Helen Korablev sent me links to some bilingual Russian English tales online. They were originally written in Russian, but they have English translations next to them. Two were written by the famous Russian author, Pushkin.
Helen wrote:
Lisa, hi!
I’m sending you links to some lovely Russian tales. I hope it will be useful for you!
Колобок – The Bun [The Bun is the Russian version of The Gingerbread Man, but with a bun instead of a gingerbread cookie. Scroll down the page at the same link and you’ll find Репка – The Turnip and Лиса и журавль – The Fox and the Crane]
Сказка о Золотом Петушке – The Golden Cockerel
Сказка о Царе Салтане – The Tale of Tsar Saltan
Yours,
Helen
The Tale of the Tsar Saltan and The Golden Cockerel are both fairy tales in verse by Alexander Pushkin.
Interesting Note: The Tale of the Tsar Saltan was made into an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (composed in 1899–1900). It’s where the song The Flight of the Bumblebee comes from. Here are the words that are sung to the first part of the song, followed by a video of The Flight of the Bumblebee played on piano:
Ну, теперь, мой шмель, гуляй,
судно в море догоняй,
потихоньку опускайся,
в щель подальше забивайся.
Будь здоров, Гвидон, лети,
только долго не гости!
(Шмель улетает.)…Well, now, my bumblebee, go on a spree,
catch up with the ship on the sea,
go down secretly,
get into a crack a little distance away.
Good luck, Gvidon, fly,
only do not stay long!
(The bumblebee flies away.)
Thanks to Helen for sharing the links to the Russian tales!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Saturday, May 1st, 2010 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Alexander Pushkin, Authors, Flight of the Bumblebee, Mama Lisa, Music, Opera, Russia, Russian, Tales, YouTube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
3 Responses to “Bilingual Russian English Tales Online”
Leave a Reply
November 13th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
I need an English translation of The Tale of Tsar Saltan – the libretto to Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, not the original Pushkin. I have it in Russian on a file and can e-mail it to anyone who would be interested in this.
September 25th, 2012 at 11:30 pm
Hello, Noam,
I finally have gotten my hands on a complete recording of “Tsar Saltan” which features Ivan Petroff, conducted by Vassili Nieboissine, Bolshoi, 1953. As this work has been so very unfairly neglected all these years by recordings I am delighted to even be able to have this set (and particularly so for Petroff).
However, naturally of course, I have great dissapointment in next to no documentation and no libretto, and also am needing an English translation, and of course would also like a transliteration of the actual Russian text so I can follow phonetically.
So, I respond to your offer of the text in Russian…hoping also that perhaps by now you may even have been able to get one or both of the other two versions also.
Thank you so much for your kindness in offering this/these files to others, including myself.
Sincerely,
GF,
operabruin
March 5th, 2019 at 12:35 pm
Dear Noam Eitan,
I would like to have the Libretto of Tsar Saltan opera in English. Would it be possible for you to send it to me?
Thank you,
Diana Castro