The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #47949   Message #3869159
Posted By: GUEST,Jack Doughty
30-Jul-17 - 11:00 PM
Thread Name: DTStudy: Abdul Abulbul Amir (Percy French)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Abdul Abulbul Amir (Percy French)
Here's one for those who know some Russian.
(русско-английский словарь = russko-angliyski slovar = Russian=English dictionary)

Abdul, Ivan and the translator

The sons of the Prophet were brave men and bold,
And quite unaccustomed to fear.
But the bravest by far in the ranks of the Shah
Was Abdul Abulbul Amir.

Now the heroes were plenty and well known to fame
In the troops that were led by the Tsar.
And the bravest of these was a man by the name
Of Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.

Now Abdul and Ivan once fought a great fight,
And each killed the other at last.
And Ivan's young son, to record what they'd done,
Wrote a poem on all that had passed.

Ivan had a girl-friend, a Muscovite maid,
A niece of the Great Russian Tsar.
She tried to translate his great work, with the aid
Of her русско-английский словарь.

Their jibes at each other she coped with OK,
Her translation was well above par.
She managed to find all the right things to say
In her русско-английский словарь.

But at Abdul's weird weapon, she took a hard look.
Thinking "What a strange object you are!"
There was naught in the book when she sought for "skibouk"
In her русско-английский словарь.

In her trouble, she ran to the word "ятаган",
Which isn't the same thing by far,
But it seemed to her mind 'twas the best she could find
In her русско-английский словарь.

Some words she did not even have to translate,
Like the race of her boy-friend's great Pa.
She just had to stick to the same word, "калмык",
From her русско-английский словарь.

When the leaders came by to see their men die,
She paused at the name of the Tsar.
"Petrovich? A gimmick! That's his patronymic!
Not his имя, not in my словарь!"

At the tomb standing by the great river Дунай,
She finally gave it up. "Bah!
That's enough of this guff! I can't find this stuff
In my русско-английский словарь!"

A Muscovite maiden her lone vigil keeps
'Neath the light of the pale polar star
And the words that she murmurs so oft as she weeps,
Are "русско-английский словарь".