Crow", and a parody of avant-garde opera by the Ukrainian vocal duet, Duo Zikr.

Not only is the simple story here made into ridiculously high-falutin' Art, but the crow is not at all keen to let go of the cheese like she should, so the other artists resort to extreme measures.

The Aesop fable was written in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE (here's a simple English translation). Ivan Krylov adapted it into Russian no later than 1807 (it can be read here), and his poem became very famous.

Here is a new English translation made specifically for the film (it needed to be translated more exactly than prior versions due to certain events in the film coinciding with the words):

The Fox and the Crow

Oft has the world heard words like these:
"Flattery's vile!", and yet, it's still a potent art —
A liar's sure to find a place in someone's heart.

A crow, by grace of God, obtained a piece of cheese;
She scaled a fir-tree and, at last,
Was just about to break her fast,
But had a thought, the cheese still in her bill.
Not far away, a fox was running up the hill;
Ah! What a scent... the odour stops the fox.
The fox looks, sees the cheese; the cheese entices, mocks.
The rogue advances to the fir-tree on tip-toe;
She twirls her tail, her eyes fixed on the crow,
And gently says, in accents low and clear: —
"My songstress, you are such a dear!
Your neck's so fine, your eyes so pretty!
Your fame would spread through any city!
What pretty feathers! What a bill!
And doubtless, your angelic voice is finer still!
Sing, sunshine, don't be shy! If, sister, in your leisure,
Your beauty were abetted by song that gave us pleasure, —
You'd be the queen of birds, my treasure!"
The harbinger's head spun from such effusive praise,
It took her breath away, her crop filled with elation, —
And, answering the words that set her pride ablaze,
The vain crow cawed out loud with full determination:
The cheese fell — that fox slick
Made off with it right quick.

For further translation notes, please see the subtitle link.