Soyuzmultfilm Moscow 1953
I. A. Krylov FABLES
The Crow and the Fox The Cuckoo and the Cock
Two fables by I. A. Krylov
written by Yu. Mihaylov, A. Shemshurin
director Ivan Aksenchuk
art directors Lev Pozdneyev, Vitold Bordzilovskiy
music Boris Chaykovskiy
camera N. Sokolova sound Nikolay Prilutskiy art assistant A. Sementsov-Ogiyevskiy
technical assistant V. Shilina camera assistant B. Kotov montage assistant A. Firsova
animators Mihail Botov, Tatyana Fyodorova, Vadim Dolgikh, Fyodor Hitruk, Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin
backgrounds Vera Valerianova, Galina Nevzorova, Vera Rodzhero
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;
Perched on a spruce, and then, 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 spruce 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...
"Caawww!"
...cawed out loud with full determination:
The cheese fell -
that fox slick Made off with it right quick.
The Cuckoo and the Rooster
"My dearest Rooster!
Your song is so strong,
and proud!"
"And you, dear Cuckoo, my light,
how smoothly flows your long-drawn-out note!
Oh! In all our forest, there's no other such singer!"
"To you, my dear gossip, I could listen for ever."
"And as for you, my beauty I swear that, when you are silent,
I scarcely know how to wait till you begin again.
Where do you get such a voice from?
So clear,
so soft,
and so high!
But no doubt you were always like that;
not very large in stature, but in song
- a regular nightingale."
"Thanks, gossip, for your words. Upon my conscience I declare
you sing
better
than a bird-of-paradise!
The public, too, agrees with me!"
"My friends!
Though you may praise each other till you're hoarse,
Yet, all the same, your music's bad!"
Why is it that, not fearing sin, the Cuckoo praises the Rooster?
Because he praises the Cuckoo.
The End
Re-translated by Niffiwan (2024) based on old subs by Eus (2012)