Kriloff's Original Fables

Abstract

Harrison mentions in the preface that he is aware that Ralston's translation of Krylov into English already exists, but it is in prose and I am of the opinion that the spirit of Kriloff cannot but evaporate in prose (v-vi). He makes a point of not translating all the original fables; he leaves twenty-two of them untranslated. Of Krylov's thirty-eight borrowed fables, Harrison translates seven, to give the reader a sense of what he does with borrowed material. The result is that there are 149 fables here. One of the gifts of this work lies, I believe, in the tables the author has compiled. Before the fables there is a chronological table (xiii) showing translated fables, both original and borrowed, as well as omitted fables original and borrowed. There is then a classification of fables (xix). This list is done, surprisingly, with an eye more to lessons than, say, to characters. A list of sources for the borrowed fables then follows (xxiii). At the end of the book there is an AI sorted by characters. I read and enjoyed the first ten fables. Where Harrison translates a fable which Krylov borrowed, he makes pointed comments after the text on Krylov's improvement of his source. This nice book once belonged to a Congregational Church Lending Library.