A Bear Sits on the Log

So you remember the mention of Minsk...Minsk..from a, actually The popular, television series, in which a character's boyfriend, a scientist needs to go to Minsk. Well Minsk, is the capital of Belarus, which is in East Europe, bordered by Russia. Byelorussia, severely affected by Nazi occupation during WW2, was among the 51 founding countries of the United Nations Charter in 1945 and began rebuilding the Soviet Republic.

This is just to give you an idea of where perhaps the below mentioned book originates from.

The brilliantly detailed, almost magical illustrations in this thin book caught my attention at a flea market. It illustrates a Byelorussian folk song, The Bear Sits on the Log. I can almost imagine old women singing it while working in the fields, or just in the evening as they sit around doing nothing. Or maybe in the cold winter, sitting next to a window, as the fire burns and lights a dim room, made of wood.

THE BEAR SITS ON THE LOG

A BYELORUSSIAN FOLK SONG
Illustrated by T. Beresenskaya
© Mastatskaya Litaratura
Publishing House, 1980

The bear sits on the log and sews

A hat, with embroidery twining,

His little sons, the baby bears,
Prepare the silken lining.

And here the grey-head workman hare
begins to play on his fiddle,

And trickster-vixen, behind a bush,
Is peeping out from the middle.

Merrily they begin the dancing,
Magpies, black and white, start prancing,

And the crows, the old wives, fly
off to reap a sheaf of rye.

And the cuckoo, darling cuckoo,
Rye begins a-threshing.

The milking-cow, the milking cow
Carries the corn for crushing.


The belly-goat grinds,
The belly-goat grinds,

The nanny-goat pours in the grain.

The baby goats, the little kids,
Collect the flour again.

The fly mixes the flour,
The gnat brings water, hasty.

And now the little baby gnats
All beg for a piece of pastry.

Well I tried google, and got no matching results for the book, so I thought of sharing a part of this with whoever is interested!