just three days since the envoy
Has come down the palm-tree!
If he wore a cap or something,
It wouldn't be embarrassing,
Look at him, the queer one
Has got nothing but beads on!
TSAR
You're a spy, and it's a fact!
You're talking through your hat!
You have damaged my relations
With all friendly foreign nations!
I wait for visitors for years,
And they're turned out by the nurse!
After all, I must find someone
Who would marry our princess!
NURSEMAID
Look at his face, his ugly ears,
And the nose-ring that he wears!
Look, his skin is speckled, too,
Like the egg of a cuckoo!
Frankly speaking, even I
Wouldn't sleep with him. Oh my!
How can you give the girl in marriage
To such an ugly man, a savage!
TSAR
When there isn't any chance
One's content with what one has!
With regards to looks the princess
Is far from being a bunch of sweetness!
She"s got to marry any man,
A hunchbacked or a speckled one
Because even speckled ones
Do not come in flocks to us!
NURSEMAID
You know he comes from wilderness!
Look what he's eating! My goodness!
Remember that topaz vase?
He's devoured it! Bless my stars!
The rascal doesn't ask us for
Anything like mushrooms or salmon, no!
He eats whatever meets his eye,
From chinaware to nails. Oh my!
TSAR
Let it be. He is our guest.
Bring whatever he'll request!
We have no shortage of nails,
Chinaware nor anything else!
If he doesn't like fish,
Let him eat what he may wish!
You just see if he will bite
At pyrites and apatite.
NURSEMAID
For a "thank you" they will eat
Anything, even poisoned meat!
The man may be quite innocent,
Yet we must keep an eye on it:
When you offer him some eats
Tell him he must know the limits!
For he may eat up his bride
In the heat of appetite!
PRINCESS
To go out with such a brute?
I should be damned, if I could!
He is not much to look at
And a cannibal at that!
Even if this ugly creature
Offered me his countless riches,
He would not arouse in me
Any reciprocity!
TSAR
You just call the envoy out,
Have a chat, and walk around!
You'll get used to him, and then
You may love him in the end!
Should the queer troglodyte
Take a fancy to your sight,
He will surely lose for ever
His cannibal's appetite!
More than a year had passed,
Fedot returned home at last.
But what a despair!
The house was not there!
All he found were ruins
and nettle growing around.
And beneath the heaves,
among rafts and beams,
he saw a bird,
alive and unhurt.
FEDOT
Come on, honey, be so good,
Lay the table, bring some food,
Will you give me one of those
Nicely baked loaves of yours!
Give me your delicious shchi,
Make it rich and thick for me,
I've become as thin as a rod
Eating rabbit food abroad.
There is not a soul around ,
Just the wind, and not a sound ,
Is there anything the matter?
I just cannot make it out!
The pigeon turns into Marusya.
PIGEON
Welcome, honey, what went wrong?
You have travelled far too long,
You must have forgotten me,
It's a year since you've been gone!
There must be a whole lot
of entertainment abroad,
And you must have taken fancy
of some pretty-pretty lassie!
FEDOT
Henriettes and Josephines,
I've seen plenty overseas,
But I haven't seen a beauty
Such as you among those queens.
I have travelled rather long
And I haven't gone wrong,
I have found in the end
Something to the Tsar's content!
MARUSYA
Honey, had you known before
Whom you were sweating for,
I can tell you, you'd have never
Ever stepped out of your door!
When you left, the shameless man
Had a try to win my hand,
Urging me to come to reason
And be his spouse by next season.
FEDOT
Did he really? What a bastard!
How can such a man be trusted?
How can I struggle for his honour
And be loyal to my master?
Anyhow, I'll make him hot,
I shall tell him what is what!
And I'll show what