Аннотация: Перевод басни Крылова "Стрекоза и Муравей"
Butterfly and Ant
Giddy Butterfly* had sung
Through all summer in the sun;
Before she had time to think
Winter pops up in a wink.
Blooming fields are now dead;
No more those days ahead
When she had in every tree
Ready meal and lodging free.
All is gone: with winter snow
Need and hunger come along;
Butterfly sings not a song;
Who would think of singing on
On a stomach cold and hollow!
Feeling heavily depressed
She comes down to Ant's nest:
'Leave me not, my dear heart,
Only let my strength restart
And until next year's spring,
You, look after my well-being!'
'Sister, you are quite a bummer,'
Ant says. 'Did you work in summer?'
'How could I've worked, my friend?
In soft grass we every day
Spent in singing songs and play
That my head giddy went'.
'So to work...'
'I had no chance -
The whole summer I was singing'.
'You were singing? that's beginning:
Now you had better dance!'
* В переводе на английский невозможно использование оригинального персонажа стрекозы, потому что по-английски стрекоза - это вовсе не "стрекочущая коза", а "муха-дракон" dragon-fly, соответственно и ассоциации в сознании англоговорящего человека, читающего басню про муху-дракона и муравья, окажутся совершенно не теми, которые хотел бы вызвать Крылов.