monoLOL
Why give a monologue when you can have a monoLOL?

@no_vem_ber Geeky but well-dressed media science graduate growing up to be a PArrrrrr Pirate. Ask me anything   

One of the most famous Russian authors is Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. He’s sort of responsible for all the Alexanders who are named after him generation after generation.

You might be familiar with his verse novel Eugene Onegin, it was turned into an opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. As a child I loved Pushkin’s epic fairy tale Ruslan and Ludmila, I still know the prologue by heart. There’s no better way to describe the rich world of Russian folk tales. But enough talking, let’s start rhyming:

On seashore far a green oak towers, 
And to it with a gold chain bound, 
A learned cat whiles away the hours 
By walking slowly round and round. 
To right he walks, and sings a ditty; 
To left he walks, and tells a tale… 

What marvels there! A mermaid sitting 
High in a tree, a sprite, a trail 
Where unknown beasts move never seen by 
Man’s eyes, a hut on chicken feet, 
Without doors, without windows, 
An evil witch’s lone retreat; 
The woods and valleys there are teeming 
With strange things… Dawn brings waves that, gleaming, 

Over the sandy beaches creep, 
And from the clear and shining water 
Step thirty goodly knights escorted 
By their Old Guardian, of the deep 
An ancient dweller… There a dreaded 
And hated tsar is captive ta’en; 
There, as all watch, for cloud banks headed, 
Across the sea and o’er a plain, 
A warlock bears a knight. There, weeping, 
A princess sits locked in a cell, 
And Grey Wolf serves her very well; 
There, in a mortar, onward sweeping 
All of itself, beneath the skies 
The wicked Baba-Yaga flies; 
There pines Koshchei and lusts for gold…

All breathes of Russ, the Russ of old 
There once was I, friends, and the сat 
As near him ‘neath the oak I sat 
And drank of sweet mead at my leisure, 
Recounted tales to me… With pleasure 
One that I liked do I recall 
And here and now will share with all…

The original text is of course light-years better, but the translation will still arouse some enthusiasm for Pushkin, I hope :-) If you want to read on you can find the complete text here.

In case someone’s wondering what a mermaid is doing in a tree (and how she climbed up there without legs) – I’ll explain next time ;-)