A.Pushkin. The green oak tree...
Channel: Miklouho-Maclay Foundation
Date: 2021-01-29

Alexander Pushkin. “ Prologue to the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila"
The video clip length 03:13.
The poem was written by the poet between 1820 and 1828. 
English translation by Julian Henry Lowenfeld. 
Recitation:  Daria Donova 
The author takes the reader to a magical world where there are characters from many folk tales, unusual animals, where miracles occur.  This poem is a collective picture of Russian fairy tales.

A green oak tree’s by a cove curving;
A gold chain on that oak is found,
And night and day a cat most learnèd
Walks by that chain, around, around,
When he walks right, sweet songs intoning,
When leftwards, tells a fairy tale. 

Wonders are there, wood-sprites are roaming,
Mermaids from branches hang their tail,
On paths of which no one has knowledge
Of unseen beasts there lurk the spoors,
On chicken legs, a little cottage
Stands without windows, without doors.
With visions wood and dale are yawning,
There waves come crashing at light’s dawning
Upon the sandy, empty beach,
And thirty knights, in armor gorgeous,
The clear sea one by one disgorges
With their sea-sword-coach, them to teach.
And there a king’s son, that way chancing,
A long-feared Tsar does captive seize,
There past the people, past clouds passing,
Right through the woods, right through the seas,
A wizard bears a knight with ease.
A princess there’s in prison pining,
A brown wolf faithful by her lying,
There Baba Yaga’s mortar dread
Itself, with her inside, does tread.
There Tsar Kashey on his gold moulders,
There Russian scents of Rus’ give odors!

And there I’ve passed, and honey quaffed,
And seen the oak by that cove curving,
Sat under it, and the cat learned
His fairy tales to me repassed.
I’ve one remember, and this story 
Through me now comes to light, world, glory…

The video was edited by the Miklouho-Maclay Foundation as a part of the "RUSSIAN ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL LUMINARIES AND THEIR WORLDWIDE LEGACY" educational project 

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