It seems like a good day for some Russian opera
Below is some text from Rimsky-Korsakov’s last opera, where the people mockingly pledge loyalty to the Russian King (Tsar)
King Dodon, a lazy and gluttonous ruler, is greatly worried by his warlike neighbors.
It seems the Kremlin’s website is having some issues right now…
Figure 1: “Kremlin Website, Nothing To See Here, Move Along” by George Jones is licenced under CC SA 4.0
People (shouting).
Long life to thee! Hurrah!
May thou have every good thing!
(Begin to sing.)
"We are thy faithful servants.
Who kiss the Royal feet.
We are glad to serve thee.
To amuse thee with our foolishness,
To box for thee upon a holiday,
To bark, to crawl on all fours,
So that thy hours may flow quickly
And may bring sweet sleep.
Without thee we should have no
Reason for existing;
For thee we were born
And for thee we have had chidren."
From https://archive.org/stream/lecoqdorgoldenc02pushgoog/lecoqdorgoldenc02pushgoog_djvu.txt
In the historical context (1908), Russia had just lost a war to Japan where it’s army was defeated and two fleets were sunk by Japan. The Tsar was in disgrace. The start of WWI was only 6 years away and the Russian revolution was only 9 years away.
The (Tsarist) censors didn’t like the text. Wonder why.
#12 of #100DaysToOffload take 2, https://100daystooffload.com/