Krylov”s Fables: text and moral

Krylov’s fables have long been a staple of family and childhood literature. These clever, little stories impart valuable life lessons through the use of commonplace objects and animals. Krylov is able to communicate important moral lessons that both kids and adults can relate to through humor and deft storytelling.

His fables are easily understood due to the simplicity of his language, but they frequently contain deeper meanings. Every fable leaves readers thinking, whether it is about the virtues of hard work, greed, or arrogance. Long after you’ve read the stories, you can’t help but be reminded of their timeless lessons.

This essay will examine some of Krylov’s most well-known fables, decipher their meanings, and identify the moral lessons they impart. These fables are certain to provoke meaningful conversations and introspection, whether you’re discovering them for the first time or revisiting old favorites.

ELEPHANT AND MOSK

An Elephant was led through the streets,
As you can see for show —
It is known that Elephants are a novelty for us —
So crowds of onlookers followed the Elephant.
Out of nowhere, a Mosk came towards them.
Seeing the Elephant, well, they rushed at him,
Barking, squealing, and tearing themselves,
Well, he just starts to fight with him.
"Neighbor, stop making a fool of yourself",
The mongrel says to her: "Are you the one messing around with the Elephant?
Look, you wheezing, and he goes on
Forward
And he doesn"t notice your barking at all". —
"Eh, eh!" the Pug answers her:
"That"s what gives me courage,
That I, without a fight,
Can get into big trouble.
Let the dogs say:
"Ay, Pug! She must be strong
That she barks at an elephant!"»

Krylov’s fables are brief, enjoyable tales that use likable, relatable characters—often animals—to impart valuable life lessons. Every fable has a lesson that imparts useful knowledge about human nature, interpersonal relationships, and behavior. Krylov’s fables contain timeless lessons that are simple enough for kids and adults to comprehend, which makes them an excellent teaching resource for morality and critical thinking.

CROW AND FOX

How many times have they declared to the world that flattery is disgusting and dangerous, but it all goes in vain because the flatterer will always find a way to get their way in the heart?

Somewhere God sent a piece of cheese to a crow;
Having perched on a spruce tree,
She was about to have breakfast,
But she was lost in thought, and had the cheese in her mouth.
To that misfortune, a fox was running close by;
Suddenly the cheese spirit stopped the fox:
The fox sees the cheese, — the fox is captivated by the cheese.
The rogue approaches the tree on tiptoe;
Wagging his tail, not taking his eyes off the Crow,
And speaking so sweetly, barely breathing:
“My dear, how beautiful!
What a neck, what eyes!
To tell, really, is a fairy tale!
What feathers! what a sock!
And truly, the voice must be angelic!
Sing, my dear, don’t be ashamed! What if, sister,
With such beauty, you are also a master at singing,
You would have been our king-bird!»
The soothsayer"s head was turned by the praise,
Her breath caught in her throat with joy, —
And at the fox"s friendly words
The crow cawed at the top of her crow"s throat:
The cheese fell out — such a rogue was with it.

THE WOLF AND THE LAMB

The strong always place the blame on the weak: History is full of examples of this, but we do not write history; instead, fables tell us this.

A lamb went to a stream to drink on a hot day;
And a misfortune must happen.
That a hungry wolf was prowling around those places.
He sees a lamb, he is eager for prey;
But, to give the matter at least a legal form and sense,
He cries out: "How dare you, impudent fellow, with an unclean snout
Here to muddy the pure drink
My
With sand and silt?
For such insolence
I will tear your head off". —
"When the brightest Wolf allows,
I dare to report: that down the stream
From His Lordship I drink a hundred steps;
And he is angry in vain:
I can’t stir up his drinking in any way”. —
“That’s why I’m lying!
You scoundrel! have you ever heard of such impudence in the world!
Yes, I remember that even the summer before last
Here you were rude to me:
I haven’t forgotten that, my friend!” —
“Have mercy, I’m not even a year old yet”,
The lamb says. "So it was your brother". —
"I have no brothers". — "So it was a godfather or matchmaker
And, in a word, someone from your own family.
You yourself, your dogs and your shepherds,
You all want to harm me,
And if you can, then you always harm me:
But I will settle their sins with you". —
"Ah, how am I guilty?" — "Be silent! I am tired of listening
I have no time to analyze your guilt, puppy!
You are to blame for the fact that I want to eat".
He said and dragged the lamb into the dark forest.

SWAN, PIKE AND CANCER

When allies cannot agree, business will not go well and nothing good will come of it—just suffering.

The Swan, Cancer, and Pike one day They decided to pull a cart with a load, and the three of them strapped themselves onto it. Despite their best efforts, the cart remains immobile! They would perceive the load as light: However, the Pike pulls into the water, the Cancer retreats, and the Swan dashes into the clouds.

It is not for us to decide who is right or guilty, but the cart is still there.

DRAGONFLY AND ANT

The Grasshopper Dragonfly
The red summer has sung;
I didn’t have time to look back,
As winter rolls into my eyes.
The clear field has turned pale;
There are no more of those bright days,
As under each of her leaves
The table and the house were ready.
Everything has passed: with the cold winter
Need, hunger comes;
The dragonfly no longer sings:
And who would think of
Singing on an empty stomach!
Depressed by evil melancholy,
She crawls to the Ant:
“Don’t leave me, dear godfather!
Let me gather my strength
And only until the spring days
Feed and warm me!» —
“Gossip, this is strange to me:
Have you worked in the summer?»
The Ant says to her.
“Was it so, my dear?
In our soft grasses
Songs, playfulness every hour,
So that my head dizzy". —
"Oh, so you. " — "I have no soul
I sang all summer". —
"You sang all? this thing:
So go ahead, dance!"

QUARTET

Mischievous Monkey,
Donkey,
Goat,
Yes, clubfooted Bear
They decided to play a Quartet.
They got out notes, bass, viola, two violins
And sat down on the meadow under the linden trees, —
Captivate the world with your art.
They struck the bows, they tear, but there is no sense.
“Stop, brothers, stop!” shouts the Monkey: “wait!
How should the music go? After all, you are not sitting right.
You with the bass, Mishenka, sit opposite the alto,
I, the prima, will sit opposite the second;
Then the music will not be the same:
We will have the forest and mountains dancing!»
They sat down, began the Quartet;
It still doesn"t go well.
"Wait, I"ve found a secret",
The Donkey cries: "We"ll probably get along,
If we sit next to each other".
They listened to the Donkey: they sat down in a row in a decorous manner;
But still the Quartet doesn"t go well.
Here, even more than before, they began to sort things out
And argue,
Who should sit and how.
It happened that the Nightingale flew to their noise.
Here everyone came to him with a request to resolve their doubt:
“Perhaps,” they say: “take patience for an hour,
To put our Quartet in order:
And we have notes, and instruments:
Just tell us how to sit!» —
«To be a musician, one must have skill
And ears more delicate than yours»,
The Nightingale answers them:
«But you, friends, no matter how you sit,
You are still not fit to be musicians».

THE FOX AND THE GRAPES

The glowing clusters of grapes in the garden attracted the hungry fox-godmother, who ascended into it. The problem is that they hang high: No matter where or how she gets to them, the tooth remains motionless even though the gossip’s eyes and teeth were aflame. The juicy clusters were also glowing like sapphires. After wasting an hour in vain, she went and exclaimed, "Well, what can! He is attractive to look at, but he is green; there isn’t a ripe berry. This will make you tense right away.

MONKEY AND GLASSES

The monkey’s eyes became weak in old age;
And she heard from people,
That this evil is not yet so big a hand:
You just have to get Glasses.
She got herself about half a dozen points;
He twirls his Glasses this way and that:
He presses them to the crown, then strings them on his tail,
Now he sniffs them, then he licks them;
Points don"t work at all.
“Ugh, the abyss!" she says: "and that fool,
Who listens to all the lies of people:
Everything about Glasses was just a lie to me;
And there is no use for hair in them".
The monkey here, out of frustration and sadness
She hit them so hard against the stone,
That the splashes sparkled.

Sadly, people always experience the same thing: regardless of how beneficial something is, an ignorant person will always tend to think negatively of it; if the ignoramus is more knowledgeable, he will also drive her.

WOLF IN THE KENNERY

A wolf, at night, thinking to get into the sheepfold,
He ended up in a kennel.
The whole kennel yard suddenly rose.
Sensing the gray bully so close,
The dogs started barking in the barns and rushed out to fight;
The kennel handlers shouted: "Oh, boys, a thief!"
And in an instant the gates were locked;
In a minute the kennel became hell.
They run: one with a club,
Another with a gun.
"Fire!" – they shouted: "fire!" They came with fire.
My Wolf sits, pressed against the corner with his backside.
Clicking his teeth and bristling his fur,
With his eyes, it seems, he would like to eat everyone;
But, seeing that here not in front of the flock,
And that finally comes,
To settle accounts for the sheep, —
My sly one
Set to negotiations,
And began thus: “Friends! Why all this noise?
I, your old matchmaker and godfather,
Have come to make peace with you, not at all for the sake of a quarrel;
Let us forget the past, let us establish common harmony!
And I, not only will not touch the local herds in the future,
But I am happy to squabble with others for them,
And I confirm with a wolfish oath,
That I. » — «Listen, neighbor»,
Here the huntsman interrupted in response:
«You are gray, and I, my friend, am gray,
And I have known your wolfish nature for a long time;
And so my custom: There is no other way to make peace with wolves,
Unless you skin them».
And then he released a pack of hounds on the Wolf.

CAT AND COOK

Some cook, a literate,
Ran from his kitchen
To the tavern (he was a pious man
And on this day he held a funeral feast for his godmother),
And at home he guarded the food from mice
He left the cat.
But what, when he returned, did he see? On the floor
The remains of a pie; and Vaska the Cat in the corner,
Having crouched behind a barrel of vinegar,
Purring and grumbling, he works on the chicken.
"Oh, you glutton! oh, you villain!"
Here Vaska Povar reproaches:
“Aren’t you ashamed of the walls, not only of the people?
(And Vaska still cleans up the chicken.)
As! being an honest Cat until now,
It used to be that they would show you as an example of humility, —
And you. oh, what a shame!
Now all the neighbors will say:
“Cat-Vaska is a rogue! Cat-Vaska is a thief!
And Vaska, they say, not only in the kitchen,
We shouldn’t let him out into the yard,
Like a greedy wolf in a sheepfold:
He is a curse, he is a plague, he is a plague of these places!“”
(And Vaska listens, yes eats.)
Here my rhetorician, giving free rein to the flow of words,
He found no end to his moralizing.
But what? While he was singing,
Vaska the Cat ate the whole roast.

Additionally, I would have advised a different cook to have the following carved into the wall: "In order to avoid wasting speeches where power is required."

​

A PIG UNDER AN OAK

A Pig under an Age-Oak
I ate my fill of acorns, to the point of bursting;
After eating, I slept under it;
Then, opening my eyes, I stood up
And began to undermine the roots of the Oak with my snout.
"After all, it harms the tree",
The raven from Oak says to her:
“If you expose the roots, it can dry out”. –
“Let it dry,” says the pig:
“It does not bother me at all;
I see little to the daily; I see;
, even if he hadn’t been, I won’t regret it;
only would be acorns: after all, I am fat from them ". –
"Ungrateful!»Smiled the oak here:
“When you could raise you to lift,
You would have seen,
What are these acorns growing on me".

The ignorant person mocks science, education, and all scientific endeavors without considering the benefits they may have to offer.

Krylov’s fables impart important lessons that are still applicable today, making them more than just enjoyable tales. Even though each fable is straightforward and simple to comprehend, it offers profound insights into society and human nature. Krylov emphasizes moral lessons about kindness, honesty, and the consequences of foolishness through his deft use of animals and striking storytelling.

The relatability of Krylov’s characters is what sets his work apart. We can all identify with these animals, whether it’s the sly fox, the arrogant peacock, or the diligent ant. The fables serve as a helpful reminder of the value of self-awareness and the effects of our actions on other people.

In the end, Krylov’s fables are timeless reminders of the moral principles we ought to uphold. They teach us that despite all of life’s obstacles, it is always worthwhile to strive for justice, humility, and wisdom. Readers of all ages continue to find resonance in these tales, which inspire introspection and self-examination.

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