A sweet-voiced bird's been caught.
They squeeze it in a vice-like grip.
The poor thing squeaks and warbles not
But they insist: «O, birdie, sing!»
Поймали птичку голосисту
И ну сжимать ее рукой.
Пищит бедняжка вместо свисту,
А ей твердят: «Пой, птичка, пой!»
«A playful prankish Dragonfly / The whole Summer have sung out / Finally, she looked about; / Winter 's already coming by. Like deceased the forest stays. / Where are you, those happy days, / When for her, under each tree, / Was a home and tart with tea? The evil Winter took all i...»
«In the summer’s gaily singing, / Of the future isn’t thinking, / But the winter’s nearby. / Field was green, it’s now reddish, / Happy days already vanished, / And it happens no more, / That a leaf gives roof and store. / All has gone. In cold winters / Want and hunger wait a...»
«Always are the weak at fault before the strong. / In history we hear a host of examples, / But history we are not writing: / Here is how they tell of it in Fables. A Lamb, one sweltering day, came by a stream to drink. / An lo, calamity had to befall him / In that a hungry Wolf was scouri...»
«When partners have no accord, / Their business always go hard: / Nobody works, but only strive to strike. / Once, Crayfish, Swan, and Pike / Got hired to drag a cart, / Harnessed themselves, all three, and start / To move. It could be pretty light / for them, but to a river Pik...»