We recall the winged expressions from Krylov's fables

Ivan Andreevich Krylov was kindly treatedpublic and authorities during their lifetime. By the time of his death in 1844 in Russia, the books of the fabulist had already reached 77,000 copies. He received awards and a generous pension from the tsar, his jubilee in 1838 turned into a big national holiday under the auspices of the emperor.

The writer was called the Russian Lafontaine. The truth was part of this, of course: of the 200 fables created by him, a lot is written based on the works of Aesop and Lafontaine. But the basis of many works is the original story. For readers of the XIX century, these poetic parables were interesting not only for satire and good Russian, but also for ridiculing events and people (including high-ranking people) whose contemporaries were readers. It was something like the parodies that humorists are creating today.

But the creations of Russian Lafontaine affectproblems that are characteristic of our time: bribery, bureaucracy, laziness, arrogance, greed and many other vices continue to flourish today. But even if the reader thinks that he does not know or does not like this writer, he is mistaken, because the winged expressions from Krylov's fables have long become part of the active vocabulary of almost any Russian-speaking person.

Angry at a child who does not want to do oursdemands, we bitterly exclaim: "And Vaska listens and eats!" Having found a simple solution to the problem, which seemed complicated, we grin: "And the casket just opened!" Noting that something is not moving from the dead point, we sigh: now there ". Telling friends about the furious pace of modern life, let's visit: "I'm spinning like a squirrel in a wheel". We will be amused sometimes by a couple of officials who are bowing to each other, and we caustically comment: "The cuckoo praises the cock for praising the cuckoo."

Sometimes we do not very accurately quote the wingedexpressions from the fables of Krylov, but we use them in part, or slightly modified. Those who can not agree among themselves, we compare with Swan, Cancer and Pike from the same fable. Not out of place, the help rendered by somebody will be called a "bearish service". We note the fussiness, excessive talkativeness of a person when mentioning a sensitive issue and mentally "catch sight": "A stigma is in his gun!" Noticing after a long search a large object lying in a prominent place, we'll laugh: "I did not notice the elephant! "And a kitten who tries in vain to catch a goldfish swimming in an aquarium will say edifyingly:" What, Ryzhik, sees the eye, and the tooth does not? "

Sometimes we do not know who owns the well-knownphrases and images. It seems to us that such nominal heroes and expressions have always existed. However, they owe their origin to this complete, lazy and negligent person who only treated his art seriously and thoughtfully, endlessly honing every little masterpiece.

Winged expressions from the fables of Krylov over the past 200 years have become an integral part of the Russian language.

By the way, literary critics and ordinary readersit always seemed that Ivan Andreevich was a purely domestic phenomenon, which is impossible without damage to the content to be transferred to foreign soil. Meanwhile in Britain it is still the most translated Russian poet of the XIX century. As the English translate winged expressions from the fables of Krylov, actually become idioms - this is a topic for a separate study.

So in one of the long winter evenings one could reread a volume of Russian Lafontaine's works - without prejudice, but with gratitude.