Poetry
Swan, Pike and Crawfish
Лебедь, Щука и Рак
Ivan Krylov · 1816
Synopsis
The fable opens with its moral: when partners do not agree, their business goes badly. The example follows. A swan, a crawfish and a pike undertake together to pull a cart and all three harness themselves to it; they put all their strength into it, though the load would be light for them. But the swan darts towards the clouds, the crawfish pulls backwards and the pike pulls towards the water.
Context
The fable was written by early May 1814 at the latest: it appears in a notebook dated 12 May. It was published in 1816, in the fourth part of the New Fables. Contemporaries read in it a satire on the disorders of the Council of State, a reading that historians of literature still debate. In 1825, Count Orlov published in Paris Fables russes tirées du recueil de l'auteur et imitées en vers français et italiens par divers auteurs, précédées d'une introduction de Lémontey.
Who it is for
Twelve lines, the first two of which give the lesson; a bilingual edition lets one hear the beat of the Russian verse.
Prizes and reception
One of the best-known fables of its author; its lines have passed into proverb in the Russian language.
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